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Parents' Guide to

Metal Lords

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Language, drinking, bullying in coming-of-age comedy.

Movie R 2022 97 minutes
Metal Lords Movie Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 15+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 15+

Funny film with surprisingly strong swearing

Enjoyable film about friendship & post death metal music. Touches on themes of mental health difficulties, bullying & sex. There is some nudity, alcohol use & loss of virginity is hinted at. Main caution for parents is that it has some surprisingly strong (& creative!) swearing outbursts.
1 person found this helpful.
age 15+

Just swearing that's it

This title has:

Too much swearing

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (7 ):

This is a coming-of-age movie saved by rock and roll (correction: "post-death doom metal"). With its Wonder Years-style voiceovers, battles between the infernal jocks and our misfit heroes, and befuddled and barely present parental figures, Metal Lords starts off as if it's going to be little more than a mishmash of coming-of-age cliches and teens with the sophisticated musical tastes of much older screenwriters, with some John Hughes Gen-Xish teen angst thrown in for good measure. In fact, the movie even seems like it's set in the '80s or '90s until a scene in which an uncool band at a party covers Ed Sheeran. It hovers very close to being a cliched and overexaggerated tale of suburban boys finding the pathway to suburban adulthood through denim, leather, Black Sabbath, etc., but the charm and energy to the story is infectious and the acting is fantastic across the board. Adrian Greensmith, as the dorky-cool metal obsessive Hunter, captures that nerdy, intense introspective nonconformity that defines so many of the more extreme fans of that genre.

There are some very funny scenes, and many of them involve cameos from metal or metal-adjacent icons. It's a movie with about as much hard-hitting realism as School of Rock, but there is a sense of honest humanity to these characters that emerges in a way that often doesn't happen in coming-of-age movies. While some of the jokes and situations are best enjoyed by metal fans and/or musicians, there's enough to the story and the quality of the acting to make Metal Lords accessible to those who don't know their Reign in Blood from their Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?

Movie Details

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