Metalhead

A throwback in time. To some to a better time (and music) and to a smaller village that is center stage here. We do have a girl who's different and is not really liked for that reason. The story has a lot of good songs (again only if you like the music of course) and a character development that might be predictable but still works, especially because of the acting.

It stays true to its nature most of the time, not going for an easy way out (no pun intended), but might have jumped the shark a bit at the ending (depending on your view of what's happening). Still good strong characters and a nice story.

I liked Málmhaus as a drama a lot, only the resolution, the ending was a little too much suger-candy for me. I know, I know, sometimes a positive message is not a bad one, but after the really well made story and well performing cast, I would have liked a more twisted or more "serious" ending, or maybe an idea that was not that obvious. Anyway, still good.

There's something about northern hemisphere foreign-language movies that I love. Anything from Denmark or Sweden, and this is from Iceland, I think?

I do have my doubts about this film though. The acting isn't always great and I had a problem with the believability of the main character as a hard rocker, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of Metalhead much.

It doesn't matter if a movie has little content as long as you enjoy what it gives. Perhaps a bleak statement of art, or just someone working through their grief through mismatched relationships and the love of music, whatever the genre might be: it could be country or gospel, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately things work out well if you stick to your principles and follow your dreams, listening to your heart, instead of taking easy comfort, which is what I got from this movie.

Málmhaus could have been better and a bit more sordid and harrowing, but the ending credits with Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth nailed it for me.

There is not much Black metal in the movie, if you were expecting this. :-) HOWEVER, the film is more than worth watching. More or less benign in nature, it deal with humanity of people that are mostly alone. Just they themselves, their work and their pain.

The movie is set about the time Mayhem started forming Black Metal scene; the main protagonist in a way "invented" her version of black metal as a way to cope with death of her brother. Interestingly, the black metal track from the movie (unfortunately just one song) actually sounds really good! It actually does sound like it was made in that time, making the movie only more believable.

While Burzum is not specifically mentioned in the movie (sadly), it was very important for the plot itself.

Slow "studio" version of the song is also really good. (It is called Svarthamar, and there are two versions- studio and demo on YouTube - artist is Petur Bien - the rest of the album is so-so, instrumental ambient music). I don't remember when was the last time I got shivers down my spine listening to something. The track is really good, especially if you understand the words / read the translation. It goes phenomenally with the movie itself.

It may seem that this film is about music or about a musical style, but it really speaks about what is that people thinks about us and what they think we should be or they want us to be, about what we want to be and about who we really are. Talk about the most important thing in life, which is one's own identity and our happiness. Very powerful message. It is an excellent film.