some kind of doc

Want to do see the therapeutic process in action? I've seen no better example than the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which captures the two-year regrouping the heavy-metal band underwent with the help of Kansas-city based therapist/performance coach Phil Towle after bassist Jason Newstad jumped ship. When I professed my enthusiasm for this doc to one friend, he immediately assumed I was a fan of the music. HUH? That so doesn't fit. Naw, dawg (as Randy Jackson says, and yeah, for the record, I have watched too much AI), it's the voyeurism here that's the thang. To watch Metallica's lead singer, James Hetfield, hardly Mr. Touchy-Feely, go through soul-searching moments with drummer Lars Ulrich (an aside: the man has a stellar art collection) who articulates his frustration with the narciscistic lead dude by saying "fuck" over and over, which is surprisingly articulate given the circumstances, is far more fascinating than reading People. Whether you've written the band off after their Napster temper tantrum or never gave them the time of day because metal isn't a genre you traffic in, well, no mind. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster isn't about any of that. It's about the group's collective creative process as they work through all the hardships involved in creating their CD, St. Anger, and they learn to see each other anew after 20 years of working together. Ultimately, this is a film about long-term relationships, a subject fthat holds some interest for us all. Fuck, yeah.