Detroit Metal City

I saw quite a few films in my short time at the Toronto International Film Festival this year and most of them were good.  Detroit Metal City was my favorite film at TIFF 08, and it was also the funniest film I've seen this year. It's a wonderfully silly film with heart—and a rocking metal soundtrack.

Soichi Negishi (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) is a country boy who heads off to college and dreams of taking the world by storm as a trendy pop sensation. Unfortunately he's not trendy at all; he giggles like a girl, runs like a goofball, and his hopelessly sappy love songs about cheesy tarts would make just about anyone laugh. Nonetheless, he finds a group of students at the school who idolize him and convince him to seek a career in music. They believe in his motto, "No music, no dreams!"

Fast forward. Soichi's dreams of a career in music have come true, but not at all the way he'd planned. He's the frontman for Detroit Metal City, costumed up as the demonic Johannes Krauser II and singing death metal songs about rape and murder. His boss (in a great performance by Yasuko Matsuyuki, Hula Girls) is one vulgar and mean lady, verbally abusing him and forcing him to stay in the band or deal with her personally hunting him down. He's got musical success, but he hates it. The worst part of it is that he's actually good at it; the fans love him and the CDs are selling.

And it's that success that sends his former crush from school—who is now a music critic—to one of his concerts. Unfortunately she hates death metal with a passion. Time to panic! How can Soichi get a date with her and hide the fact that he's also the front man for Detroit Metal City?

Soichi wants to revitalize his own dream for a trendy life, and it's here that the movie becomes something more than just a set of jokes about a double identity. His music is his dream, but along the way he has to decide if there are other things in life that may be just as important as his own dream.

Matsuyama is delightfully good at portraying both the nerdy, sweet Soichi and the outrageous, insane Krauser. Both characters are over the top, but he does a great job of making them both believable and enjoyable; it would be hard to believe they were the same person if they didn't intersect at numerous points.

Watch out for some comedy gold when Krauser confronts some Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; when he teaches Soichi's brother why a good metal fan listens to his parents and helps out on the farm; and the climactic death metal showdown between Detroit Metal City and Jack Il Dark (Gene Simmons) and his satanic cow.

It's such a perfect blending of sweetness and vulgarity, awesome death metal (I want the soundtrack), and genuinely hilarious moments that it's sure to make you smile. I can't wait to see it again; highly recommended.