Heavy Trip: Finnish Head-Banging

There are pockets of Scandinavia where metal still rules, like it is still the late 1980s. Maybe it is the Nordic scenery that would often resemble heavy metal album covers, if you replaced the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Sea with Hellfire. Alas, Turo Moilanen lives in a small Finnish town where hair bands get no respect. However, Moilanen and his three band-mates have a dream of hardcore glory, but nobody is going to hand it to them. They will have to fight for it head-banger-style in Juuso Laatio & Jukka Vidgren’s Heavy Trip (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Turo is the front-man in a band called Impaled Rektum, but the mere idea of performing in front of an audience will send him off projectile vomiting. Of the Un-Fab Four, Jynkky, their formerly dead drummer, is probably the healthiest. Yet, with a little encouragement from someone like his longtime crush Miia, he might possibly pull it together in time for their set on the main stage of the biggest Scandinavian metal festival.

Yeah sure, but the thing of it is, Impaled Rektum really hasn’t been invited. It was just a misunderstanding that took on a life of its own. Regardless, it could still be the sight of pointlessly futile gesture on their part—if they can get there.

For the most part, Heavy Trip is a genial, quirky comedy that you could watch with your grandparents, but at least one plot point around midway through took some guts. Still, this doesn’t feel all that different from A Man Called Ove or The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Johannes Holopainen’s long-haired Turo is mostly a big nothing, but he still manages to build some nice chemistry with Minka Kuustonen, who is quite winning as Miia. The rest of the band look like they are acting goofy on cue. Perhaps the best supporting turn comes from Chike Ohanwe, who definitely goes all in as a metal loving psych patient at the hospital where Turo works as a lowly orderly.

Basically, Heavy Trip is a harmless film that is desperate to be liked. Some of the jokes appeal to a “grim-dark” sensibility, but it is mostly too polite for a true head-banger movie. As a result, it is hard to really pin down who this film is really intended for. Therefore, Heavy Trip is mostly just recommended for aging metal-heads looking for low-impact nostalgia. The rest of us can just go about our business when it opens this Friday (10/5) in New York, at the IFC Center.

NY-Tokyo: Detroit Metal City

It is a clash between ultra-cute Hello Kitty-venerating J-Pop and satanic death metal. May the best musical sub-genre win. The prize in this case is the soul of a want-to-be pop idol in Toshio Lee’s Detroit Metal City (trailer here), which had its New York premiere last night as part of New York-Tokyo’s regular Nippon Eiga film series.

Souichi Negishi always wanted to be a “trendy” pop star, singing syrupy sweet love ditties. Instead, through the perversities of fate, he finds himself assuming the persona of the demonic Johannes Krauser II to front a hardcore metal band, Detroit Metal City (DMC). Repulsed by their violent satanic lyrics and intimidated by his leather-clad dragon lady “Boss,” Negishi is profoundly uncomfortable with his DMC gig. However, the band seems to be catching on, since Negishi keeps delivering the wild heavy metal goods on-stage, usually through an accident involving slapstick physical humor.

Suddenly, some cuteness returns to Negishi’s life when he encounters Yuri Aikawa, his old college crush, now a writer for a “trendy” pop magazine. Of course, he inadvertently does everything possible to sabotage her unlikely romantic interest. Adding further anxiety for the broken hearted loser is an upcoming battle of the bands with Jack Il Death, the reigning American king of death metal on his farewell world tour.

To be blunt, Kenichi Matsuyama induces such cringing as the overly sensitive Negishi, it is nearly impossible to take a rooting interest in his pathetic plights. However, DMC deserves credit for going for broke in its metal scenes. The band’s lyrics are fearlessly over-the-top and their KISS-inspired makeup and costumes are hilariously spot-on. Lending further metal cred, KISS’s own Gene Simmons appears as the sinister Jack. Yet, DMC’s true highlights all involve Yasuko Matsuyuki’s outrageous turn as the scary but striking Boss. Whether terrorizing the emasculated Negishi or extinguishing lit cigarettes on her tongue, she has perfect comic timing and an intense screen presence.

Based on a popular manga series which Viz only recently started publishing in America, DMC has some inspired moments of metal madness. Unfortunately, Matsuyama’s Jekyll and Hyde act is too extreme, inspiring little sympathy from the audience. Still, Lee maintains an impressive energy level and you have to dig those manga-inspired opening credits. If prefer broad physical comedy to dry wit and speed metal over sophisticated jazz, DMC is your cup of dark satanic tea, but non-fanboys may find it more difficult to relate to. Expect more screening opportunities if the manga starts to catch on with American audiences.