The Dirt Review: 5 Ups & 7 Downs
1. It Doesn't Do The Story Justice And Doesn't Explore The Darkness Enough
As with any biopic that comes out with the stars involved in the production, The Dirt misses out on the opportunity to tell a truly objective story because the band are just too close. There's too much of an agenda to show how cool they were and to protect from some of the more difficult elements.
As such, the film misses Nikki Sixx's own desire not to just focus on the thrills and not get into the characters because it hurtles too quickly through the moments of substance in favour of fetishising the moments inspired by substances. There's some flirtation with those deeper elements, but they're too easily pushed aside.
There's also a major imbalance in the story-telling, because director Jeff Tremaine fudges the transitions between moments, particularly towards the end. In the interest of telling us about some of the more notorious moments, the final third becomes a Forest Gump-like greatest hits compilation without enough character work for us to really connect.