Finding movies like The Dirt is actually harder than it looks because most music biopics are, frankly, way too polite. Jeff Tremaine didn’t make a polite movie. He made a movie that felt like a hangover in a dive bar. When Netflix dropped the story of Mötley Crüe in 2019, it tapped into this specific, grime-covered vein of nostalgia that doesn’t care about being "prestige" or winning Oscars. It just wanted to show you Nikki Sixx dying on a gurney and Vince Neil ruining lives in a car wreck. It was ugly. It was fast.
People usually search for these films because they want that specific cocktail of 80s excess, leather pants, and the crushing realization that being a rock star is mostly just a slow-motion train wreck. You aren't looking for Bohemian Rhapsody. You aren't looking for a PG-13 celebration of a legacy. You want the chaos.
The Unfiltered Reality of the Rock Biopic
Most people get it wrong when they group movies like The Dirt with every other musical biography. They think it's about the music. It’s not. It’s about the lifestyle. If you want to understand the DNA of this sub-genre, you have to look at The Lords of Chaos. It’s a movie about the Norwegian black metal scene that makes the Crüe look like a church choir. It features Rory Culkin and it is incredibly violent, bleak, and nihilistic. It captures that same "we are doing this because we have nothing else" energy that defined the early days of the Sunset Strip.
Then there’s Lords of Dogtown.
While it’s about skateboarding rather than hair metal, it hits the exact same emotional beats. You have a group of kids from broken homes who find a surrogate family, get world-famous overnight, and then proceed to dismantle their friendships because of ego and money. It’s the same story, just with wheels instead of bass guitars. The grit is there. The sun-drenched, dirty California aesthetic is there. It feels real because the source material—the real lives of the Z-Boys—was just as messy as anything Tommy Lee ever did.
Why 24 Hour Party People Is the Intellectual Cousin
You’ve probably never heard people compare Mötley Crüe to Joy Division. On the surface, it’s a weird fit. But 24 Hour Party People is the definitive "unreliable narrator" movie. Just like how The Dirt breaks the fourth wall to tell you that a certain scene didn't actually happen that way, Steve Coogan’s portrayal of Tony Wilson does the same. It’s a chaotic, frantic look at the Manchester music scene (Factory Records, the Haçienda).
It’s funny.
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Actually, it’s hilarious. But it’s also deeply tragic. It covers the rise and fall of Ian Curtis and the eventual birth of New Order. If you liked the "mockumentary" feel of certain parts of The Dirt, this is the gold standard. It doesn't treat its subjects like gods. It treats them like idiots who happened to make great art. Honestly, that's the most refreshing way to watch a biopic.
The "Excess" Factor in Movies Like The Dirt
If you’re chasing that feeling of watching people have too much money and too little impulse control, you have to talk about The Wolf of Wall Street. I know, it’s a finance movie. But Jordan Belfort’s story is structured exactly like a hair metal biography.
- The humble, hungry beginnings.
- The drug-fueled montage of the peak years.
- The inevitable, crashing legal or physical fallout.
- The "I'm still here" ending.
Martin Scorsese uses the same frantic editing style that Tremaine used in The Dirt. It's a high-speed chase that lasts three hours. You feel exhausted by the end of it. That’s the hallmark of this genre. If a movie about a rock band makes you feel like you need a nap and a green juice, it did its job correctly.
Rocketman vs. The Dirt: A Study in Style
A lot of critics compared The Dirt to Rocketman, which came out around the same time. They couldn’t be more different. Rocketman is a musical. It’s a fantasy. It uses Elton John’s songs to express internal emotions through dance numbers. The Dirt uses music as a backdrop for bad behavior.
However, they share one crucial trait: honesty about addiction. Taron Egerton’s Elton John isn't a saint. He’s a jerk for a good portion of the movie. He’s lonely, he’s spiraling, and he’s hiding behind a persona. If you can handle the singing and dancing, the emotional core of Rocketman resonates with anyone who appreciated the darker moments of Nikki Sixx’s heroin addiction arc. It’s the "R-rated" honesty that links them.
The Documentaries You Actually Need to See
Sometimes, the dramatization isn't enough. If you want the real-world equivalent of movies like The Dirt, you have to pivot to documentaries. The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years is essential viewing. It’s not a scripted movie, but it feels like one. Seeing Chris Holmes of WASP pour vodka on himself while his mother sits poolside is more harrowing than any scripted scene Netflix could produce.
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It’s the raw footage of the era The Dirt was trying to recreate.
Then there’s Anvil! The Story of Anvil. This is basically the real-life Spinal Tap. It follows a band that should have been as big as Mötley Crüe or Metallica but just... wasn't. It’s heartbreaking. It shows the "Dirt" lifestyle without the mansions and the private jets. It’s the reality for 99% of bands, and it provides a necessary perspective on the luck involved in the Crüe’s success.
The Problem With the "Safe" Biopic
We are currently in a wave of "sanitized" biopics. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody or even Elvis to some extent. They feel like they were approved by a board of directors. The Dirt worked because it felt like the band members were in the room telling the director to make it crazier.
You can tell when a movie is holding back.
When you search for movies like The Dirt, you are effectively searching for movies that didn't have a "clean-up crew" in the editing room. Sid and Nancy (1986) is the grandfather of this. Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious is a masterclass in portraying a slow-motion wreck. It’s unpleasant. It’s loud. It’s incredibly influential. Without Sid and Nancy, we don't get the modern rock biopic. It stripped away the glamour of the punk scene and showed the filth underneath.
Lesser-Known Gems to Check Out
If you've already seen the big names, look into Control. It’s a black-and-white film about Ian Curtis. It’s much more somber than The Dirt, but it captures the "band as a prison" feeling perfectly.
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Then there's Killing Bono.
It’s a comedy about a guy who tries to be a rock star in Dublin while his classmate, Paul Hewson (Bono), actually becomes the biggest star in the world. It’s a fun, slightly cynical look at the industry. It has that same "us against the world" vibe that Mötley Crüe leaned into during their early days in the apartment on Clark Street.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Watchlist
Don't just pick a random movie on a streaming service. If you want to replicate the experience of watching The Dirt, you need to categorize what exactly you liked about it.
- For the 80s Sleaze Factor: Watch The Decline of Western Civilization Part II. It is the literal blueprint for the world Mötley Crüe lived in. It’s available on various boutique streaming services like Shout! Factory.
- For the "Band vs. The World" Narrative: Watch Lords of Dogtown. Even though it’s about skating, the group dynamic—and the way fame destroys it—is a mirror image of the Crüe’s internal struggles.
- For the Dark Side of Fame: Watch Sid and Nancy. It’s the grittiest portrayal of a musician ever put to film. It makes the "No More Bad Strings" scene in The Dirt look like a sitcom.
- For the Fourth-Wall Breaking Fun: Watch 24 Hour Party People. It captures the absurdity of the music industry better than almost any other film.
- For the "Rise and Fall" Energy: Watch The Wolf of Wall Street. It’s the same adrenaline rush, just with suits instead of spandex.
The reality of the music industry is rarely as polished as Hollywood wants us to believe. The reason The Dirt resonated wasn't because it was a "great" movie in the traditional sense—it wasn't. It was messy and the acting was occasionally over-the-top. But it was honest about the fact that these were not particularly good people doing very dangerous things.
To find a movie that matches that, you have to look for the directors who aren't afraid to make their protagonists look like losers. You have to look for the stories where the "happily ever after" is just surviving to the age of 40. That's the real "Dirt" formula. Move toward the films that feel like they might have a high blood-alcohol content. Those are the ones that will actually satisfy that specific itch for rock and roll chaos.