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Screens August 7, 14
Thirteen-year-olds Alec Atkins, Malcolm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins are Unlocking the Truth, a metal band that signed a $1.8 million dollar contract with Sony Entertainment in 2014. Breaking a Monster chronicles their explosive rise from street performances in Manhattan to opening for Metallica and playing Coachella. The footage comprises fly-on-the-wall scenes shot during board meetings at Sony, laborious recording sessions, and sit-down interviews with the boys, their parents and their agent. Tender and reserved, the film captures the plight of the boys trying to have agency in the deep end, and of their dedicated parents, who have to try to guide their sons while allowing them the autonomy they need as artists. Breaking a Monster acts as a time capsule; it distils a significant point in not only the band’s starting out, but also the parallel development of their personal lives as they face their teenage years. It's a sympathetic portrait, highlighting the fact that nobody in charge ever seems to have explicitly asked the band if this was something they actually wanted. Maybe Breaking a Monster doesn't ask them either – but at least it doesn't patronise, nor create a spectacle of, these seriously talented teenagers.