From the age of five Jason Becker had a natural talent when it came to playing the guitar, and by the age of fifteen he was plucked from a small town and blasted into the realms of potential superstardom, considered by all to be a modern day Mozart when it came to "shredding". However, at the age of 20, just as Jason was about to become a proper international superstar, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease - and as his body slowly deteriorates, he can do nothing but watch the gift of music get taken away from him.
If this sounds like a one-way ticket to depression, it is in fact anything but, as even though Jason is faced with the inability to move or even breath by himself, his perseverance to create music continues to shine through. Through interviews with his family, his ex-girlfriends, his former band-mates (including heavy metal megastars such as David Lee Roth, Steve Vai and Marty Friedman), as well as friends and neighbours, we get a full understanding of what it is like inside the mind of a musical genius. Jason Becker himself is nothing if not a testament to any dejected people in the audience, telling us to continue to do what we love, regardless of whatever obstacles we may need to overcome.
Director Jesse Vile can sometimes let the story pull a little too obviously at the heartstrings, and some of the sound-effects work is heavy handed - at one point, to emphasize a bit of bad news, we hear the sound of someone dropping a glass in shock - but overall he stays out of the way and just lets the (admittedly slight) story tell itself.
A must-watch for any fans of metal music, as well as anyone wanting to see a feel-good documentary for once; this isn't a movie that is going to rock the world, but if nothing else will inspire some hope in the hopeless.
