New York Doll-review

[schwenko]

from the NY Times:

Is There Life After Rock 'n' Roll?
BY STEPHEN HOLDEN

Four decades after it was first issued, the Who's generational challenge, "Hope I die before I get old," remains a rallying cry for a way of life whose frequently dire personal consequences have been chronicled ad nauseam in the VH1 series "Behind the Music." But what if a triumphant flameout, even when ardently courted, doesn't arrive before the onset of middle age? What if one attempt after another at a glorious comeback fizzles?

Greg Whiteley's small, tender documentary portrait "New York Doll" looks at life after rock 'n' roll as experienced by Arthur (Killer) Kane, the original bassist for the legendary glam-punk band the New York Dolls. After the Dolls broke up in 1975 amid the standard rock madness of drink, drugs and excess, Mr. Kane labored in miserable obscurity on the West Coast, living from hand to mouth, battling drugs, alcohol, depression and poverty, until he went into recovery and found religion.

As "New York Doll" sweetly reveals, Mr. Kane belatedly found a kind a peace that culminated with a sweet moment of recognition. Filmed last year, the bassist, in his mid-50's, comes across as a soft-spoken, damaged soul who has found refuge and hope in the Mormon Church, in whose Family History Center library he works.

Since his days as a New York Doll, the band's legend has only grown. To hear musicians like Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof and Morrissey tell it in the movie, the Dolls were a beacon of light pumping adrenaline, sass and originality into a scene bogged down in the pretensions and formulas of progressive rock and heavy metal. Unleashing their assault while wearing platform heels, skin-tight pants, towering hair, smeared lipstick and mascara, the Dolls affected the defiant stance of sloppy transvestite hookers.

Last year, Morrissey, the morose, misanthropic singer-songwriter who first heard the Dolls when he was 13, invited Mr. Kane to participate in a concert reunion of the three surviving Dolls at the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London. The movie follows his cautious re-entry into the rock 'n' roll life. He redeems his guitars from a pawnshop, meets his former band mates David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, and travels to London for an event that he describes in the film as literally an answered prayer. The bad feelings he has harbored toward Mr. Johansen, after he went on to have success as Buster Poindexter, evaporate. And Mr. Kane, who died of leukemia shortly after the concert, drinks in every delicious second of his last hurrah.

"New York Doll" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes some strong language.

New York Doll

Opens today in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by Greg Whiteley; director of photography, Roderick Santiano; edited by Seth Gordon; produced by Ed Cunningham and Mr. Gordon; released by First Independent Pictures. In Manhattan at the Angelika Film Center, Mercer and Houston Streets, Greenwich Village. Running time: 75 minutes.

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote]Originally posted by schwenko
[br]And Mr. Kane, who died of leukemia shortly after the concert, drinks in every delicious second of his last hurrah.[/quote]
Wow...redemption. If you have to go, not a bad way to do it. Thanks Schwenko.

[Moparmark]

How true.The perfect companion to the New York Doll dvd has to be The New York Dolls Live at the Royal Festival 2004.I demand you buy this.If only they had of been clean and sounded like this 30 years ago.

[egg-roger]

I heard about this on the radio. Can't wait to see this. Thanx Schwenko.

[nowhere girl]

I used to listen to the New York Dolls a lot, so I have to see this movie. I am hoping that it will come to my small city soon, or I may have to rent it when it comes out on DVD.

Nowhere Girl