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New York Doll (2004)

New York Doll (2004)
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The New York Dolls were a rock band who titled their second studio album Too Much Too Soon, and it summed up the band's career all too well. Playing hard, swaggering rock & roll that anticipated the aural chaos of punk five years before the Sex Pistols became a cause célèbre, and boasting an androgynous fashion statement that made David Bowie look timid, the Dolls made headlines and earned a loyal cult following between 1971 and 1976, but their look and sound were too extreme for the mass audience at the time, and the fact that several members of the band had serious drug and alcohol problems hardly helped matters. After the New York Dolls finally fell apart in 1977, singer David Johansen went on to a successful solo career (scoring hit records under the alter ego Buster Poindexter), lead guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan kept the band's sound alive in the Heartbreakers, and guitarist Syl Sylvain cut a few solo albums and occasionally worked with Johansen. But bassist Arthur Kane struggled for years to get his musical career back on track while battling alcoholism, with little success on either front. In 1989, after a stay in the hospital, a clean and sober Kane embraced the Mormon faith, and through his contacts in the church he got a job working in a Mormon genealogy library in Los Angeles. Despite his quiet new life, Kane's greatest dream was to someday play a reunion show with the New York Dolls, and in 2004 his wish unexpectedly became a reality when British pop icon Morrissey invited the surviving members of the band to appear at a prestigious music festival he was curating. Filmmaker Greg Whiteley knew Kane as a fellow Mormon, and New York Doll is a documentary about the ups and downs of Kane's life in music, how his faith came into his life, and his unexpected return to the rock & roll stage at the age of 55. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Director(s):
Greg Whiteley
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
PG13
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of New York Doll

The New York Dolls were a rock band who titled their second studio album Too Much Too Soon, and it summed up the band's career all too well. Playing hard, swaggering rock & roll that anticipated the aural chaos of punk five years before the Sex Pistols became a cause célèbre, and boasting an androgynous fashion statement that made David Bowie look timid, the Dolls made headlines and earned a loyal cult following between 1971 and 1976, but their look and sound were too extreme for the mass audience at the time, and the fact that several members of the band had serious drug and alcohol problems hardly helped matters. After the New York Dolls finally fell apart in 1977, singer David Johansen went on to a successful solo career (scoring hit records under the alter ego Buster Poindexter), lead guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan kept the band's sound alive in the Heartbreakers, and guitarist Syl Sylvain cut a few solo albums and occasionally worked with Johansen. But bassist Arthur Kane struggled for years to get his musical career back on track while battling alcoholism, with little success on either front. In 1989, after a stay in the hospital, a clean and sober Kane embraced the Mormon faith, and through his contacts in the church he got a job working in a Mormon genealogy library in Los Angeles. Despite his quiet new life, Kane's greatest dream was to someday play a reunion show with the New York Dolls, and in 2004 his wish unexpectedly became a reality when British pop icon Morrissey invited the surviving members of the band to appear at a prestigious music festival he was curating. Filmmaker Greg Whiteley knew Kane as a fellow Mormon, and New York Doll is a documentary about the ups and downs of Kane's life in music, how his faith came into his life, and his unexpected return to the rock & roll stage at the age of 55. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
78 mins

Complete Cast of New York Doll


Director(s):
Greg Whiteley
Producer(s):
Seth Lewis GordonEd Cunningham
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
PG13(Drug Content)
Categories:
DocumentaryIndependent Films
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Member Reviews
 
Glenn F.

I thought this would be a thrown together doc of old clips and a few people they could scrape up alive now even remotely connected with the band. Like the others I thought it started off really slow and seemed to solely focus on the saddest most pathetic figure in the band or any band, in which the brief few years with the band was the only high point of his life which he seemed to cling to decades later. I thought perhaps the reason they did this was due to the fact they couldnt get anyone else to participate in the film but it leads to a central story ---- the surprise reunion of the band 30 yrs later for a festival in London which is the climax of the film. The strange story of the bassist Arthur Kane going from his drug and alcohol addicted lifestyle to Mormon , working for the church adds an interesting twist to the reunion story. Two of the members are dead so only three members remain.

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Tony S.

Despite the slow start to this moving documentary, the payoff comes when Arthur "Killer" Kane has a chance to relive his past glory as a member of the New York Dolls. I would have like to have seen more detail about Kane's original fall from grace, filling in the blanks of his lost years. But the reunion with David Johanssen and Syl Sylvain more than makes up for the flaws in this documentary. Even the poor direction and editing in this film couldn't spoil the amazing conclusion to the story. I wish a more experienced documentary filmmaker had been able to handle the subject matter. Whiteley stumbled on to a gold mine, didn't really know what to do with it, but this is still a moving look at what momentary fame can do. If you love music, you should by all means see this film.

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Ron B.

While I found that this started a bit slow and could have been better with a greater history/background of the band itself and it's members to secure the viewers interests. The story was amazing at the end. I think it would be a great film for anyone / family to watch if someone thinking of making a living in the music business. He got ZERO MONEY from all their Dolls albums that proved to be so inspirational for many other later bands and are still being sold. That says plenty about the music business right there!

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