Pretty Good

Don't Believe the Hype

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

In the seventies, Arthur "Killer" Kane was the base player for influential punk band "The New York Dolls". Nearly thirty years later he is living in LA and working as a librarian in a family history centre, riding the bus everywhere and living on a tiny income . Director Greg Whiteley starts the film focusing on Kane and his life today but, during the film, an opportunity comes up to reunite the Dolls for a gig in London. Arthur accepts and the camera follows him as he reunites with people he hasn't seen for decades.I know very little about the New York Dolls, only being vaguely familiar with their music and could only have told you David Johansen's name out of the whole group. However this didn't seem to matter here because the film starts out to be more about the very low-key existence of a fallen rock star as represented by Arthur Kane. This aspect of it is very interesting and provides plenty of moments that are touching, comic and telling. Director Whiteley is affectionate to his subject but is not sentimental and the mix is almost spot on because it feels a balanced view of this man who now rides a bus to a low-wage job, is balding and just looks like a man who lived with his mother for fifty years and is now trying to get by without her.He is a wonderfully unassuming character and it is a joy to spend this time with him because he has all this tragedy, sadness, hope and survival. I knew so little about the Dolls that I did not even know that he had died and the end of the film is almost unbearably bittersweet and it hurt to learn of his death while I had just spent an hour getting to know it. Alongside the film focusing on Arthur the London gig gives a way into the Dolls themselves which does expand on who Arthur is but also allows for a potted history of the Dolls. Lots of contributions and wonderfully candid footage combine to build this whole up and it makes for a great film.I'm pretty sure that fans of the Dolls will enjoy this but for me I can only speak as a casual viewer with no knowledge. As such I loved it. I thought it was a tremendously touching, tragic and comic character study that folds into a rockumentary of the Dolls and the fact that I knew nothing about the subject only meant that the news of Arthur's sudden death just felt like a kick in the gut. A great film – fan or not.

This film is a thinly disguised propaganda piece about the evils of rock 'n roll from the wide perspective of the Mormon church.Featuring Arthur "Killer" Kane (30 years after the fact), the movie starts with Mormon director Greg Whitely interviewing a couple of white-haired colleagues from Kane's servile gig at the church, one of whom comments on a near-senile Kane and his amazing ability to keep the copier filled with paper.Can you guess where this is gonna go? Laughable commentary from Kane's Mormon fellows interspersed with suspiciously edited "interviews" with a few of his peers is supposed to give the film a raw, gritty feel but simply exposes the juvenile attempts at proselytizing by Whitely, who is clearly out of his depth as regards the NY scene in the '70s and doesn't really care anyway.The film ends with a lost looking Kane on stage in England attempting a pathetic reunion with the remaining New York Dolls, his bass playing hugely non-existent while session men fill in the gaps. Whitely clearly relishes his role in exposing a 'lost soul', but instead of a lovingly compassionate look at the man and his work, he uses the footage to mock Kane and the Dolls. Talk about Christian compassion!And this is the point of the movie. God forbid should one ever stray from the straight and narrow. And should you perhaps be so stupid as Arthur Kane to break new musical ground and dabble in the forbidden, your life isn't worth more than a cheap Christian documentary.Johnny Thunders is probably looking down and laughing at poor Arthur rotting in hell for allowing himself to be used like a whore by the Mormon church. -- Charlie Parisek Tokyo, Japan 2007

I could go on and on about why I liked this movie but there's one thing that is most important to impress upon people: you don't have to be a New York Dolls fan - or even a rock music fan - to enjoy this movie. I was only peripherally aware of the New York Dolls music and I was captivated by this fine piece of work.This is not a concert movie though a performance is integral to the story. It's also not a series of rock videos. It is a simple man's extraordinary journey through life, a life that at times is ordinary and at others is far from it.I can only encourage you to not base your willingness to view this on how you feel about its music. If you pass by because of that, you will deprive yourself of a very special movie.

Wonderful. This is a great, non-judgmental movie about the life and times of a somewhat sad, sweet, messed-up rock'n'roller who finds salvation with the LDS church. Paints a (perhaps flattering) picture of just why the NY Dolls were so important to a certain generation.The thing that speaks most in its favour is that even though the documentary was made by a Mormon director about one of their flock, I wasn't aware of the director's affiliations until reading about the film afterwards. The ending was unexpected, bittersweet and somehow fitting.Oh, and even in half-assed rehearsal with crappy sound, the music still shines through as something special.