New York Doll

I am a bit embarrassed about how much I don't know. Until tonight, I had never heard of the New York Dolls, apparently a seminal band in the development of modern rock. On the other hand, never in my life have I been able to identify, remember or name bands or songs. Listening to Power 105.1 in high school was an endless stream of new songs for me. I could never hope to compete with Tim Curran playing the "First line" game, spitting out the lyrics to a song based on the first few notes. He knew every song, I knew none. So it doesn't surprise me that I was introduced to a new band.
This documentary follows Arthur "Killer" Kane, the bass player for the New York Dolls as the band prepares for a reunion show in London. Kane has been out of music for most of his life since the breakup of the Dolls, has since joined the Mormon church and works in the LDS Family History Library in Los Angeles. Perhaps a tribute to the brilliance of Christopher Guest, this feels a lot like The Mighty Wind with Kane playing the role of Eugene Levy's Mitch. We are alternately drawn into the sadness of a dream lost, the reality of the present, the hope of the future, and the confusion of how it all changed so quickly. Kane mostly portrays a mixture of sincerity and confusion, the 50 year old child who takes just a moment longer to step out of a spider-webbed brain than one would expect. And no excuses are made, this is the man everyone remembers ... "Killer" Kane, so named for his killer base lines.
3-stars