Movie Details
| Title: | Meet Me in the Bathroom | |
| Director: | Will LovelaceDylan Southern | |
| Year: | 2022 | |
| Genre: | Documentary | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.28.22 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.28.22 | Internet | The second half of a loosely-themed "new shit I want to see" double feature. This is a doc based on a 2017 book which is about the 2000s nyc music scene and bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, and others. I read the book fairly recently and really enjoyed it so it was kismet that this doc was hitting festivals basically right after I finished reading the book (I think it screened sxsw like a week before I wrote my note on the book, not that I went to sxsw but still). Now it's finally available, having landed on Showtime and basically disappeared. Part of me wants to say it's a real shame, because there's some cool footage in here like a super early LCD performance and some early Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs footage, but I also kinda see why it didn't blow up the world and play theatrically and get a bunch of awards. As a film without the context of the book, I'm not sure it's a cohesive piece. The main directors also made the LCD doc Shut Up and Play the Hits which I liked (although it was largely a concert film for a band I'm into so... yeah), and I feel that they really tried to paint a picture of this early 2000s era, but the format they chose (all archive footage in 4:3 with what sounds like interview audio recorded for the book cut in from time to time) makes it really hard to frame this as a story of a scene rather than just following a handful of bands for a while. Like, why these bands? Why this footage? Why am I watching this? I guess you either have to be a superfan of one of these bands and want to see early footage or you have to be a fan of the book who really wanted to see and hear the bands represented there in order to enjoy this. On top of that, the original score, for me, was the totally wrong vibe. It's all melancholic and brooding. They play Sinatra's It Was A Very Good Year for like 12 minutes and bookend the film with this kinda downbeat spoken word or poem about Manhattan that really confused me in terms of tone. Like, is it elegiac for a New York that is no more? Or is it a celebration of how cool New York is? It feels like both all mixed together but the book was much more successful in conveying that evolution because it had all the page count in the world to contextualize it. I feel like it's an unfair criticism to say that this 100-minute movie skimmed over stuff that the 700-page book delved into, but I can't help but think that the debauchery and fatalistic attitude of this scene was only hinted at. Lots of things in the movie feel hinted at. Now, because I did read the book, I did enjoy watching this. It felt like a supporting document though rather than a standalone product. I am glad to see all these people on screen though, especially those I was less familiar with when I read the book like the Moldy Peaches and Interpol. It's funny to see Carlos being interviewed about his shoulder harness thing and see the rest of the band laugh at him, remembering all the juicy detail that the book goes into their intra-band dynamic. So it's a little bit a shame, but I guess also to be expected. I'm a little surprised they found as much footage as they did, even if James Murphy is wearing the same t-shirt through the entire movie. I'd say this was still watching if you're a fan of any of these bands though. Seeing the long take of Karen O during the Maps music video shoot was pretty powerful as was seeing early early Rapture and Yeah Yeah Yeahs performances. |
