Personality Crisis: One Night Only (2023)

Personality Crisis: One Night Only (2023)

An enjoyable if somewhat niche documentary about the animated New York Dolls frontman David Johansen

7.0

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary, Music
2022
DAVID TEDESCHI, MARTIN SCORSESE
David Johansen, Debbie Harry, Hal Willner
127 min

What it's about

A portrait of musician David Johansen from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi featuring a live performance at Café Carlyle in New York City, where he performs as Buster Poindexter singing the Johansen songbook, along with new and archival interviews.

The take

After directing George Harrison: Living in the Material World and No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese brings to the fore yet another singular musician, this time New York Dolls frontman David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter). More of a concert film than anything, this feature takes place during a live performance Johansen gives during his birthday; his raspy voice and poetic punk songs already tell a story in themselves, but Scorsese intercuts them with the occasional archival footage and interview, careful not to disrupt a glorious musical moment with cheesy throwback scenes. 

A Dolls or punk fan will be moved by the resulting film, a fittingly jagged but meaningful oeuvre of a tenacious artist. But if you're coming to this documentary without much prior knowledge about Johansen, his band, and the era from which he came, you might find it somewhat niche, but overall impressive, informative, and musically thrilling.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

I Am: Celine Dion (2024)

An incredibly raw and inspiring portrait of the music icon

7.6

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Cold War (2018)

A quiet Polish masterpiece with ravishing music and dazzling visuals

9.2

The Edge of Democracy (2019)

Mixing personal history with hardcore journalism, this is the story of Brazil's fragile democracy.

9.0

Sound of Metal (2020)

Riz Ahmed excels in this piercing drama about a musician losing his hearing.

9.1

Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

A darkly hilarious portrait of the inevitability of death

7.9

Whisper of the Heart (1995)

Finds magic in the ordinary every day—and reminds us the most special art is that which comes from the heart

8.3

The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)

A fun New York comedy about the pressure of unreached goals

8.2

Honeyland (2019)

A cinematic achievement in the portrayal of the last wild beekeeper in Europe

9.3

Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

Nick Offerman with the feels

8.0

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.