![]() ![]() The movie itself should've given more (any?) screen time to Iggy, surviving regulars at Max's KC, John Cale, the Dolls-influenced such as Debbie Harry (shown in the Carlyle crowd), John Lydon, Mike Ness, Billie Joe Armstrong anyone but the insufferable Morrissey (ancient footage, at that). But Johansen was smart to go Poindexter and get into films where his over the top persona could play to his strengths as a vaudevillian. He's a cultural phenomenon and vocalist-not a singer-couldn't carry a tune in a Dolls handbag. This film only confirmed feelings about Johansen I've had for decades. If you are in the mood for a great performance documentary featuring one of rock's truly originals, I'd readily suggest you check it out and draw your own conclusion. "Personality Crisis: One Night Only" was shown on multiple film festivals last year, and finally started streaming on Showtime in April. Watch Johansen tell the tale of getting arrested in Memphis in 1973, "for dressing like Lisa Minelli". This is NOT a bio-doc but instead a performance film which goes back and forth between the live performance footage of 2020, and the archival footage of the 70s and 80s (mostly). Here they get unfettered access to Johansen's one night only performance at the Carlyle. Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from frequent collaborators Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie. After the first song, we then go back in time to some clips featuring the New York Dolls back in the day. 6/10.Īs "Personality Crisis: One Night Only" (2022 release 127 min) opens, ex-New York Dolls lead singer David Johansen is getting ready to hit the stage at the Cafe Carlyle in NYC, in January of 2020 (yup, only weeks before COVID hit New York, and hard). It's by no means terrible, but it could have been much more. Still, for those who are curious about Johansen and Scorsese completists, this may be worth a look. ![]() This easily could have been cut down to 85 minutes or so and nothing would have been lost other than some good music. ![]() In a film that runs over two hours, there seems to be very little about the man and his work other than he loves music and has been producing it a long time. Most disappointingly, with the exception of the aforementioned Milos Forman story, his film career isn't touched on at all. Sadly, Johansen doesn't seem to want to get into any true detail about his life or his Buster Poindexter persona. ![]() There are still great individual moments, though, like Johansen admitting that "Hot Hot Hot" is the bane of his existence or him telling the story of an audition for a Milos Forman movie that went sideways. Maybe it's because Johansen is much older now or maybe it's because Johansen admits to being a reluctant documentary subject, but whatever the reason, the movie never picks up steam in a way that makes the whole picture work as a whole. Unfortunately, that clip is the most amusing and captivating moment featured in the whole film and Scorsese himself is never able to capture the energy, charisma, and storytelling capabilities of Johansen in any of footage shot for the film itself. Johansen is probably best known for his cover of the super catchy song "Hot Hot Hot" under his alias Buster Poindexter, but he's had a much larger career both as a musician and as a fun character actor appearing in such cult favorites as Scrooged, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, and "The Adventures of Pete & Pete." Johansen himself as always been an interesting and funny personality, something made clear early on in the documentary when a clip of him telling a particularly odd story about vomit on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" is featured. A documentary about David Johansen co-directed and produced by Martin Scorsese should have easily been one of the coolest, most interesting films of the year. ![]()
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