FilmSnobReviews

Title: Meet Me in the Bathroom
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Dylan Southern, Andrew Cross, Will Lovelace
Starring: The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

What It Is: In this documentary, we’re taken back to New York at the dawn of the 21st century. It is here, inconceivably where Rock n Roll is “saved”. As nu-metal acts navigate the entire terrain of turn of the century rock and metal it is these fuzzy guitars and scrap-like vocals that will see the genre to its next generation. Even if they really didn’t want to be. Based on the book by Lizzy Goodman.

What We Think: I think we need to start with the fact that the whole film is archival footage and interviews. Where the film is harmed is there is an inexplicable 2 minute period where we are given the video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song Maps. Why is this here? If I wanted to watch that I could quite literally do that whenever I want. For another point, it needs to be said that the film is a smidge disjointed and directionless. Granted the musicians and music played in the film are, in a word, excellent. That isn’t enough for me to grant this superficial documentary more than an average score at best

Our Grade: C-, This is one of the biggest disappointments of the entire festival for me. I was expecting the film to dig deep and explore the underbelly of the ’00s garage rock scene. Instead, we get a surface-level essay on the bands, who they are, and what they did. There’s a section on how 9/11 affected the city and subsequently the scene. It’s not enough to move the needle in any substantial way. This is sadly a skip. If you wanna watch the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Maps does do here. That’s four minutes of the runtime gone. The rest is filled with disappointment and questions. Most of those questions are why sadly.