User Reviews

As "Meet Me In the Bathroom" (2022 release; 105 min.) opens, it is "1999" and we are introduced to Adam Green (of the Moldy Peaches) and their very humble beginnings at an open mike night. Karen O (of later the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) also moves in those circles. One day they run into Julian Casablancas of the just formed Strokes at a party... At this point we are less than 10 min. Into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest collaboration between co-directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern ("Shut Up and Play the Hits"; various music videos). Here they take Lizzy Goodman's critically acclaimed book of the same name and turn it into a visual feat and feast. The documentary follows the early beginnings of New York's Burgeoning rock scene that really started taking off in 2000-2001, with bands like the Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Rapture, and LCD Soundsystem. All of them are featured extensively, and the amount of archive footage that the film makers were able to unearth is absolutely amazing, and THE main reason to watch this. While the book covers the entire 00's decade, this documentary focus on the decade's initial 5 years. This is probably the reason why Vampire Weekend is conspicuously absent in this film, as they didn't did start until 2005 or so. That aside, all these bands provided a true soundtrack of my life in the 00's and I caught those bands in concerts multiple times during that decade (and thereafter). If it sounds like I am gushing a bit over this documentary, I will not deny it. I absolutely LOVE this documentary.

"Meet Me In the Bathroom" premiered on Showtime over the Thanksgiving weekend and is now available on the SHO streaming app, where I caught it a few days ago. If you love any of these bands, or you are perhaps curious what life was like in NY 20 years ago, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

From the mid 90s to early 2010s, NYC, particularly north Brooklyn, was known as the city to be in for people into indie music. This film tries to connect that with coverage of some key bands from the 2000 to 2005 portion of that era. It's mostly about those bands and less about the scenes in which those bands were a part.

Bands featured in order of the amount they were covered: The Strokes, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, DFA (especially James Murphy), Interpol, Moldy Peaches, TV On the Radio, The Rapture, and The Liars. There were more there during this time that weren't mentioned and obviously more after the period covered in this.

Iirc, Karen O notes how NYC started becoming too expensive and that making it more difficult for artists and musicians (and she later moved to LA and still lives there, she grew up in NJ). But some come from more privileged backgrounds and the film touches on that with some of the band members.

Although I was into all of this music then, I don't like how "indie" during this time shifted to whatever people in north Brooklyn are into. I prefer how things were in the 90s where bands from several cities got equal attention, including some pretty small ones like Athens. Some are trying to revive the era covered in this film, including the focus on NYC, because it's easy to just recycle trends from 25 years prior and pretend you're a trend setter, but it is far less affordable now than then.

Good enough doc but just seems there's far too much going on trying to navigate between 6+ bands and their individual stories. Would have been great as a 6 or 8 part documentary series. Things like interpol's second record are mentioned once for about 10 seconds. This was a seminal record at the time and was made infamous after being one of the first records to be leaked on the internet prior to release. Dunno just feel like there is so much more potential here and these bands deserved a more in depth look at their backgrounds and subsequent influence as well as the scene they created. Because if this it's one I don't think I'll be returning to.

I grew up watching those bands and I remember what the media used to say about them, that they were going to save rock music.

But now after 2 decades... Yeah, they were just kids. We were just kids. Really, I was literally a kid. And I'm from Brazil and could relate to them so I thought I would be all emotional and so on.

It was nice to see the bands but there's a lot of unnecessary drama and white-rocker-men-from-new-york-problems'.

Maybe we're not just grown up but grew out of all of this so niched and dated scene from the past.

Anyway, maybe with a short edit and a more developed story from Karen O, for instance it would be better to watch.

Overrall, it was 6/10 and worth for the nostalgia.

Not that it's exactly comparable, but I grew up very much amidst a folk music scene with loads of extremely mediocre working-class musicians - ballad singers, guitarists, fiddlers etc., who all thought they would go on to some sort of musical greatness. Watching this, it's good to know that those ridiculous pipe dreams were not just confined to Glasgow in the 1970s. Spool on to the early naughties and we are presented with a collection of "musicians" living in Yew York City with aspirations that in the vast majority of cases way outstripped their talents. The one exceptions is probably Julian Casablancas, who managed with "The Strokes" to get his head above the parapet of bland noisemaking, and here the documentary is quite potent at illustrating that the stresses of achieving and building on success are actually just as tough as those involved in getting noticed in the first place. On a more generic level, it does point out how tough this industry is, how hard people work to achieve little better than a subsistence existence and at just how transitory and fickle it all can be, but I did tire a little of the also-rans who whined on about sexploitation and objectification as if they'd had been living under a rock for most of their lives. They dreamt of success and acknowledgement in an industry that was/is riddled with sexualisation and somehow it came as a shock to them - pissed and stoned as they invariably were. Real talent is the best fast-track to initiate meaningful and lasting change. It's an interesting fly-on-the-wall style of production with loads of archive, busily edited to leave us with an authentic-looking view on the lives of these people, but I felt most of them really had no idea what they were doing and the fact that 9/11 occurred midway through the chronology of the narrative seemed merely designed to attempt to bedrock this otherwise flighty and shallow assessment of a music industry that took me back to those nights in the pub, with the folk singers who sounded great after eight pints, but who had no shelf-life beyond that!

This was a hard documentary to rate. On the one hand the amount of video they have of these bands at the start is gold. And I felt like I was back experiencing a youth I never knew. But the documentary flow and direction is hard to pick up on and the constant dancing between bands is hard, they're all interesting in their own way however and I watched this for the Strokes but I didn't skip or lose interest for any part of the doc.

It's so good seeing bands like the Strokes and Interpol live right at the start of their careers, musically they had it right away. Also interesting to see bands like Yeah Yeahs, the rapture, Moldy Peaches and LCD soundsytem early who Didn't have it to start with... but learnt quickly and started to make good sounding music for their already present coolness. Except for that LCD soundsytem guy, he doesn't look like a rock star at all so even more props to him-workmanlike.

I dreamt of being a rockstar and playing music to get the attention and acclaim I never got from my peer groups and opposite sex when I was growing up. Watching this I'm glad I didn't get it - would've ended up more of a narcissist than I was then. It's actually incredible many of these equally screwed up folks turned out pretty okay.

Interestingly, to me this is proof that survivorship bias and luck is a thing in music as well, and like success in many arts and creative endeavours, having rich parents helps...

If you like one or more of these Bands I definitely recommend you watch.

A loose, informal-looking document of a time and place and the idiosyncratic music they served as backdrop to, "Meet Me in the Bathroom" is a glimpse into the Rock music scene of New York City at the turn of the century. Amidst the reality of Y2K, 9/11, Napster and George W. Bush Jr. The film shows how long dead Rock n' Roll came to life in the Big Apple when bands like The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a host of others kept a dying genre in life support by creating some of the most eclectic and compelling music in all of music.

Filled with interviews from the bands themselves and their associates and archival footage this takes one back to that cold, chilly and impersonal time. From the sensational hype-driven attention given to the scene-igniting and influential Strokes to the rare female-fronted act of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Dance-Electronic punkisms of LCD Soundsystem and the soulful experimentalism of TV on the Radio, on to the Anti-Folk quirkiness of The Moldy Peaches to the rocking danceability of The Rapture and the cool distant approach of Interpol the movie features a constellation of young hopefuls whose talents coalesced into a particular age and era when NU Metal and Hip-Hop dominated the global music scene, music that were the opposite of what they were doing, these underrated luminaries toiling and creating in a time that neither cared about them nor gave them their due.

While watchable the film lacks perspective on what truly matter. A good chronological backdrop on the history of the New York Rock scene would have fleshed this out more and would have given more of an understanding on what the bands featured have done and what they accomplished. And most of all and what the filmmakers glaringly missed which is what the film is basically about: the music! Too much emphasis is given on the personalities involved that the main reason why they even got to be featured here is sidelined and how good even great the music actually is.

Based on journalist Lizzy Goodman's tome of the same name, "Meet Me in the Bathroom" is a celebration of Gen X's and New York Rock's final hurrah before fading into the eventual eclipse of time and memory. A tribute to a great artistic legacy and a great city this is one Rock fans should see.

The book has so much potential and it doesn't focus only on 5 bands, it talks about things with a deeper background, from where they met, influences, etc. The documentary is very slow and portraits The Strokes like spoiled kids.

It lacks speed with the interviews, in parts it feels very bland and very long, sometimes it feels like 3 hrs long.

This would have worked better as a miniseries. I was really hoping to see this and I left out the theater with a big mhe.

After all, it's a great way to show us a NY that no longer exists, a great trip to memory lane in a world where everything seemed possible and the last great bands of the 21st century.

An exciting and well documented journey through the New York music scene that emerged in the 2000s, which has The Strokes at its center but includes various artists such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Rapture, The Moldy Peaches and LCD Soundsystem to complete the context and show us a bigger picture.

The story is told through different testimonies and approached from different angles, generating an agile and cinematically beautiful narrative.

A good way to better understand how the scene was built, the people behind the artists and the fact that fame is just a state and that rock stars are human too.

As a fan of The Strokes from Day 1, this was a must watch for me. Of course, I absolutely loved it.

I never knew Albert's struggles went that deep. I learned so much about more about the band and appreciate them so much more now.

As a native New Yorker, I remember the time period when this was all going on. The city still had a special vibe to it. There was something special in the air. All of it is gone now. You basically have to almost be a millionaire to live really nice and rents are out of this world.

But for that period in time The Strokes had revived the NYC rock scene, and were on top of the world. At one point they were labeled, "the new kings of rock." Some people have even suggested that they saved Rock N Roll. Bold statement, but in my eyes, very true.

The pressure they faced after "Is This It" dropped is enough to drive anyone crazy. Julian was really tough on the guys, especially Albert it seems.

I have some love for the Yea Yea Yeahs, but mostly cause of the energy that Karen O brings. I didn't know much about how they came up, but it was very interesting to find out in the documentary.

All the other bands shown were of no interest to me, so I won't bother mentioning them.

This is a very informative watch, and pure nostalgia. The time breezes on by, no drag whatsoever. Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Apologies for this write up. Wasn't really a review, just some random thoughts about the doc.

This gets a LennyReviewz Score of: 9/10.

I have been anxiously awaiting this film, and it really let me down. I wanted to feel the excitement of this time and place and as soon as I would start to, it walked it back and jumped subjects, losing any momentum. These bands defined my early adulthood, at a time when things were really chaotic. But this film was chaotic in a different and uninspired way. I couldn't tap into the nostalgia I was hoping for, and it left me really sad and almost angry because there was so much potential and it could have been so much more.

I'm also disappointed that they gave Ryan Adams any kind of screen time, while giving next to nothing to TV on the Radio. They deserve their own movie. And so does Karen O, who was a bright spot in a really lackluster movie.

I was hooked on the original book. When I heard that they are making a movie based on it, I was so excited. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival with critical acclaim. The distribution for the film was a hard decision, Sony Pictures Classics, Neon, A24, Searchlight Pictures, Greenwich Entertainment, all turned down the film. In the end it was distributed by Showtime, at the time, it was a premium tv network that is home to prestige and award winning dramas like Homeland, Shameless, Billions, Ray Donovan and many others, but it never distributed a theatrical film before. I saw the movie in theaters, the day the midterm election results are in, and it was a perfect film for 2022. Because I am punk music fanatic and dreamer.

Absolutely brilliant doc. 11/10! And I wish it could've carried on forever. This doc is only relevant if you lived and loved this musical period. Arguably it would've been nice to show some a larger variety of bands from the time and area and given the Liars a little more exposure, but hey.

On a personal note, too much time spent with Karen O and the YYYs, and not enough Rapture.

I'm also wanting a whole doc on Casablancas' father! Well dodged by Julian when asked.

Additionay, I have no idea what these other reviews are talking about, if you don't like the bands and don't have a connection with the period, don't watch it. I don't like horror films, do you see me reviewing horror films and giving them 1 out of 10? No. Mindless.

Quite apart from it jumping all over the place it was overall a bit of a mess. I like The Strokes, the whole spoilt rich kids being able to do whatever they like is annoying, you can always be wild and crazy when you have daddy's money to fall back on, but The Mouldy Peaches were beyond irritating, especially that vacuous 9/11 song she did, what an awful band.

There are lots of reviews wishing there was more on Karen O, I found that she was the main focus of the documentary, it was basically all about her, but she's got a great voice and deserves credit though.

Only Interpol came out of it well, they were largely humble, not spoilt rich kids who have the safety net of privilege and money to catch them if they fall.

The inclusion of Ryan Adams was disturbing, that creepy predator should not be given any publicity.

Really liked the bit on James Murphy too, it seemed a nice, albeit brief, break from Karen O and The Strokes to get some insight into him and Interpol.

Overall, a poor documentary. It seemed interminable too, felt lie 3 hours rather than an hour and 46 minutes.

I was obsessed with this era of rock as a teenager and I still love it all these years later, so I was expecting to love this, but I just didn't.

The film touched on some interesting topics, but never followed through with any of them. Karen O had some terrible things happen to her, but the film talked about each of them for a minute or so and then moved on. And I'd like to know more about Albert Hammond Jr's drug addiction. Where is he now? Where is everyone now? The movie just stops in the 2000s without any real feeling of completion.

Many years ago, I purchased two cheap, "unofficial" documentaries about The Strokes. Meet Me In The Bathroom was not even as good as those were. It didn't feel like there was a narrative or purpose for it. It truly is just a timeline of events. It doesn't even do a good job of telling us why we should care about any of the artists mentioned. It just expects you to know who they are already. So anyone who isn't familiar with this era of rock should probably skip this film altogether.

At certain points, it seemed like the filmmakers were trying to lead us to believe that Julian Casablancas was dead. My roommate who doesn't know about these bands questioned if he was still alive. I know that wasn't their intention, but it happened because there wasn't enough thought put into the film's structure. They kept showing images of Julian looking sad with emotional music and then having voiceovers of people talking about how the music industry wasn't what he thought it would be or how he could never find where he belonged, etc.

Also, I hate that Ryan Adams gets to have a voice in this film. In fact, I was going to rate this movie a 5 and lowered it one point because of that. I have no idea what the filmmakers' opinion on him is because, again, it's just a timeline of events without any personality, but the film almost gives him a pass on a lot of things because they refuse to pick a side. Not only was he the one to introduce drugs to Albert, he was basically a groupie, obsessed with The Strokes. Given the fact that his most successful album is just covers of Taylor Swift songs, it's no surprise that he's a leech, but I wish the film had pointed that out more. He also claimed The Strokes were rude to him at one point because they were at the end of their fame and probably jealous. It's obvious to anyone paying attention that that's not why they didn't want him around, but The Strokes never get to share their side. So, a lot of people watching probably believe Adams, especially people coming into this without knowing anything about him.

From the prima dona' behavior of the talentless monotone that is Julian Casablancas to the unbearable "I'm a woman in rock" idiocy from the moron singer of the YEAH YEAH YEAHS (a one speed band thats extremely overrated)

Let's not forget the poor songwriting and performances from "The Moldy Peaches" a band whose friends never did the humane thing of telling them they sucked. Especially unsettling is her 9/11 song...cudos if you don't end up skipping to protect your ears.

The one band that came across as moderately professional was Interpol.

It seemed doing drugs and being at fashion parties (or slumming on MTV, stuff they all would have made fun of but happily did it seems) was the point. There was no"immersive journey" and it shouldn't be called a documentary, it jumps around so much that it's more just a collection of scene kid op-eds.

Most directors usually fail badly when they try to do a broad overview of a time in music and this was no different.

I would say to people though: not all musicians are precious little flowers like what's on display here, some of us actually work really hard (unlike the singer from the moldy peaches)

These bands that they are talking about were all little bands that no one really knew until after 2010 yea they were around but hadn't made it yet nd compared to other bands of this time they still havnt made it lol

This time period is one of the greatest ever for rock music and these are the bands they chose to follow I mean wtf just across the bridge in jersey huge pop punk and alternative bands were coming to the forefront just a few senses fail, Thursday, my chemical romance, early November, armor for sleep and I can keep going

But yea let's document Ryan adams and the yeah yeah yeahs who are basically just pop (adams) and a festival band (yeah) yea they really made an impact NOT!

Pass hard pass.waste of time.

I'm really not sure what I was going to get when I went to see this documentary. However, one thing that is certain is all of these bands are absolutely terrible. The mouldy peaches seemed like some kind of joke band. I can't believe so much energy was focused on such talentless idiots. I really couldn't get into the music of the strokes, and Interpol were just dull and boring. Karen O was interesting, but it would be tough to say that you would want to see a whole movie by her, or even listen to a whole album by her band (sorry I never got into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). I've watched a lot of music documentaries, recently, some really interesting and informative and some drivel. This is in the drivel pile. Messy, shambolic, and in cohesive. I guess if maybe you were into the very dull bands that are featured in this Docco, you might get something out of it. But if you're not already an avid fan of these very boring bands, this documentary is not for you.

It was not for me.