Meet Me In The Bathroom
Welcome to Breakout, the MASSIVE scheme sending 12 first-time writers to London Film Festival to write their debut professional film reviews. For the 12 days following the 12 days of the festival, we’ll be publishing the writing of our chosen stars to celebrate cinema at its finest and introduce you to the next generation’s most promising new critics.
Next up, Cath Badcock reviews Meet Me in the Bathroom.
The ability to evoke such extreme nostalgia for not only a specific time and place, but also the feeling of it all in Meet Me in the Bathroom is commendable – from tiny, sweaty venues, to the fear of losing everything, to musical gentrification. It’s a time capsule, with one of the film’s most alluring aspects being that it consists solely of archive footage and doesn’t refer to the present day. Almost mimicking the music scene at the time, it exists in its own bubble – just one where The Strokes have only just been signed and James Murphy is still too scared to sing in front of a crowd.
You can ask anyone about the music explosion in New York in the early ‘00s and they’ll vividly recall the parties, the drugs and the crowds. What Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern show in this film is that the people behind these iconic bands (The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Moldy Peaches) were once just kids with the same rockstar dreams who just so happened to find each other on the cusp of both the new millennium and 9/11, where life was fragile and they needed something to believe in – a new home.
The film does its best to shed light on topics such as addiction, jealousy and piracy, giving a generous amount of time to stories of Albert Hammond Jr. 's substance abuse and how the rise of the internet (most notably Napster) impacted the music scene at the time. However, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs gives the film its highlight, speaking earnestly about the harsh juxtaposition of the isolation she experienced as a half-white, half-Korean musician at the time, all whilst being objectified as a woman by the same people – particularly portrayed with an image shown of a photographer shamelessly trying to upskirt her as she performs on stage.
The film is excellently paced and packed with an impressive backlog of intimate footage. It feels genuinely heartwarming to see these artists grow and begin sculpting this incredible capsule of music history. It’s partly by learning to rely less on chaos and shock value, but mostly through these once in a lifetime friendships that allowed them the mutual support to lean into their passions and grow together as artists. Or better yet: rockstars.
Cath Badcock is an upcoming critic based in London. She is a recent Raindance Film School graduate and hopes to write about more films in the future, with a keen interest in new talent across a variety of genres. Her favourite film is Brick and she loves Gregg Araki.
The UK release date for Meet Me in the Bathroom is yet to be confirmed. Check back here for more Breakout reviews.