New York Dolls: All Dolled Up - ★★
New York Dolls: Lookin' Fine on Television - ★★½

The New York Dolls get the Don't Look Back treatment in All Dolled Up, as husband and wife Nadya Gruen (née Beck) and Bob Gruen edit forty hours of footage they recorded during the original lineup's brief lifespan into a 95-minute documentary sans framing or narration.

I thought Don't Look Back was boring but historically important. All Dolled Up is boring but not historically important. Note that I'm not saying that the band isn't historically important—they very much are—just that this documentary doesn't capture anything historically important beyond the generic importance of footage of an important band and the milieu in which they operated. I'm glad we have it, but I don't really need to see it again.

The documentary will likely be unwatchable for the non-fan or the unfamiliar, who will not be converted to the band's great music by the rough recordings featured here. The hardcore Dolls fan may find it worth a watch once.

Letterboxd is for reviewing the movie, not the DVD, so my rating reflects that. However, the DVD sweetens the pot significantly by including full performances of twelve Dolls songs, some even in decent fidelity. The disc also provides two commentaries for the film, one by vocalist David Johansen and one by guitarist Sylvain Sylvain and co-director Bob Gruen. I haven't listened to the commentaries yet, but I'm willing to bet that the movie is a lot more interesting with either of them playing behind it.

The Gruens made a sequel of sorts with Lookin' Fine on Television, which could justifiably be seen as a ripoff but is probably the more entertaining film.

The Gruens had used their best footage of the Dolls talking or being interviewed in All Dolled Up. Much of that is reused here, and what's new is uninteresting.

The selling point of Lookin' Fine on Television is that, unlike with All Dolled Up (the movie, not the DVD), we get full songs instead of snippets. But we don't get full performances. Rather, the recording of, say, "Looking for a Kiss" is synced to footage of the band performing it on multiple stages.

Whether this is annoying or a good way to see more concert footage is for the viewer to decide. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed Lookin' Fine on Television well enough, but next time I'll likely just watch the performances in the supplements section of the All Dolled Up DVD instead.