I was born and raised Mormon, but I've been an atheist for the past 12 years. My parents have been in mourning since I told them. When your parents are devout and you're not, it's hard for them to ever, ever talk to you about anything besides When You're Going to Wake Up and Go Back to Church.
My mother is particularly zealous on this front. We have so little in common anymore... It's like we speak different languages. If you met my mom you'd have a hard time believing we're even related. She's Shirley, I'm Britta, and we're both pretty convinced the other is doing life wrong.
She brought
New York Doll to me in 2006. "We're going to watch this together." Picture a more pure version of Doris Day handing you a documentary about a member of one of the most infamous glam-punk rock bands of all time-- What would you do?
My defenses went up. It had to be a trap. But she'd made cookies, and... I like cookies.
So we watched it together. I expected a glib, one-dimensional, heavily Edited-for-Truth-According-to-Mormonism movie. Instead, I saw a beautiful portrait of one man's life, warts and all, and I loved it.
I don't hear this movie discussed much, and although it received critical kudos here and there I wonder how many people have heard of it. Don't hesitate to give it a try if you get the chance.
I'm still an atheist, Mom's still a Mormon, but
New York Doll gets two thumbs up from two people who won't ever, ever agree on anything else.