Review of New Doc on Johnny Thunders

Johnny Thunders was a rock’n’roll casualty, a junkie who died of an overdose in a sleazy room in New Orleans.  Or at least that’s what we’ve been told.

Thunders was first part of the New York Dolls, the campy and highly influential (but commercially disastrous) New York band that pre-dated CBGB and the whole punk thing.  When they exploded, Thunders carried on as a punk with the Heartbreakers before dying under mysterious circumstances.

This story has been crying out for a documentary treatment for forty years.  Danny Garcia decided that he was the guy to do it.

Looking for Johnny: The Legend of Johnny Thunders is a low-budget affair–that’s a budgetary description, not a value judgement–that follows Thunders (born John Anthony Genzale Jr.) from his youth in Queens to his death in New Orleans.  The Hollywood Reporter takes an early look at the film.