Check out of Hotel Chelsea

    The Hotel Chelsea is a well-known hangout and residence for artists, film-makers, musicians and writers in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Celebrities — Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas among them — lived in the hotel for extended periods of time, and Arthur C. Clarke wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) while staying in the hotel. The Chelsea's walls have been decorated with art by painters who passed through.
    The documentary "Chelsea on the Rocks" explores the hotel's bohemian history. Although individual scenes are powerful, the overall message of the documentary is unclear and ambiguous. As a result, the audience is not sure what to take away from the film — is it simply a description of the hedonistic lifestyle in Hotel Chelsea, or is there a deeper message? If the film is trying to convey some profound significance, it is obscured by seemingly irreverent interviews and confusing direction.
    In the film, director Abel Ferrara interviews a collection of  individuals about their experiences in the Hotel Chelsea. He uses unorthodox interviewing methods, and his voice is often heard off-screen during the interviews, inserting strings of curses and exclamations. The camera crew is constantly stepping in and out of shots, and none of the interviewees are identified, leaving the viewer to guess who was speaking merely by the context. For those who grew up in the '60s and '70s, this guessing game might be a manageable task. For college students less familiar with the time period, it's next to impossible.
    Some of the interviewees appear high, drunk or both. They ramble on and on, with pauses and hesitations, and what they say ultimately doesn't amount to much. None of it is cohesive, and ultimately this lack of connection combines with the absence of any substantial statements to make the film's focus very difficult to care about.
    One woman talks about getting high and listening to the same song for four whole days. "Things weren't connecting," she says of an inability to articulate her thoughts while under the influence. Another man describes having a brain hemorrhage while lifting weights. "[I could hear] the sounds of my brain burning down," he remembers. He collapsed on the floor and stayed there for three days.
    A colorful old woman talks about string theory and the 5th dimension, but no one takes her seriously in the hotel. Some of the stories that the interviewees tell are excessive and unbelievable. One man recounts that Sid Vicious drank a quart of vodka, shot up heroin and became unconcious.
    The documentary makes use of unsteady shots on hotel room numbers and hallways, and with its aimless interviews and disjointed episodes, it feels like a home video. The movie goes from a strange reenactment of the death of Nancy Spungen (Sid Vicious' girlfriend) to an interview with an old man who reminisces about smoking joints and passing out. The film seems as disconnected as the experiences of the drugged residents themselves.
    About 20 minutes into the documentary, Ferrara attempts to bring in the supernatural. An entire scene is devoted to residents' stories of creaking floors and strange presences at night. All the while, ghost dogs run around on screen. The effect of this scene is more strange and confusing than scary or poignant.
    One interviewee said, "People don't check in; they float in." Floating accurately describes "Chelsea on the Rocks," since it never clearly follows one path. The film is unformed, nostalgic and rough, and it would only work if it had some sort of underlying message.