If These Walls Could Rock is a brisk documentary about the legendary Sunset Marquis hotel which was the scene of massive parties and debauchery committed by and reminisced about by a parade of stars including Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Dave Grohl, Simon Le Bon, Roger Daltrey, Billy Gibbons, Nancy Wilson, Gene Simmons, Sheryl Crow, Cyndi Lauper, Slash, Richard Marx, and even Morrissey, who is interviewed in bed with a huge poster of X-Ray Spex signer Poly Styrene next to him.
Running parallel to the rock star antics is the relationship between the founder and builder of the Marquis, George Rosenthal, who opened it in 1963 in the area of the Playboy Club, right as rock & roll became the dominant cultural force, and his son Mark, whose nickname of Marky provided the hotel's name. Because George was both domineering yet inattentive, the hotel became increasingly run down in the Eighties and Nineties, but rockers who sought other accommodations in town often found their antics not appreciated like they were tolerated at the Marquis.
The hotel's general manager also relates how Green Day repeated got banned from the place only to come back a day after the ban's expiration to trash something else, earning another ban, rinse, repeat. While some of the stories are amusing like Keith Richards sauntering by the pool in a Speedo with a pack of smokes and a knife tucked in while holding a pina colada and a beer in both hands, a some of them are just dumb excesses.
As the place evolved, many stars set up residence there including the self-proclaimed Unofficial Mayor of the Sunset Marquis, Billy Bob Thornton, who tells of having sex on an outdoor stairs while a famous actor and his actress wife passed by and that he'll stay there for months despite having a 13,000+ sq. ft. home nearby.
The pace begins to lag in the last third as people clean up their acts and the clientele changes, but over 60 years later the Marquis is still absorbing stories within its walls.
Score: 7/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.
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