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Moonage Daydream - (2022)
With the pandemic far behind me, and something really worth seeing on the big screen, I ventured forward today and saw my first post-pandemic film in a cinema.
Moonage Daydream elevates the David Bowie mythology to almost God-like status, but grounds it by allowing us a sense of the human behind all of the masks. It does this with wonderful use of his catalogue of songs, and rarely makes the mistake of allowing itself to be too stereotypical or hackneyed. Brett Morgen has obviously spent time, and a great deal of care assembling footage from the man's life, interviews, concert footage, films, plays and television appearances - not to mention music videos. In between there's a sense of the cosmic, but it never becomes overly lost in it's own gaze. Our search for the meaning of life in what feels like the film's first few moments made me afraid this was some deification - but instead it turned into a full-on celebration of David Bowie's music, art and life. It was a visual wonderland, and a rock 'n' roll journey using the best music you'll hear blast you through an entire film. Best cinematic experience since
Hereditary.
9/10
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Stardust - (2020)
And then, at the other side of the Bowie spectrum, there's this little "gem".
Stardust is one of two movies (the other was about Jackie Onassis - well able to sue) that disavow themselves right at the start - claiming to be "fiction", it takes place during Bowie's first trip to America, where's he's basically ignored, belittled and manages to embarrass himself over and over again. In
Stardust he's clueless, insecure, weak, pathetic, henpecked and afraid of going mad. His new record, 'The Man Who Sold the World' isn't selling and he takes a road trip with publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron) across the States where he gradually picks up all the ideas he'll use for the creation of Ziggy Stardust. By the triumphant end, you'll wonder what's going on, because the film was not allowed to use one single Bowie song. Johnny Flynn plays Bowie as some kind of simpering queen - he doesn't sound much like him, and when he squeaks out an occasional cover everything really comes crashing down. This film is a complete disaster - and for fans of the musician it won't go down well. I can't say all I want to say about it without going on for far too long, so I'll do a whole review one day down the track.
2/10