Moonage Daydream

Epic and opulent like the man's life and career, "Moonage Daydream" splashes a kaleidoscope of sounds and colors celebrating David Bowie's legacy. Eschewing the traditional chronological narrative director Brett Morgen with excellent editing paints a collage of images and music using live gigs, music videos and interviews throughout Bowie's time in the limelight ornamenting them with clips from films and acted scenes. Bowie comes across as handsome, intelligent and articulate as he expresses himself conveying his one of a kind talent. I would have preferred a traditional kind of documentary to set the basics on what made Bowie great. The loose style of the film barely reveals the man's importance except for fans. Clocking in at over two hours long the way the film is made leads to tediousness and slow parts which does this fascinating and eclectic artist a disservice. No surprise the great music buoys this up from start to finish. Timely and a fitting tribute "Moonage Daydream" is one for fans and to those who want to know why back in the day Rock was everything.

I really wanted to love this encapsulation of what was an extraordinary life of one of the most extraordinary artists to have graced the planet.

Though I entered the cinema prepared for Brett Morgan's unique style, and I appreciate the want of something a bit different, ultimately Bowie's brilliance and epic catalogue of songs held the film together. As other reviewers have noted, the constant musical and visual embellishments became an overworn and unnecessary distraction. It was as if Morgan harboured a misguided notion he needed to match his subject's artistry - a nigh impossible task. Only when Bowie was granted some unfiltered air to properly illustrate his talent and most profound thoughts did the movie fulfil its promise.

The other bone of contention was the chunks of Bowie's life and career all but overlooked. Young Americans and his unexpected soul departure was one of Bowie's greatest ch-ch-changes. LA wasn't just milk and coke. And whilst the 1990's and early 2000's may not have been golden years relatively speaking in terms of hits, this under appreciated creative period followed by the health related disappearing act and later the shock comeback, warranted more than a few snippets. As did the many interviews which demonstrated Bowie's wit and humour. Meanwhile, a false narrative has first wife Angie and son Duncan expunged from existence. But I guess all that would have dragged an already overlong production beyond the 3 hour mark.

Perhaps if you're a marginal fan, or a tragic like myself, Moonage Daydream is more likely to fall short than if you're somewhere in the middle.

Saw this in IMAX 2d. Loud, vivid, it's not a biography, it's an exploration and celebration of Bowie's life, art, and music. Made up of clips cleverly edited together and enhanced to make this a cinematic experience . See it as big and loud as you can and get lost in Bowie. It needs to be three hours longer to fit in everything the stuff others are moaning about not being there. I'd happily have done another 3 hours of this. Came out wanting to listen to all the album's again and smoke cigarettes and bleach my hair and wear a raincoat. Everything i wanted to be in the eighties, I want again after watching Bowie come to life once more.

It was always going to be hard to capture David Bowie's life and career in documentary format, as even the standard, talking head interviews + archive footage in chronological order would fail to capture all the important information in just over two hours. More troubling, however, is the fact that an ordinary documentary wouldn't do justice to who Bowie was/wasn't/might've been. He had an eccentric and still somewhat mysterious life, adopting different personas that all had some relation to his true self, yet never seemed to perfectly reflect it.

This all makes the fairly abstract approach in Moonage Daydream feel mostly appropriate. The only voiceover you get is from archival David Bowie interviews, and even then are they rarely presented in a way most interviews in documentaries are presented. Right near the end, there's a single shot of Bowie looking just over the camera, at the interviewer, and it's such a jarring moment because of how "ordinary" it looks.

Snippets of interviews are instead mixed with concert footage, archive/news footage, shots from music videos, photos, some animation, and clips from films - some of which starred Bowie. The visual style does feel close to relentless, but never becomes exhausting. For as much as I really liked Brett Morgen's Kurt Cobain documentary from 2015, that one was an assault on the senses at times (but likely intentionally so). Moonage Daydream is a little mellower and less in your face, but I think it lacks the hard-hitting emotion of Cobain: Montage of Heck.

For as great as Moonage Daydream is at capturing a good deal of Bowie's music and style, I don't think it's a slam-dunk, and part of that comes from it not making me feel as emotional as I'd expected it would. Maybe that was never the intention, and maybe instead, things were purposefully kept a little abstract. Still, it never went so far as to feel cold or too distant, and it remained engaging at a relatively lengthy 135 minutes (the perfect length; I think any longer and it may have become fatiguing).

I don't think all David Bowie fans will love this, because it doesn't always explain events clearly and spends a good deal of time on some of the less well-known periods of his life. But if you approach it with the knowledge that it's not an "ordinary" documentary the same way your average Bowie album is not an "ordinary" album, you should find a good deal to appreciate and enjoy.

David Bowie Moonage Daydream. 2hours 18 mins of Bowie, it's not your usual " talking heads" bigging up some old/ dead/ has been rock star who has a reissued album to flog. It's just Bowie, well it isn't? It's a beautifully compiled fast edited montage of Bowie, his music, visuals, interviews both on screen on audio and various clips of his many many influences. What I learnt about Bowie, he was constantly striving for his art, he was some times lost (mainly during his successful periods) and like all of us he wished could have more time towards the end. Most importantly he was really happy at the end of his life both emotionally, creatively and spiritually. There are loads of previously unseen clips and lots of unheard mixes of songs. Ps I love Bowie, 1980 I bought my first Bowie album on the day of its release (Scary Monsters) and I never looked back. If your not a fan I don't know how you'd take it, it's a fascinating work of art and totally enthralling so I'd give it 10/10 if your not a fan give it a watch and perhaps you'll see why people where heart broken when he passed away. Listen out for "Cygnet committee" there's a lovely choral version at the end, and watch until the end of the credits, David will speak just to you.