Moonage Daydream

There's much to like here. Visually interesting and it gave me a deeper appreciation of Bowie as a person. Some very sage quotes and sound bites. At one point I felt quite sad and thought Bowie was quite lonely/dissatisfied with life, but then the film ended with some brilliant statements from the man himself.

But. It was a bit of a mess with the story telling. Jumped about quite a bit and I can't help but feel it missed the last 15 years of his life? I also think it was too long and could've been easily less than 2 hours.

Interesting watch but not one I'd go back to. Definitely a one-time experience.

It's more of a series of musical montages than a biopic, really. This seems to be Morgen's shtick at this point. Some montages work better than others and while I didn't find the movie that pretentious, as others have said, some montages were just drawn out too long even if they were pretty cool.

It might have been better to take a more balanced approach where there is more actual information presented about Bowie's life and career (there was some but not enough, IMO). This movie is short on details in that regard; it paints over everything in Bowie's career with a broad brush and goes into very little detail re: how, exactly, his career progressed. The overarching message presented is nice but fairly cliche: embrace life, appreciate each day, live in the present moment, etc. Nevertheless, it will still be enjoyable for those who like Bowie's music.

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.

'Moonage Daydream' is a not-really-documentary about David Bowie, as it doesn't follow the traditional talking heads of friends, family and colleagues. It's also not a concert film, although it does have some live concert footage, apparently much of it previously unseen. Directed by Brett Morgen (who did 'Montage of Heck' about Kurt Cobain and 'Crossfire Hurricane' about The Rolling Stones), it's also not wall-to-wall songs - I'd say there were only ~10 songs played in full, with lots of others used as transitions.

The film does well to show his impact on his fans, with bits and pieces from outside shows and plenty of crowd closeups during the live bits. There's plenty of archival Bowie interviews, much of it overlaid with other visuals of him or with the psychedelic "screensaver"-type CGI. It's edited well, so it feels like he's talking directly to you, rather than an interviewer. Lots of his other art - paintings, video-snippets, dance - edited in too.

It's sort-of chronological, starting in ~'72 and the Ziggy Stardust era, covering up to the early '90s, but some of the interviews jump to an older Bowie, so he can juxtapose himself and some of the comments/views from his younger self. He was certainly a bit of a mystery and for a lot of the film comes across as someone just trying to find his place in the world. Good to see some of his reasoning around certain things and his genius definitely shines through. Hard to believe he's already been gone almost 7 years.

Brett Morgen's 140 minute long Moonage Daydream, is a neon-soaked nonlinear joyride through the late David Bowie's life and career, concentrating on his personal philosophy to life and art, as narrated wholly and solely (to its detriment) by the man himself. Bowie freaks and acolytes will I imagine, bow down before it, declaring it the best thing since sliced bread and vinyl music. I on the other hand, as a fan of his music, found its perspective of the great man and musician to be too narrow and dare I say it, despite some exhilarating sequences, even boring in places.

The documentary which was apparently approved by the Bowie family and estate, was clearly a labour of love for director/producer/editor Morgen, who has assembled some amazing footage of Bowie in and out of concert and has been very creative in its depiction onscreen. But I for one became entirely sick of hearing Bowie drone on endlessly and singularly about his thoughts on time, aging, art (why only painting?) and mortality. Can I make it very clear here that I'm not being critical of Bowie himself. This is entirely criticism of Morgen's interpretive treatment of the dead musician. For all we know, Bowie himself may have been aghast, at being treated in this sort of hyper - reverential manner.

I personally wanted to hear his thoughts on influences arising from his collaborations with a vast array of other musicians and producers. I wanted to at least hear something about how his life may have been affected by his his marriages and his children. For those like me again, who might be interested in his notable side ventures into acting? Nothing ... nothing at all! Morgen portrays him as this incredibly gifted, solitary traveller endlessly (and repetitively) traversing the ends of the earth seeking spiritual and artistic enlightmennt. No one else is invited to the gig. We see some vision of notables and stalwarts such as Mick Ronsen, Brian Eno and second wife Iman (ever so briefly), but we never hear from them. It becomes quite frustrating.

Moonage Daydream is a complicated, monumental paen to a hugely gifted artist, but for all its fine production values and occasional interludes of genuine excitement, I found it oddly one - dimensional and repetitive and ultimately failing to do justice to the man.