JosiahSilas

This felt like the kind of movie a man child who plays COD 16 hours a day would make.

"But" you might be thinking "sometimes I just want some dumb fun action." Fair enough. This ain't it. It's just dumb. And dull. Zack Snyder is at it again celebrating violence and masculinity and he's going to make it everyone's problem. There is no joy or depth or humor, which was especially a waste of Garret Dillahunt. I guess watch it if you hate yourself and have no taste.

Listening to Amy's music, it's easy to forget just how young she was. At a time when Gwen Stefani and Kelly Clarkson were topping the charts, her voice seemed to be broadcast to us from a generation that our parents or grandparents might have recognized. But Amy was just a kid before fame was thrust upon her and had its way with her. The movie begins in the year 2001, when she was just 17 and her manager, Nick Shymansky, was 19. Over the next decade, we watch fame consume someone who clearly never wanted it and does not have the maturity or emotional support to cope with it. Under the weight of rapidly increasing attention and expectations, early red flags of her substance abuse and eating disorders go unnoticed. By the time they become life-threatening, celebrity culture completes its cycle of creation and destruction, happy to make lazy quips about her downward spiral playing out on a public stage.

Her impending and premature death loom over this entire film. About an hour in, each new scene feels like it could be the conclusion to this heartbreaking biography. In a small way, it captures the anxiety of having a loved one in recovery and never knowing when you're going to get that call.

The fact that there is no happy ending to this story makes it a difficult movie to watch, but you also get immersed in what a rare personality and talent she really was. I did not realize how much I had missed her.

I had just finished reading "On Bowie" by Rob Sheffield, which was a touching a passionate tribute to the late singer. I thought that this documentary would be the perfect follow-up, providing a clear portrait of the man's life, art, and personality set against the social climate of the decades that saw his rise in popularity.

It absolutely wasn't. It was a directionless mess, with the sort of obnoxious narration and editing one might expect from a celebrity news program - phony, superficial, and without a clear vision or narrative driving it. You see the same pictures over and over again, the same interviews are sampled. It's an exercise in monotony.

You could easily complain about who wasn't interviewed for this documentary, but more egregious is the fact that the film couldn't even secure the rights to Bowie's music. Can you imagine a Jimi Hendrix movie that didn't feature his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner? Or a Prince movie where we don't hear "Kiss"?

And yet this movie references "Space Oddity" and "Fame" without a single note of these iconic songs. No clips of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", "Labyrinth", or any of his music videos. There is footage of his live performances with the audio removed because who wants to watch a movie about a singer and actually hear them sing?

This is a crass and tasteless movie that was clearly cobbled together after Bowie's death in an attempt to exploit his grieving fans. He deserved better. His fans deserve better.