"Moonage Daydream" -- Movie Review

 

This week at Lincoln Center, I attended an advance screening of the new documentary, “Moonage Daydream”. 

Synopsis

A documentary celebrating the career of rock legend David Bowie.

Story

David Bowie’s fans are certainly ardent – although they have primarily followed him through his music career, they are loyal to his other creative endeavors such as acting and painting.  Bowie’s transition to acting seemed rather natural, not just because of his wide-ranging creativity, but because in his live concerts, he was something of a performance artist, portraying such characters as Ziggy Stardust.  What’s revealed in some of his interviews is that he had a very specific reason for doing this:  he wanted to hide behind those characters because he was afraid of revealing his true self to the public.    

Although Bowie enjoyed painting, he never felt a need to have a showing of his work.  On a couple of occasions, galleries reached out to him to offer to display his art in their space; both times, he initially agreed, but ultimately backed out at the last minute.  Bowie’s androgyny was somewhat controversial at the time, but he didn’t care; he took some pleasure out of shocking or surprising people.  He was also quite open about his sexuality, admitting to being bisexual; however, he didn’t seem particularly interested in having serious relationships because they were distracting.  Later in life, he apparently changed his mind because he married the model Iman. 

Bowie’s acting initiatives included both stage and screen; perhaps his most notable role in live theater was on Broadway, where he performed the title role of The Elephant Man.  Most of his acting work, however, was on film.  Also, he often appeared in music videos of his songs, especially in later years when that became a popular way for musicians to market their latest work.  On television, arguably his most notable appearance came on a holiday special hosted by crooner Bing Crosby, where they sang Christmas carols.  Less notable was a soft drink commercial where he danced with Tina Turner.   

Review

This past May, “Moonage Daydream” played at the Cannes Film Festival where it was extremely well received.  If you are a hardcore fan of the late David Bowie, then “Moonage Daydream” will likely be a must-see.  If you are too young to remember Bowie, then you’ll likely take a pass on this one.  But what if you are a casual fan of his?  It is understandable that you would be interested in seeing it, but be advised that it can be a little bit hard to take for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that at two and a quarter hours, it rambles on far too long.  Only the Bowie-obsessed would be willing to sit still for this length. 

This loose and barely-structured (that may be unnecessarily generous) documentary is interspersed with footage of both live concert performances and television interviews.  This is perfectly fine; however, where things tend to go awry is when the filmmaker also includes unnecessary and unwelcomed cutaways to short clips from other unrelated films which not only comes across as a series of non-sequiturs but at times, even an assault to the senses.  Another problem with this attempt at a documentary is that the “story” of David Bowie does not appear to be told in chronological order; this is too bad, especially considering the interesting information he discloses about his family life and in particular, his older half-brother.      

Following the screening, there was an interview with the director, Brett Morgen.  Morgen met Bowie in 2007 and proposed a non-fiction project but by that time, the musician was in semi-retirement, so the project was never done.  A year after Bowie died in 2016, Morgen had a serious heart attack and went into a coma; when he recovered, he became determined to produce a documentary about Bowie.  He contacted the estate and was allowed to view their collection of media.  Over a period of two years, Morgan spent 14 hour days screening footage six days a week.  By the time he had a rough cut, the pandemic hit and that slowed things down considerably.