Moonage Daydream

This loyal coverage of the Bowie legend begins with the voice of the man himself over a whack of white text on black, musing on the apparent 'death of God'. It's a fairly ambitious way to kick off but director Brett Morgen isn't have a bob each way here. It must have been a thankless task deciding on the format and style for this doco (ok, maybe not style, as that kind of speaks for itself with Bowie). There are amazing concert snatches peppered through the film and the opening number - All the Young Dudes - from an early gig is stupendous. Sound and Vision, from his Berlin sojourn, was brilliantly cut to painterly dobs, like a Kandinsky composition, and Heroes was spine tinglingly fine.

But...returning to the format, I think this is where it dips out. The film is a long 2 and a quarter hours, by long, I mean it felt like a lot longer. Morgen attempts to use as much Bowie narration and gig footage as possible and neglects any other viewpoint or angle that may have opened the film up a bit - for example, there's no mention of his first wife or children, and nothing about his work with other artists (Queen, Jagger, Iggy Pop, etc). Sure, this film isn't meant to do anything else than show us the master showman in all his glory, and there's no disputing that it does that in spades. There are also a smattering of shots of Bowie on the wander and a couple of interviews but the segments are telegraphed and I found myself willing each one to be the last. THIS SHOULDN'T BE THE CASE WITH DAVID BOWIE. 

Now, I'd say I'm probably a mid-level fan, I like most of what he's done (and some of his stuff is excellent), but I wouldn't say I'm a completist or anything. So how does this film sit with the hardcore fans, I wonder? The filmmakers had permission from Bowie's estate and so clearly wanted Moonage Daydream to be his visual legacy. Job done on that front, it just doesn't quite work as an engaging biopic of a legendary musician. There must have been hundreds of hours of footage to choose from and so some obviously tough decisions on what to leave out. Another issue is the editing. This come across as an editor's 'death by a million cuts' - it's sliced to fucking distraction. As a counterpoint, another musical bio, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, has a multitude of shots but this raises them by the power of Greyskull.

Perhaps it's the choice of director. Morgen has some experience with docos (he made the excellent The Kid Stays in the Picture) but I reckon someone like Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy, Diego Maradona) or Julien Temple (the MacGowan doco, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) would have handled this with more zest -  a film, rather than a record of an important life. It's not a failure by any means, I just wish it gave Bowie the filmic send off he deserved.

Moonage Daydream opens in cinemas on Sep 15th.

See also:

A couple of top quality musician docos have played at Rev in recent years. Temple's Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020) and Michael Cumming's King Rocker (2020) are just two examples.

PROBABLY SPOILERS IN POD...

(Film stills and trailer ©Universal, 2022)