Pop icon David Bowie is no stranger to the big screen, having racked up a number of impressive roles in an acting career that ran parallel to (and occasionally crossed over with) his musical pursuits. He’s been a vampire for Tony Scott in The Hunger, a Goblin King for Jim Henson in Labyrinth, an alien for Nicolas Roeg in The Man Who Fell to Earth, and even Pontius Pilate for Martin Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ.
But now he’s the subject of an expansive, exhaustive documentary that tries to encompass all things Sane and Stardust. Say wham, bam, thank you, ma’am as Moonage Daydream is playing in cinemas now.
Directed, written, edited and produced by filmmaker Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane), who had unheard-of access to the late Bowie’s personal archives, Moonage Daydream doesn’t mess about with anything so staid as a straight-forward recounting of the facts. Rather, it’s an impressionistic, hallucinatory, musical kaleidoscope, a frantic—and possibly doomed—attempt to capture the mercurial essence of an artist who wore so many different guises over the decades.
We follow Bowie from his early folk period through the glam years of Ziggy Stardust, on through the bleak Berlin period, into the slick ‘80s and beyond, up to his final album, Blackstar, which he released two days before his death in 2016.
The effect is deliciously overwhelming. Our own Rory Doherty said in his review that “…it all feels transcendent”, and for avowed fans of the Thin White Duke, Moonage Daydream is manna from heaven, especially when you take into consideration the wealth of previously unseen candid footage woven through the film. But this isn’t just one for the fans. There’s a David Bowie for everyone, and you can meet them all at your local cinema for the price of a ticket.
