To capture the full scope of the life and work of David Bowie, a regular documentary simply won’t do. In his five-decade career, Bowie slipstreamed through musical styles, fashions, characters, and images of sexuality, fame, success, and failure. A “here’s what happened next” documentary would never do the man justice even if it were many hours long.
Now there's a movie that does him justice: MOONAGE DAYDREAM. Brett Morgen does not draw a chronological line through Bowie's life. Just as Bowie did in his own career, the movie presents an impressionistic portrait of a man and an artist, and in doing so it stands as perhaps the most David Bowie documentary we can imagine. There are no talking heads explaining why Bowie was great; there's just Bowie.
With the full support of Bowie's estate, dozens of his songs, and footage no one in the public has ever seen, MOONAGE DAYDREAM is the definitive David Bowie movie.
Freak Out, Far Out
The last thing anyone needs from a David Bowie movie is for the man to be made more approachable, or even worse, more normal. His entire appeal was based around being something "other" — the spaceman, for a beginning — and it would be almost cruel to strip his persona down to something prosaic.
Look at the trailer just above for Moonage daydream, and you will see that Brent Morgan has not made that mistake. Look at the trailer just above for Moonage daydream, and you will see that Brett Morgen has not made that mistake.
Which is not to say that Bowie is somehow up above it all. He was keenly aware of the value of life and the limits of time — which might be one of the reasons his work attempted in some ways to transcend temporal limits. Even when he adopted the persona of an alien, he was an alien walking among us, trying to live the same sort of life as the people around him.
A Deep Dive for Fans
There's always the question of whether or not a documentary such as this one can be as effective for newcomers as for fans. It's more complicated with a figure like Bowie, who has been so thoroughly documented in all media. (A movie like THE SPARKS BROTHERS, meanwhile, has an easier time because even super-fans haven't had access to most of the stories and footage within. Which isn't to say that Edgar Wright's documentary was easy to make.)
And so, yes, MOONAGE DAYDREAM may be more suited for the hardcore fan than the casual listener. It embraces the singer's life and music but also goes deep into his ideas about art, commerce, and image. This one isn't just about jamming out to your favorite songs.
This movie "is about feeling your way through a chaotic world with Ziggy Stardust as your anchor," says IndieWire, or, in The Guardian's words, a "shapeshifting epiphany-slash-freakout." Descriptions of the film from its Cannes premiere, where it played in the Midnight section — traditionally the home of horror and other genres, if that helps set expectations — paint it as a documentary that fulfills the note printed on the back of Bowie's album "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars:" TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME.
We wouldn't want it to be any other way.
MOONAGE DAYDREAM opens on September 16.
All images courtesy of NEON.