As a huge Bowie fan I really wanted to like this.
Unfortunately the movie is quite flawed:
As a Bowie fan I appreciate that a story is not always linear, and I appreciate artistic & weird movies too. But this one felt too much like a lazily put together collage of footage that was most easily found.
Unfortunately the movie is quite flawed:
- asynchronous storyline or not? Footage from different eras are mixed throughout the movie, but the director is also trying to tell a story of different periods.
- focus on only 3 periods only. The 3 periods in the storyline are basically Ziggy/ Aladin Sane, Berlin & Commercial 80's. Nothing about pre-Ziggy, soul period (young Americans), or after '85 (1.outside, tin Machine, hours, reality/heathen, the quiet period after heart attack that nobody really knows anything about, or comeback/ next Day/ Blackstar/ death. The movie is 2,5 hours long, so you would expect some more attention to the lesser known work & periods.
- doubling footage. Some footage shown multiple times, like the elevators in Japan. Why? Is there not more different footage available?
- lack of new footage: many scenes already shown in multiple Bowie documentaries, e.g. Amstel Hotel and the interview with the English bloke. Again; is there really nothing new of less known to find about one of the most famous guys of the last decades?
- footage of influences. A lot of footage of movies Bowie apparently liked, like Voyage to the Moon, Nosferatu, Metropolis. However without source or any explanation or even context and in overabundance.
As a Bowie fan I appreciate that a story is not always linear, and I appreciate artistic & weird movies too. But this one felt too much like a lazily put together collage of footage that was most easily found.