Directed by Brett Morgen
Featuring David Bowie
For one of the greats in modern music history, Moonage Daydream is a terrific testament to the music, the art, and the life of David Bowie. Told in a visually stunning manner and coming mostly from Bowie’s own grounded perspective, this is a worthy documentary that exposes the creative side of the man.
It shows this man who dedicated his life to producing art rather than merely being a consumer of art. The dedication he put into not just his music, but his other artistic ventures (mime, paintings, video art, stage acting) shows a man firmly on that bizarre and hugely rewarding path that monomaniacal creators find themselves on. Although his work outside of his music isn’t anywhere near as revolutionary and incredible as his music, the point of it is to show someone who has an utmost fascination with life and all the art within it. Sure, there’s the occasional boredom and depression for such a life, but those are seen as the two key ingredients to making such incredible art.
It is an immensely impressive display of visual and sound effects that smooth this movie over with a gentle, yet captivating flow. Unlike other doco biopics, it doesn’t have the stop-start feel where it goes linearly over its subject’s life, as if adapting their Wikipedia page. Nor does it get too avant garde and become more about the filmmaker rather than the man himself. Moonage Daydream takes a kaleidoscopic view of Bowie’s life and career, utilising mostly only footage of him (or at least his crying fans) and voice-over coming only from him, making it feel all the more personal, rather than just piecing together hagiographic praise from his collaborators and acquaintances.
It’s a more life-affirming piece of work rather than one dwelling on life’s end, as it doesn’t make much mention of his passing, which also means it criminally doesn’t spend any time showing any of his work on his fantastic last album Blackstar. Director Brett Morgen did great work with the Kurt Cobain doco Montage of Heck, and has now done something similarly great for Bowie, though this time it’s more about just the man himself and not so much on the others around him. Moonage Daydream tries to get not just into the narrative of Bowie’s life, but into the experience.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN
