"Moonage Daydream" Film Review

A cinematic David Bowie experience that proved he was more than just a rockstar. As a big Bowie fan, I had high hopes for Moonage Daydream, a documentary-slash-art-piece directed by Brett Morgan. This isn’t a simple picture-show of music videos and talking heads: it’s a constant cacophony of sight, colour, and sound, a dramatic representation of his influences, his work, and his inspirations, punctuated only by his voice: all Bowie, all the time. 

It quickly became clear this was about far more than his music. Morgan was clearly not afraid to face David’s views on art, life, and philosophy, with his painting a key feature as much as his music. The abstract art approach – throwing classic cinema and bombastic colour explosions together to peer into David’s psyche - may leave casual viewers cold. For fans, it’ll be akin to literal heaven. The film is also interspersed with concert footage, some extremely rare; the well-documented footage from Ziggy’s Last Show at Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 was saved from being over-familiar by the never-seen-before rousing take on Jean Genie featuring guitar hero Jeff Beck. Though the film suffered at points with low-quality footage lifted from TV broadcasts, it made the pristine moments very special. One Ziggy moment took my breath away – a low-angle shot that felt like you were front-row. It made perfect sense why Morgan had relied so much on frantic teenage audiences – in that very moment Bowie was an alien, with unknowable sensual power. 

So much of the film works on just how picturesque he looked; all through his years he was a simply irresistible presence. The music selection was full of surprises. It was very welcome how Morgan had delved into deeper cuts to tell the story: It goes to show how incredible David’s life was that, despite its two-and-a-half runtime, you couldn’t fit everything in. One of my favourite moments was where Future Legend transitioned into Cracked Actor and not Diamond Dogs as it did on the original record: it perfectly suited the chaos and disorder Bowie was attracted to, and the guitar crunch was so exhilarating. The editing is excellently scattershot; like his career, it often races past at many beats a minute, and then settles on a slow, mindful shot. The shaky, anxious piano on the end of Aladdin Sane was also perfectly set to quotes of David losing faith in fame, and the sweet, sensitive first piano keys of Word on A Wing sounded so right at a pivotal moment in his relationships. 

Do not wait until this film is on DVD or streaming sites – go and see it in the cinema! When so many films these days appear to have been produced with a wandering eye on Netflix, Moonage Daydream is outrightly cinematic. The wide shot of hundreds of smiling Bowie fans descending Earls Court, set to his most optimistic song, “Heroes”, is one that will stay with you. In their faces, you can see everything he meant to his fans. How lucky they all were to see him! And how lucky we are to have had him.