Moonage Daydream

Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream is an intoxicating dive into the otherworldly psyche of David Bowie – or more accurately, his various alter egos. Narrated by Bowie himself from audio taken from dozens of interviews and soundbites he’s done over the years, Morgen throws everything but the kitchen sink to visualise Bowie’s rise from gender-bending rock curio to global megastar. Well-curated outtakes from classic Bowie documentaries like Alan Yentob’s Cracked Actor and D. A. Pennebaker’s legendary Ziggie-era concert film rub shoulders with clips from chat show interviews with people like Dick Cavett and ​​Russell Harty, as well as scenes from Bowie’s movies. More expressionistic material is sliced in also, like startling snippets from silent movies (Un Chien Andalou, Nosferatu, Metropolis) and neon-coloured cosmic imagery that wouldn't look out of place on a 90s desktop screensaver.

Moonage Daydream is a feast for the ears too. With rare authority from Bowie’s estate to mine his back-catalogue, Morgan, with the help of Bowie’s regular producer Tony Visconti, curates a brilliant selection of Bowie cuts, some familiar, others pleasingly underplayed but perfectly deployed; the 90s industrial rock banger Hello Spaceboy is particularly well-used. The audio-visual collage is delightfully overwhelming at first, but at over two hours Morgan’s maximalist approach begins to wear out its welcome. Rather than build momentum or undulate with the rise and fall and glorious rise again of Bowie’s career, Moonage Daydream has one speed: turbo overload.

If Morgan had taken a leaf out of this chameleon-like rock star's book, and modulated itself over its hefty runtime, it might have been more successful. As it stands, the film is exhausting, even for this Bowie superfan. The relentless pace robs Moonage Daydream of what should be a shattering emotional climax.  

Moonage Daydream is release by Universal in IMAX on 16 Sep, and on general release from 23 Sep