Moonage Daydream Reviews

Director Brett Morgen's Moonage Daydream follows English superstar David Bowie. In this unconventional documentary, Morgen presents Bowie in a way that looks like it was extracted directly from the late rock star's mind. This movie is more of a work of modern art than it is a documentary; Bowie's life is shown in flashes of his essence, spanning his 54-year career as a musician, actor, painter, and all-around artist. Moonage Daydream paints the portrait of David Bowie's life without resorting to talking heads telling it themselves. What makes this so special is that Morgen is able to make a cohesive story of Bowie without a tangible throughline or narrative. Instead, what he does is focus on the themes of the artist. Starting early in his career with his Ziggy Stardust phase, viewers are introduced to the artist from London, showing how metaphorically loud and flamboyant his entrance to the main stage was. For the time, he would perform in provocative clothing, wear makeup, and dance seductively on stage while performing his earlier works. Later on in the film, viewers see how themes of loneliness and isolation come to the forefront, affecting his music and artistry. It is all tied together with Bowie finding a sense of self and fullness and how this influenced later works. In the end, this documentary feels like a Rorschach Test, and a captivating one at that, letting its viewers take away what they want. While watching Moonage Daydream, viewers may sense a feeling like one is looking into someone else's dream, peering into someone's sleeping mind and seeing how he copes with his life and troubles. Brett Morgen takes a big swing in how to interpret Bowie's life in this on-screen art installation. He chooses to make it as dream-like as possible, telling a story that moves ever so gradually toward its end point through old concert footage, interviews, home video, recordings of plays, music videos, and Bowie's own recordings of himself painting. While many people have grown accustomed to the documentary style of a narrator and interviewees, Morgen throws these conventions out of the window. His reliance on the raw source materials to tell the story is such a wonder. He is able to keep viewers engaged with this huge spectacle coupled with Bowie's original music by distilling Bowie down to his aura and essence giving the viewers the purest form of his artistry. This lets the footage breathe; it also lets the audience see Bowie when he is not performing and how he his feeling. While not nearly as extravagant, these moments may remind some of D.A. Pennebaker's seminal Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back. Moonage Daydream is experimental as far as documentaries go and is much more of an art piece that could belong in a modern art museum. It also takes viewers into David Bowie's deepest thoughts and how he handled his career. This immersive experience is best on the big screen to see it for all that it is: more than merely a run of the mill rock documentary.