Written by Emilio Garcia Islas
If you are looking for a detailed account of David Bowie’s life and chronology, don’t bother watching this movie. That being said, if you are looking to understand Bowie as an artist, to live and breathe his philosophies, to be entranced by a melodic cacophony of his best music, to experience his pure energy transformed into film, then you are where you need to be.
Brett Morgens’s “Moonage Daydream” is an ambitious homage to one of music’s greatest stars ever. The movie does not follow the traditional model that most musical documentaries follow, deliberately omitting any reference to facts and dates about Bowie’s life. Instead, it feels more like an experimental film, splicing and cutting between a wide range of archival footage of Bowie, including concert footage, interviews, movie roles, and personal footage. From over 5 million hours of footage to pick from, Morgen edited a masterful montage of some of Bowie’s best moments, accompanied by a soundtrack of songs from his discography, with no specific order, other than to set the mood for the images shown on screen. The effect is nothing short of an overwhelming explosion of raw artistic expression.
At its essence, the movie is about expression and all the different avenues of it that Bowie explored. There wasn’t a singular emphasis on his musical work. Rather, Morgen included footage of Bowie’s additional artistic work, such as his paintings, which Bowie describes in the film as deeply personal. Throughout this, we hear Bowie explain his artistic process and philosophies, allowing us to peer into his genius, along with his sentiments. From his style, his onstage personas, and even his attitudes toward love and life, all of them are explored solely from Bowie’s own perspective. Whether through voice-over or interview footage, Bowie becomes the unique voice of the movie, making the film resemble more of an autobiography than anything else. The personal feeling this gives the movie only elevates it, showing true sensibility from the filmmakers.
There isn’t a single second in the movie where it lets up. It is a constant, free-flowing visual and audio trip that invites you to be washed over by it and lose yourself in it. Take this invitation with joy and you will be rewarded with an experience unlike anything you’ve lived through before.
