An original, director's take on Bowie's career. There is no voice-over; all the words are from interviews with Bowie himself over the years, or a few selected recordings of Bowie speaking about himself.
There is a little problem with this: Bowie is not the most reliable observer of himself and where he is, psychically, over the decades. Some of it is a little too self-serving; other comments about himself prove to be inaccurate, though they may have been honest comments at the time.
In terms of visuals, I was impressed by the selection, from many concert performances, and other video from his extensive travels, supplemented by a variety of light-show type spacey creations and bits taken from popular culture and some of his acting performances. (Though nothing from "The Man Who Fell to Earth", to me his most relevant one. Perhaps his estate did not want too much of the obvious Bowie-as-Spaceboy meme.)
In terms of the musical selections, mostly OK, though each of us may have had songs they would have liked to see included. For me, those would be "Five Years" and "Outside", both of which I think would have fit. But that's a case of too much richness for one movie, which was already some 150 minutes long. Maybe too long.
There is a little problem with this: Bowie is not the most reliable observer of himself and where he is, psychically, over the decades. Some of it is a little too self-serving; other comments about himself prove to be inaccurate, though they may have been honest comments at the time.
In terms of visuals, I was impressed by the selection, from many concert performances, and other video from his extensive travels, supplemented by a variety of light-show type spacey creations and bits taken from popular culture and some of his acting performances. (Though nothing from "The Man Who Fell to Earth", to me his most relevant one. Perhaps his estate did not want too much of the obvious Bowie-as-Spaceboy meme.)
In terms of the musical selections, mostly OK, though each of us may have had songs they would have liked to see included. For me, those would be "Five Years" and "Outside", both of which I think would have fit. But that's a case of too much richness for one movie, which was already some 150 minutes long. Maybe too long.