A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie's creative and musical journey. From visionary filmmaker Brett Morgen, and sanctioned by the Bowie estate.A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie's creative and musical journey. From visionary filmmaker Brett Morgen, and sanctioned by the Bowie estate.A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie's creative and musical journey. From visionary filmmaker Brett Morgen, and sanctioned by the Bowie estate.
- Won 2 Primetime Emmys
- 14 wins & 53 nominations total
David Bowie
- Self
- (archive footage)
Trevor Bolder
- Self
- (archive footage)
Ken Fordham
- Self
- (archive footage)
Mike Garson
- Self
- (archive footage)
John 'Hutch' Hutchinson
- Self
- (archive footage)
Geoff MacCormack
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as Geoffrey MacCormack)
Mick Ronson
- Self
- (archive footage)
Brian Wilshaw
- Self
- (archive footage)
Mick Woodmansey
- Self
- (archive footage)
Carlos Alomar
- Self
- (archive footage)
Gui Andrisano
- Self
- (archive footage)
Ava Cherry
- Self
- (archive footage)
Robin Clark
- Self
- (archive footage)
Dennis Davis
- Self
- (archive footage)
Greg Errico
- Self
- (archive footage)
Herbie Flowers
- Self
- (archive footage)
Richard Grando
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDuncan Jones, David Bowie's BAFTA-winning film director son from his first marriage with Angie Bowie, had toyed with the idea about making an official biographical film about his father. However, he found it difficult to focus on the topic, as he was too close to the subject matter and too emotionally involved to make such a film and would rather concentrate on continuing to make fiction films. However, he did tell his stepmother and Bowie's wife Stardust (2020) that he wouldn't stand in the way of this film, provided that it was respectful, truthful, and she was happy with it.
- ConnectionsFeatures The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Featured review
It was always going to be hard to capture David Bowie's life and career in documentary format, as even the standard, talking head interviews + archive footage in chronological order would fail to capture all the important information in just over two hours. More troubling, however, is the fact that an ordinary documentary wouldn't do justice to who Bowie was/wasn't/might've been. He had an eccentric and still somewhat mysterious life, adopting different personas that all had some relation to his true self, yet never seemed to perfectly reflect it.
This all makes the fairly abstract approach in Moonage Daydream feel mostly appropriate. The only voiceover you get is from archival David Bowie interviews, and even then are they rarely presented in a way most interviews in documentaries are presented. Right near the end, there's a single shot of Bowie looking just over the camera, at the interviewer, and it's such a jarring moment because of how "ordinary" it looks.
Snippets of interviews are instead mixed with concert footage, archive/news footage, shots from music videos, photos, some animation, and clips from films - some of which starred Bowie. The visual style does feel close to relentless, but never becomes exhausting. For as much as I really liked Brett Morgen's Kurt Cobain documentary from 2015, that one was an assault on the senses at times (but likely intentionally so). Moonage Daydream is a little mellower and less in your face, but I think it lacks the hard-hitting emotion of Cobain: Montage of Heck.
For as great as Moonage Daydream is at capturing a good deal of Bowie's music and style, I don't think it's a slam-dunk, and part of that comes from it not making me feel as emotional as I'd expected it would. Maybe that was never the intention, and maybe instead, things were purposefully kept a little abstract. Still, it never went so far as to feel cold or too distant, and it remained engaging at a relatively lengthy 135 minutes (the perfect length; I think any longer and it may have become fatiguing).
I don't think all David Bowie fans will love this, because it doesn't always explain events clearly and spends a good deal of time on some of the less well-known periods of his life. But if you approach it with the knowledge that it's not an "ordinary" documentary the same way your average Bowie album is not an "ordinary" album, you should find a good deal to appreciate and enjoy.
This all makes the fairly abstract approach in Moonage Daydream feel mostly appropriate. The only voiceover you get is from archival David Bowie interviews, and even then are they rarely presented in a way most interviews in documentaries are presented. Right near the end, there's a single shot of Bowie looking just over the camera, at the interviewer, and it's such a jarring moment because of how "ordinary" it looks.
Snippets of interviews are instead mixed with concert footage, archive/news footage, shots from music videos, photos, some animation, and clips from films - some of which starred Bowie. The visual style does feel close to relentless, but never becomes exhausting. For as much as I really liked Brett Morgen's Kurt Cobain documentary from 2015, that one was an assault on the senses at times (but likely intentionally so). Moonage Daydream is a little mellower and less in your face, but I think it lacks the hard-hitting emotion of Cobain: Montage of Heck.
For as great as Moonage Daydream is at capturing a good deal of Bowie's music and style, I don't think it's a slam-dunk, and part of that comes from it not making me feel as emotional as I'd expected it would. Maybe that was never the intention, and maybe instead, things were purposefully kept a little abstract. Still, it never went so far as to feel cold or too distant, and it remained engaging at a relatively lengthy 135 minutes (the perfect length; I think any longer and it may have become fatiguing).
I don't think all David Bowie fans will love this, because it doesn't always explain events clearly and spends a good deal of time on some of the less well-known periods of his life. But if you approach it with the knowledge that it's not an "ordinary" documentary the same way your average Bowie album is not an "ordinary" album, you should find a good deal to appreciate and enjoy.
- Jeremy_Urquhart
- Sep 20, 2022
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,218,925
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,230,145
- Sep 18, 2022
- Gross worldwide
- $13,095,781
- Runtime2 hours 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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