Moonage Daydream looks at the life and work of the late David Bowie, but not through the lens of traditional filmmaking.
Director Brett Morgen (Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane) made it clear this is by no means meant to be the definitive Bowie film.
"I didn't think it's my job or anyone's job to make the definitive Bowie film because I think Bowie can't be defined."
Since the singer's passing in 2016, this is the first film on Bowie to be sanctioned by his estate, allowing full access to the archives.
The executor of Bowie's estate only gave one piece of advice to Morgen,
"Understand that this will never be David Bowie on David Bowie. David is not here to approve or improve the film. This will be Brett Morgen on David Bowie and we ask that you embrace that."
The final product shows that Morgen certainly did embrace this challenge. This film is a portrait of an artist by a filmmaker. This is not the film to tell you about Bowie's rise to fame or his struggles at the top, this is a collage of sound and vision.
Peppered throughout are clips and soundbites from various interviews with Bowie as well as previously unseen footage shot by the artist himself.
Morgen describes, "for all the shapeshifting ch-ch-ch-changes, [he] was actually rather consistent in the themes he was interested in discussing and exploring, so there was actually a tremendous amount of continuity".
The through line is life. Bowie loved life, he said so in many interviews. In the film he states that everyone wishes they'd appreciated life a little more. He made it his goal to make sure he appreciated life while he was here.
As far as the movie goes, it's worth pointing out that it is two and a half hours long, and with no real narrative to speak of it doesn't flow like a regular film.
These are not criticisms by any means, but it's worth knowing what to expect.
Frankly the film is a must-see for Bowie fans and may even convert non-Bowie fans (if there are any). A visual spectacle, you want to see it on the biggest screen if possible.
I wish I could've seen this film in a planetarium or on VR, I wanted my entire field of vision to be this masterpiece of sight and sound.
If you're not in Auckland to see this on IMAX, watch it on the biggest screen it's playing on near you and sit in the front row.
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