Velvet Goldmine

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In the song "Changes", David Bowie sings "Turn and face the strange...". Well, I got to admit, this movie does make you face the strange. This is one of the best movies I ever saw in my life. It's artistic, graphic, and very creative in so many ways. It was confusing one point to another, and can be hard to catch up with if you lose track of the movie (which I did at a few points) or don't know what it is about. What I love the most about the movie is the artistic stride of the fashions, the music, and glam rock icons themselves such as Brian Slade, Curt Wild, just to name a few. To be honest, Brian Slade didn't really make me think of David Bowie's famous character, Ziggy Stardust, but Mandy Slade did remind me very much about David's ex-wife, Angela "Angie" Bowie. Toni played an excellent Angie-like Mandy Slade, and Jonathan did a splendid job as the strange, but wonderful Bowie-like Brian Slade. I give credit to all the actors as a matter of fact! :o) I highly do recommend this movie, but just one thing you should know: The sex scenes in this film are very, very extreme, so don't watch this movie around children or anyone who doesn't like watching sex scenes in movies.

This movie is just a mess. The plot and overall point of the entire film is just all over place. That being said, I thought the actors tried their best, the main problem there being Ewan MacGregor's attempt at an American accent being completely unconvincing. Some people have faulted Toni Collette's performance for the same thing, but if she's basing her character on Angie Bowie or Jerry Hall, both Americans who were well known for putting on an English affectation, then she was right on the money. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Christian Bale were both great in their roles, despite the lackluster writing, but as long as the movie is (just under 2 hours), I still feel like Brian Slade's character arc was a tad unresolved. I liked the re-appropriation of Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, T-Rex, New York Dolls & Roxy Music songs in the film. However, the original songs aren't great, probably because any observant David Bowie fan could tell that they really wanted to use his songs for those particular scenes, and the story goes that Bowie outright rejected the use of his songs for the movie, because he didn't like the script. Frankly, I don't blame him. The writing and the direction are the movie's biggest faults. The costuming and look of the film were a mixed bag, some parts great, some not. Overall, I was unconvinced that I was watching anything that remotely resembled anything that could have come out in the 70's, mostly when it came to the live performances or the "promo video" sections. From what I've read, it's a pretty polarizing movie, but I think I'm in the vast minority, because I really didn't love it or hate it. The flaws of the film keep it from being great, and the things the movie gets right keep it from being horrible. Overall, it was just eh. I do think there could be a better movie made at some point about the glam rock era, but this isn't it.

This is basically a gay fantasy. Someone's wishful thinking put on film. But that is OK only for an underground movie, because the overwhelming majority of the viewing public will not accept it unless it has any sort of quality, which is clearly not the case here. How can the makers of the movie actually have expected Bowie letting them use his original music? On the other hand of course he invited misinterpretations by using the taboo of bisexuality to finally get his career going. Very soon it became evident that he could have success without any manufactured scandals. But too late for sueing films like this for historical inaccuracy. Well, yer can't have yer cake and sit on it, then throw it out of the window... Iggy Pop granted the use of his music, which is a shame. He of course is much less successful in terms of sales than Bowie and seeks to get his work known by any means. What a pity because he is one of the most intelligent people in the "Rock business". To give your work to people who waste it on their private fantasies doesn't help you at all, I think. One question that bothered me throughout bearing this unfunny imitation of a Ken Russell movie was this: Do these people understand glam rock? Do they know the difference between acting androgynous and being a flaming homosexual?... Christian Bale by the way is as stony and emotionless as always. The prototype actor for a dumbed down playstation generation. But the reason this movie is a complete failure is this: It's neither a documentary nor some truly original fantasy on Glam Rock. It's something in between, something which doesn't work. Reason: You cannot save yourself from coming up with a story by using 100s of actual facts from people's lives and then twist all the facts that don't suit your wishful thinking. I think that would be "defamation" but for reasons described above a well-deserved lawsuit didn't happen. And also because minorities are protected by the P.C. police. True Schlock: the entire convoluted mess culminates in a boy-meets-boy fantasy on a rooftop. This is incoherent propaganda that doesn't quite know what it wants or how to get there. This is Rainer Werner Fassbinder at his amateurish worst. But he was probably too intelligent to produce nonsense like this. Lastly I find Biopics awful - they should only be made of people who have been dead for decades so there are less people who actually remember them. Biopics are made by boring people with no ideas for people who want some fast food information about things they don't care to investigate themselves.

It's 1984 and newspaper reporter Arthur Stuart is assigned to writing a piece about the disappearance of legendary Brit Glam Rocker, Brian Slade. Who after rising to the very top of the super stardom tree, chose to kill off his stage alter ego, Maxwell Demon, and subsequently killed off his career in the process. The Glam Rock era is one that Arthur knows well, in fact back at the time of the genre explosion he was very much on the scene, his life, Brian Slade's and wild American rocker, Curt Wild, are all linked by decadence and outrageous fulfilment! There is no getting away from it, Velvet Goldmine divides film lovers across the spectrum, some folk are genuinely baffled by it, others (such as myself) think it's close to being genius, while some cinematic observers want to throw up at the mere mention of the film! I once engaged in a conversation with a fellow cinephile who positively hated the film with a passion, it was clear that we both watched a very different movie, nothing he said sounded remotely like the film I had watched and adored. Here I am after my third viewing thinking that I'm still right and that Velvet Goldmine demands repeat viewings to fully comprehend director Todd Haynes outlandish homages. This is not remotely close to being a true story of the era, but it certainly has its finger on the pulse as regards how the genre evolved and lit up so many a dull dole day for many many people. Some instances and characters are based around factual things, I mean you would have to seriously know nothing about music to not see the David Bowie and Iggy Pop structured core on show here. But it's what Haynes surrounds these decadent icons with that really keeps you on your toes, when a film delivers the infant Oscar Wilde to a Victorian doorstep via an Unidentified Flying Object, then surely you know that all that is going to follow is not totally what it seems. Haynes sticks his tongue in his cheek and doffs his cap to Citizen Kane, cloaking it in a whirl of luscious identities and sexual explorations, the campy veneer lurching forward at every opportunity, with all of it strummed out to a soundtrack of glittering urgency. It's a splendid cast list containing Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Toni Collette, Eddie Izzard (of course), Michael Feast and Emily Woof, with Meyers outrageously believable and McGregor having the time of his life. But really it's the writing, the costumes and the art direction that glue it all together, Sandy Powell was rightly academy award nominated for her costumes whilst both Andrew Munro (art) and Todd Haynes (writer/director) can consider themselves astutely smart for knowing exactly how to make this picture work. 9.5/10

Despite the instructions at the start of the movie, this should definitely NOT be played at maximum volume. It is interesting only for a few vague references to the actual history of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Brian Eno. Ewen McGregor is cool for about 30 seconds as he does an impression of Iggy (Curt Wild) on stage. The other guy playing Bowie/Brian is simply awful. The film follows a flashback/flash forward then and now history, through the eyes of a journalist who was there, and has been assigned to write a retrospective. His character is poorly developed. Mostly he stands around in concerts and looks bewildered. This is supposed to represent his sexual identity crisis. The pacing is terrible, the lip syncing is terrible, the set pieces are terrible, the story is terrible the acting is terrible. Oh yeah there is a stupid reference to Oscar Wilde. I think the movie also tries to criticize Bowie's music and image in the 80s, but does so in a completely obtuse manner. If you want to see great androgynous costumes, and hear great glitter rock, you are much better off renting the Bowie concert flick "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." Velvet Goldmine is another great idea turned in to a bad movie.

Velvet Goldmine is a perfectly good idea, and is essentially a loving homage to a bygone era, that of 70's glam rock. Christian Bale is fine as a journalist who on hearing disturbing news of his teen-era idol, has flashbacks telling the story of his immersion in the world of glam rock and the seventies music scene. Unfortunately this idol is a thinly disguised thumbnail sketch (you might even say parody) of David Bowie. The other main character is an equally pointless caricature of Iggy Pop. The story takes some elements of the story of their careers in the mid seventies and goes its merry way. This would be fine but for one major flaw: the music is not Bowie/Iggy. It is originally produced glam rock pastiche and is so awful the appeal of the era would be mystifying to someone unfamiliar with it. Who then would like this film? I have no idea. Todd Haynes must love Bowie, if not why make a film which is so transparently about him? Does he think his film shows 70's glam in a favourable light in any way? As a huge fan of both Bowie and Iggy pop, I think Velvet Goldmine is utterly appalling.