FILM OF THE WEEK MOONAGE DAYDREAM

Cert 15, 135 mins

Available from December 2 on Amazon and other download and streaming services, available from December 5 on DVD

In 2015, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen released the documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck dedicated to the charismatic Nirvana front man, featuring a dizzying array of never-seen-before home movies and music.

The director focuses posthumously on another fascinating figure in the music industry in the hallucinogenic cinematic experience Moonage Daydream. Incorporating previously unseen concert footage, the film embarks on an audiovisual space odyssey in the company of David Bowie, tracing the rock star’s rise to fame and his musical output over six decades

Beginning with the track Hallo Spaceboy, the feature-length documentary allows the singer-songwriter to narrate his life with the full support of the Bowie estate in a kaleidoscope of retina-searing colour that draws boundless energy from Morgen’s artistic ambition and bravura editing. Likes its subject, Moonage Daydream

refuses to politely or quietly adhere to convention, abandoning a linear chronology from the trippy opening frames and flitting between cinematic media to represent the breadth of Bowie’s output across music, art and performance.

It’s a relentless visual assault with a running time in excess of two hours, that would prove exhausting in the hands of another filmmaker.

Morgen’s obvious affection for Bowie is intoxicating, combined with a frenetic filmmaking style that cuts rapidly between excerpts from dozens of provocative films such as A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the Bowie oeuvre.

The Man Who Fell to Earth, vampiric horror The Hunger and Labyrinth are present and correct. Morgen boldly and defiantly declares war on our senses and we happily surrender. (DS)

Rating: ****