Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 135 minutes
Release Date: September 16th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Neon
Director(s): Brett Morgen
Writer(s): Brett Morgen

They’re shoe shoes, silly.

Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream is by all accounts a sensory experience rather than your usual idea of a documentary—rock, biographical, or otherwise. Sanctioned by the late David Bowie’s estate, Morgen comes in and hyper-kinetically edits together a two-plus hour epic of archival footage and interviews to juxtapose our assumptions with his public image and artistic prowess via an overarching representation of the icon’s “essence.” It’s not going to be for everyone due to its nonlinear linearity, expressionistic aesthetic, and over-long runtime, but even its detractors must admit the audacity of the enterprise is worth a look.

I enjoyed it. I didn’t love it. Would that opinion have changed had I seen it during its IMAX run? Maybe. It’s definitely built for a large screen and deafening surround-sound, so those attributes are perhaps a requisite for the so-called “transcendence” that many are quick to describe. That’s not to say it isn’t effective on a 50-inch television with a soundbar too. As a fan of the artist and the music, it was a treat to see and hear what Morgen did in the edit bay (although the repetitive footage was a distraction) to breathe new life into the artifacts.

Would I prefer a more straightforward biography? Yes. These things can often trend towards the realization that we let celebrities/artists talk too much rather than simply letting the work speak for itself. Because rather than clamor to watch this specific interpretation again (in many ways it says more about Morgen’s relationship with an enigma than Bowie himself), my first thought upon its completion was to fire up a couple albums and YouTube a few music videos—those that were included and, especially, those that weren’t.

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An image from MOONAGE DAYDREAM. Courtesy of Neon.