TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Went to see this on Sunday.
I thought it was fantastic!
Tells the story really well, although some eras barely touched on (Young Americans/Station To Station)
2 hours 20 minutes just whizzed by.
If you're a Bowie fan you need to see this.

I really want to see it, but I can't get to my preferred independent cinema before it finishes there on Friday  :(

Hoping for future opportunities...!

Hoping to go on Thursday.

I shall see it tomorrow. I'm not a huge Bowie fan - I only really like the early stuff, Heroes and a bit of the early 80s stuff - but I'm intrigued by the film reviews.

I'm probably in this category, although I prefer the very late stuff to the very early stuff.  Favourite period is still probably Scary Monsters.  I lost him entirely for decades with Let's Dance which I loathed with a passion (and to be honest, still do).  I respect rather than love Bowie.  Let me know if there's anything in there for 'somebody like me'.

Went to see it just yesterday at my lovely local independent cinema.

It's essential watching if you have even a passing interest in Bowie, so that includes me, as I lost interest in his music around the time of Aladdin Sane, and I still only bother with the early albums.

This is as much Bowie as most people could stand, i think. No talking heads remembering the man, and only a few fans who gave their view of him. Even fervent Bowie ites will have to acknowledge he could be pretentious, but fortunately most of this is confined to interview footage, where he perhaps felt he had to make some sort of an impression.

I liked the collage effect of images, words and music. It doesn't come across as a conventional documentary,  tapering off during the last couple of decades of his career, but no one I've spoken to has seemed bothered by that.

I am still hoping to see it tomorrow but on that point, I personally think the run of albums from Hours to Blackstar is really strong (though you can argue against the odd track here and there). The period I don't like is from Tonight to Earthling, with the exception of The Buddah of Suburbia which comes towards the end of that run and has some interesting things on it.

Can't comment in depth on the three that come before that (heard them once, not that interested) but the last two are just jawdroppingly wonderful works of depth and wisdom, unlike (in my limited knowledge) anything that preceded.

I've just tested positive for covid, but the film is still on next week and I shall post my thoughts after I see it.
I haven't heard that much of Bowie's later stuff, but IMHO the Tin Machine stuff was really pants.

While on Bowie, has anyone heard the "Great Lives" on Bowie by Hanif Karachi?

It's at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bcgt9x

Worth a listen

It all depends on your frame of reference. Clearly something like Heathen is not Station To Station. What is? It does not mean it is not a good album. I sometimes think that judging the likes of Bowie or Dylan amongst others by comparison to their older masterpieces does their later work a disservice. It may not be as groundbreaking but it is still good. I listen to those albums much more than the 70s stuff because the earlier material has become over familiar.

Perhaps I wasn't being clear enough.  I actually think his 'best' albums are his last two (although my favourite is still Scary Monsters).

"Best" is subjective, of course. For the view above the parapet that they gave me as a young teenager, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Station To Station stand out overall.

Oh, absolutely and I know I'm in a minority.  I can drunkenly sing along to Ziggy with the rest of you, but it and its contemporaries have never captured my heart and imagination like it did to so many of my contemporaries and a bit older.  I had lots of opportunities to see him but was never tempted.  I do genuinely (and entirely unironically) remember a good mate coming back from seeing them and trying to convince me Tin Machine were the best gig he'd ever been to.  He still rates them.

Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane both had that "Wow factor" for me as a teenager. And they still sound damn good.

Tin Machine were ok. Just not stellar like most of Bowie's output.

Well, that was an experience!

Just got back from the cinema. I have been vaguely aware for the last couple of days that I had an anxiety episode coming on. A disinclination to listen to music and difficulty settling down to watch TV or read are always a worrying indication. Waking up this morning I didn't entirely feel like going to the cinema but I forced myself to do it anyway.

It may seem an odd thing to say about a rock n roll film but the sound at my screening was way too loud. The film has a frenetic opening soundtracked by Hello Spaceboy and the volume just sent me into full on panic attack, sweaty palms, clammy, heart pounding, shortness of breath. The lot! I had to fight to get control of it when my instinct was to leave the cinema.

As for the film, there is much to enjoy but you don't learn anything especially new. Stylistically it owes a huge amount to Julian Temple's The Filth & The Fury and Oil City Confidential about The Sex Pistols and Doctor Feelgood respectively. A few criticisms. It is a tad over long. It becomes somewhat visually repetitive in its last quarter. Musically it pretty much jumps from Aladdin Sane to Heroes, then from Let's Dance to Outside and barely ventures beyond that (though there is some Blackstar footage in the visuals and the credits list two Blackstar songs which I did not notice and a lot of use of instrumental passages from The Buddah of Suburbia). And just as I was admiring the film's courage for avoiding the obvious musical choices during its first half, as soon as it hits the period from Heroes to Let's Dance it leans pretty heavily on the familiar bangers, albeit mostly in live performance.

So, all in all, I enjoyed it under duress but I wish it was a bit more even handed. The definitive Bowie documentary remains to be made.

Commiserations on the panic attack.  I much prefer watching films at home these days... I find the modern cinema experience all too much at the best of times...too bright, too loud, too many people.  It brings out the worst of my 'spectrum-y' type stuff.

Just got back from the cinema and, for what it’s worth, I found it a hugely entertaining experience.
Mind you, “Outside” is one of my favourite Bowie albums and not many people seem to rate it, so my opinion might not mean much!
I did cause myself slight embarrassment when I accidentally laughed out loud when there was a scene where they were playing a powerful Ziggy era version of “Rock and Roll Suicide” and suddenly changed the visuals to a clip of the horrendously overblown Glass Spider tour!

I think that was entirely the intention Bill. I thought it was quite an acute way of commenting on that period of Bowie's career.

Also, I did the film a disservice. There is a lengthy sequence featuring When You Rock n Roll With Me, which is of course from Diamond Dogs and another featuring Word On A Wing from Station To Station but it is out chronological order.

I realise that was the intention, but it seems I was the only one in the cinema to react!

I'm very much looking forward to this assignment as I am able to get to see it

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/18/moonage-daydream-review-david-bowie-documentary-brett-morgen

Didn't do much for me - I left before the end of the film - but I'm only a fan of a limited amount of Bowie's work and I didn't find Bowie's musings about life, the universe and everything of any real interest.

Interestingly, or not, a friend of mine told me he'd have left after an hour if he hadn't been with with his Bowie adoring partner....

What's the worst that could happen? A cold, lonely wait in the pub or car. Might as well "endure" the Bowie experience. Not as though it's a Halloween film.

What's the worst that could happen?
Maybe a severe handbagging from the missus?

I can sympathise with this. I only like vintage Bowie, and some of his waffling made me smile, or worse, made me cringe.

Well, I love him, even if the only records I have are his 70s ones. Looking forward to seeing the movie, as and when.

Jules

I loved all the music and had no problem with the narration. I just didn't think it worked that well as a film. There was certainly no question of leaving before the end, though it certainly ran out of ideas a good 20 minutes before that.