David Bowie famously borrowed “the cut-up method” from William S. Burrows, in which he would write something, cut up all the words, separate them, and then put them back together in a different order. It seems like director Brett (The Kid Stays in the Picture) Morgen did the same thing with this half-assed Bowie “documentary”. I put documentary in quotations because it’s more of a tribute than an out-and-out biographical doc.
Most of the time, Morgen gives us lots of concert footage of Bowie randomly spliced together with interviews, soundbites, and quotes. Along the way, there are also scenes from silent movies, ‘50s Sci-Fi flicks, old newsreel footage, and clips from… uh… Johnny Mnemonic?!? All of this is interspersed mostly at random, and none of it really highlights or underscores what’s going on during a particular scene. It’s as if Morgen fed a bunch of clips into an Uno Attack game, which spit out the footage at random.
While it’s kinda told in chronological order, it also doubles back and flashes ahead several times too. Some of this can be a little jarring or even a bit irritating. It’s telling that the most straightforward narrative sequence (Bowie’s year in Berlin) is the most effective, and it shows that Morgan’s fractured technique is flawed at best. Also, some of the footage is oddly repeated (like the stuff with Bowie on the neon escalators) for no real good reason.
It's a shame too, because there is some good footage here. I just wish Morgen let the footage do all the talking instead of interjecting random shit in there every twenty seconds. I guess if you did some drugs, you could put it on and zone out. Unfortunately, us straightedge folks are left with nothing to hang our hats on, except for some good tunes. Then again, if we wanted that, we could just throw on a record and be content. As a movie, it’s a frustrating experience to say the least.
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