David Bowie doco Moonage Daydream is a kaleidoscopic sensory overload

A movie that must be seen in a cinema, Moonage Daydream is a sensory experience.

Moonage Daydream is in cinemas now. Picture: Universal

David Bowie was a singular star so any documentary about him was going to be a singular experience.

Gone are the typical pieces-to-camera testimonials of those who knew him. Gone are the typical packages of childhood video footage. Gone are the typical statements about legacy and impact, pumped full of reverence for a lost icon.

Moonage Daydream is atypical.

Moonage Daydream is a trippy, kaleidoscopic and experiential film that is closer to a video installation in a modern art museum than a biographical doco you might scroll across on a streaming service.

Moonage Daydream is about feeling, not thinking, just as Bowie’s music coursed through one’s body in a visceral, all-encompassing way. It’s a hypnotic and bewitching film which invites you back into Bowie’s world, a place of movement and seduction.

At times it can be overwhelming, a cornucopia of sensorial onslaughts from the booming soundtrack mix to the vivid and dramatic visuals, all overlaid with Bowie’s own voice.

A labour of creativity of more than seven years, director Brett Morgen spliced together decades of interviews, archival footage, film stock, concert videos, music clips and more.

Structured around Bowie’s creative eras, the overall tapestry is of a man who was in constant negotiation with what kind of person he wanted to be – how to be an artist true to his creative spirit, how to be a popstar whose millions of fans saw different aspects of themselves in him, how to be a man in a world of challenges, how to be a human in love.

Moonage Daydream is the first film to be sanctioned by Bowie’s estate. Picture: Universal

Morgen captured Bowie as someone always on the move, not just physically, creatively or intellectually, but as someone who was forever curious about reinvention.

The first film to be sanctioned by Bowie’s estate, Morgen had unprecedented access to an archive of five million items, bathing in and then channelling the essence of all that into 140 minutes.

Bowie’s unexpected death in 2016 – he had not publicly revealed his cancer diagnosis – led to an intense outpouring of grief and that grief is captured in this film.

Not explicitly, of course, but it speaks to the distinct space Bowie occupies in the hearts and minds of his fans, as someone whose music still inspires you to leap off your feet and dance and whose later work, especially Blackstar, takes on a legacy-defining significance in the face of mortality.

Bowie isn’t an easy icon to capture – and Morgen has grappled with outsized personalities before, most notably in Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck – because he was chameleonic in many ways. By using Bowie’s own voice and musings, Morgen effectively conjures an artist in constant evolution.

Morgen’s movie isn’t a tribute because it’s as if this film doesn’t quite sit outside of Bowie’s oeuvre as distanced commentary.

Moonage Daydream is in playful conversation with Bowie’s art, as if it’s a part of it, almost as if Bowie himself would have swaggered into the cinema as the lights came on and the credits rolled.

Rating: 4/5

Moonage Daydream is in cinemas now

Originally published as David Bowie doco Moonage Daydream is a kaleidoscopic sensory overload