Netflix And Chill: Moonage Daydream (2022)

While it's fair to call Moonage Daydream an energised and trippy collage of David Bowie material that works as a celebration of the artist and his art, something that a fan will certainly want to appreciate at least once, it's also fair to claim that this isn't really a documentary that seems to reveal anything truly new. Many of the Bowie clips used are taken from archival interviews, ensuring that Bowie is still often trying to keep some kind of persona in place to protect the real person, and a lot of the concert footage, while new, feels like stuff we've all seen already.

I like to consider myself a Bowie fan, but in the same way that so many others will consider themselves Bowie fans. I don't claim in-depth knowledge of his entire body of work, I cannot tell you the name of every track on every album, but I automatically mistrust anyone who doesn't have some connection with him, either through his music or through his pretty impressive selection of acting work. I'm a "Greatest Hits" fan, a "Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" fan, and I consider my knowledge to be cursory, at best. But here's what I know wasn't given full, or any, coverage in this documentary: his first wife (Angie), his years spent as a functioning drug addict, his experimentation with fascism, the period in which he had sex with at least one underage groupie, and the relationships forged with other musicians that helped to strongly define chapters in his artistic life (Mick Ronson and Niles Rodgers are either shown for the briefest of moments, and I missed some of their screentime, or seem to be completely missing, although Brian Eno gets his due).

I hope some of you are already raising your eyebrows. That seems like quite a lot to miss out, even in a documentary that is officially authorized by the Bowie estate. I wouldn't expect everything to be covered, and appreciate that maybe not mentioning his two children was a way to keep the focus on his artistic life, but the more that ends up being conspicuously absent, the less rounded and satisfying the whole thing is. What you're left with is an overlong and repetitive selection of songs presented in different live incarnations, film clips often accompanying visuals without the right context (personally, I would have loved to hear anything more about The Man Who Fell To Earth, which is a sci-fi classic and an astonishingly brilliant collaboration between the cast and the visionary Nicolas Roeg), and soundbites that seem to deliberately show Bowie juxtaposing his own wit and charisma with the mundanity of other aspects of everyday life.

I enjoyed spending time with Bowie. Very few people wouldn't. But a documentary should do more than feed you scraps and expect you to feel grateful for them. And a documentary about David Bowie, clocking in at no less than 135 minutes, should struggle to cram in every worthwhile bit of audio and visual footage. While this is a feature-length music video selection, with Bowie tweaking his personalities ever so slightly as he bleeds from one chapter into another, it could have been much more than that. If writer-director Brett Morgen had decided to double the runtime, and pack MUCH more into this, then I would have been happy. As it is, however, this is a huge missed opportunity, and I'm not sure how it will play to anyone who isn't already a fan.

5/10

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Mubi Monday: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Arguably best remembered nowadays for the beautiful music from Ryûichi Sakamoto, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a worthy film that looks at the strained relationship between the prisoners and officers of a Japanese POW camp. It's a shame that it never feels like there's still a war raging beyond the confines of the camp but that may be more to do with the source material (it was, after all, based on a true story by Laurens van der Post) than limitations set on the film.

Tom Conti plays Col. John Lawrence, a man who finds himself favoured by the camp officers (a Sergeant played by Takeshi Kitano, billed here simply as Takeshi, and the Captain in charge of the camp, played by Sakamoto, the score composer). Col. Lawrence maintains his position by, for the most part, trying not to rock the boat as he also attempts to keep his fellow prisoners alive and well. It's a delicate balance, one that sees him frowned upon by the likes of Group Capt. Hicksley (Jack Thompson), and it's one that is upset as soon as Maj. Jack Celliers (David Bowie) arrives at the camp.

Directed by Nagisa Oshima, who also worked on the screenplay with Paul Mayersberg, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is a film about war that is most interested in showing viewers how every trait is heightened and warped under those conditions. Courage, cowardice, love, hate, lust, remorse, happiness, and more. The central characters deal with all of these things in a variety of ways, and we're often shown the motivation for their decisions, either in the moment or through flashbacks that explain their stubborn refusal to make life easier for themselves (in the case of Celliers).

This is a superb role for Conti, giving a fantastic performance as the typical Brit soldier who hopes to keep calm and act with a modicum of grace in the face of great brutality. The other standout turn comes from Takeshi Kitano, playing someone who at first seems irredeemable but who may be more than just your cliched sadistic camp worker. Sakamoto has more difficult material to work with, and he isn't quite up to the task (he's a better musician than actor), but Bowie does well, working effectively in some difficult scenes that benefit from the fact that the character is being played by David Bowie (and what viewers know of his established persona). Thompson does well in his small role, and there are a number of cast members who make a good impression in their limited screentime, such as Alistair Browning, James Malcolm, and Johnny Ohkura.

Those expecting something powerful and emotional may be surprised to find a coldness here. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is much more about the psychological changes and damage that can be caused by war. It spends a lot of time, both subtly and more overtly, showing how the central characters affect each other, on purpose and by accident. It's almost a case study, at times, and not all of the directorial and scripting decisions work as well as they could, but there are times when it is magnificent. And a lot of those times are accompanied by that beautiful Sakamoto score.

This wouldn't make it into any kind of top list, if I had the inclination to try and rank the war movies I have seen in my life, but I am glad to have finally seen it. Bowie was the name I remembered most being associated with it, but it's Conti and Kitano who own the film.

7/10

There's a blu ray here.
Americans can get it on Criterion here.

The Prestige (2006)

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

The Prestige is another sumptuous Christopher Nolan film in a fine line of sumptuous Christopher Nolan films, co-written by himself and his brother Jonathan, based on the novel by Christopher Priest, and arguably more intriguing and intimate than anything else he has directed since he reached the level of success earned by Batman Begins. That's not to say that this is better than any of his other films since then. It's just nice to see him work on something of a smaller scale, something that doesn't need to warp cityscapes or throw you headlong into grand moments seemingly designed to look best in IMAX.

After a stage trick goes horribly wrong, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) find themselves growing more obsessed with each other. Each wants to outdo the other, but Borden seems to have the upper hand when he achieves great success with his "transported man" illusion. Angier grows more and more desperate to learn the secret of the trick, unaware of what it will end up costing both men if he continues on his self-destructive path.

The Prestige is very much constructed like a magic trick, and very much in line with the quote above. But while this could have seemed a bit precious and self-congratulatory, with the Nolans spelling out the structure of the film and trying to trick viewers on the way to the finale, it instead comes over as something that has simply been crafted with great attention to detail and an aim to entertain. The twists in the plot are enjoyable enough, but rewatching the film emphasises just how unimportant they are when it comes to the quality of the tale. You can know how a card trick is done, but that doesn't stop you enjoying it being done by a slick showman who also tells you an entertaining story while he's trying to keep everyone else from figuring out his secrets.

Jackman and Bale are both great, although Bale's accent does occasionally veer a little bit towards parody cockney territory, and they both get their share of excellent moments throughout. Michael Caine is also very good, helping both men out at different times in their lives. Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson all play women who are adversely affected by the obsessions of these men. They're not given as much to work with, at all, but all do a good enough job, with Hall giving a surprisingly effective and moving performance that sits up there with the best I have seen from her. David Bowie plays Tesla, which allows him to yet again be effortlessly cool in a much smaller role that absolutely works for him, and both Andy Serkis and the magical Ricky Jay do well with their brief amount of screentime, Jay is a cameo you could easily miss.

The music by David Julyan is very good, the production design and composition of every scene is gorgeous, and the editing allows for lots of nice foreshadowing and reveals on the way to . . . The Prestige.

All too often overlooked nowadays, which is understandable considering the impressive body of work that Nolan has built up, The Prestige is definitely worth a watch/rewatch. It's a film for fans of Nolan, for fans of the cast, for fans of magic, and for fans of great film-making.

8/10

Buy the shiny disc here.
Or, in America, buy it here.