A documentary about David Bowie using archive footage of live performances, interviews, Bowie’s various artistic endeavours and clips of other film and art that coincides with the tone and feel of the particular era of Bowie the film is currently representing. 

The only conventional choice made in this film by documentarian Brett Morgen is that it follows Bowie’s life in chronological order (mostly). Otherwise it seems to be the perfect marriage of subject matter and form in a film that refuses to be pinned down as much as its subject did. Also, for my taste i had a similar reaction to it as I do to Bowie; it was sometimes transcendent and sometimes pretentious. At the very least the film has to leave you in some semblance of awe at the sheer volume of footage used that is edited into a beautiful and cohesive story. 

It paints Bowie as a renaissance man. A musician, dancer, painter, sculptor, actor and videographer. A man who was constantly putting himself outside his comfort zone, constantly moving to other parts of the world to experience new cultures and at his happiest when this was driving him to be creative in a way he had not previously been. 

Bowie spent his entire life creating new versions of himself. As he states in one interview he was using himself as a canvas to represent something of himself each time. And one of the biggest boons and burden of the film is the fact that as it is taken entirely from the perspective of the man himself via his interviews I am not sure we can ever be certain if this was not just another facet of this canvas. 

I suspect it will be an absolute must for Bowie fans but the uninitiated may need to seek further information. Personally I came out of the film with more of a feeling about the persona of Bowie rather than any tangible facts. But I very much suspect that was precisely the filmmakers goal.