Underground schmockumentary disguised as mainstream

Rating: 1/10 (6 May 2007)

This is basically a gay fantasy. Someone's wishful thinking put on film. But that is OK only for an underground movie, because the overwhelming majority of the viewing public will not accept it unless it has any sort of quality, which is clearly not the case here.
How can the makers of the movie actually have expected Bowie letting them use his original music? On the other hand of course he invited misinterpretations by using the taboo of bisexuality to finally get his career going. Very soon it became evident that he could have success without any manufactured scandals. But too late for sueing films like this for historical inaccuracy. Well, yer can't have yer cake and sit on it, then throw it out of the window...
Iggy Pop granted the use of his music, which is a shame. He of course is much less successful in terms of sales than Bowie and seeks to get his work known by any means. What a pity because he is one of the most intelligent people in the "Rock business". To give your work to people who waste it on their private fantasies doesn't help you at all, I think.
One question that bothered me throughout bearing this unfunny imitation of a Ken Russell movie was this: Do these people understand glam rock? Do they know the difference between acting androgynous and being a flaming homosexual?... Christian Bale by the way is as stony and emotionless as always. The prototype actor for a dumbed down playstation generation.
But the reason this movie is a complete failure is this: It's neither a documentary nor some truly original fantasy on Glam Rock. It's something in between, something which doesn't work. Reason: You cannot save yourself from coming up with a story by using 100s of actual facts from people's lives and then twist all the facts that don't suit your wishful thinking. I think that would be "defamation" but for reasons described above a well-deserved lawsuit didn't happen. And also because minorities are protected by the P.C. police.
True Schlock: the entire convoluted mess culminates in a boy-meets-boy fantasy on a rooftop. This is incoherent propaganda that doesn't quite know what it wants or how to get there. This is Rainer Werner Fassbinder at his amateurish worst. But he was probably too intelligent to produce nonsense like this.
Lastly I find Biopics awful - they should only be made of people who have been dead for decades so there are less people who actually remember them. Biopics are made by boring people with no ideas for people who want some fast food information about things they don't care to investigate themselves.