Mechanical Animals.

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2012)

Reading a long retrospective about David Bowie,one of the main sections in the piece that really surprised me was a mention that he had threatened to sue a movie studio over an adaptation of a tell-all book written by his ex-wife Angela Bowie called Backstage Passes,and a bio written by Henry Edwards and Tony Zanetta called Stardust:The David Bowie Story.
Being intrigued by the details in the article,I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the movie had been chosen as IMDb's Indian Cinema board's "Film Club" movie of the week,which led to me getting hold of a DVD and a tub of glitter to witness Todd Hayne's take on the Glam Rock era.
The plot:
1974:
Pushing past the rows of other fans surrounding the stage,Arthur Stuart gets hold of the perfect view point to witness his Glam Rockstar hero Brian Slade stage an epic,extravagant music concert.Cheering Slade and his band on as they start to play a number of their most well known songs,Stuart and all of the other fans cheers quickly turn to screams when Slade gets assassinated on stage.
1984:
Having almost left all of his Glam Rock fandom behind to become a straight lace newspaper reporter for The Weekender,Stuart is surprised when his editor asks if he could do a special "10th anniversary" piece about Slade's "assassination" and the ensuring "fall from grace" that Slade experienced when it got revealed that the "assassination" had in fact,been a complete hoax.
Initially being uninterested in doing the article,Sturart slowly finds himself being slowly drawn back to his past as he starts to search round for member's of the faded- into history entourage,so that he can hopefully discover what has happened to the now completely "disappeared" Brian Slade.
View on the film:
For the screenplay of the film,writers Todd Haynes and James Lyons, (who also edited the movie) cleverly use Stuart's gradually increasing interest in his own investigation and interviews with various members of Slade's old entourage to go into terrific,extend hazed flashback scenes of various peoples different points of view and relationships during Brian Slade's rocket-powered rise to fame, to his destructive fall from grace.
Interestingly taking their Glam Rockstars in a similar direction that Haynes would extend upon for his 2007 anti-bio pic film about Bob Dylan:Im Not There,Haynes and Lyons use the extremely hazed memories of Slade's past entourage,to make Brian Slade and a number of other musicians almost transform into mythical like creations that no one was able to get a real grip on or a possibility of discovering the real people hidden behind the glimmering Glam Rock masks.
Sadly,whilst Haynes and Lyons make the extend flashbacks a wonderful bright burst of dazzling energy and colour,the main plot thread set in the "present" which is meant to act as a backbone to the flashbacks feels incredibly weak,partly due to Haynes deciding to film "the present" in a rather grey style to show how much the "glitter" from the past has disappeared,to be replaced by a dour,lifeless environment,and also due to the paternally exciting moments of Stuart tracking down members of Slade's entourage weirdly feeling rather ordinary and flat.
Filling the soundtrack up with tremendous songs from the era and perfectly lively cover versions featuring band members of Radiohead and Suede,director Todd Haynes kicks the movie off with a real bang,by shooting Slade's "assassination" in an extremely stylised way which makes it look like a scene straight from an Italian Horror movie.
Whilst Haynes does give the present setting a faded appearance,for the hazy "flashback" confused recollections,Haynes slowly pushes the bright primely colours right to the front of the movie,as the musicians go from being "earthy" people playing in half empty fields and booze spieled gigs to becoming near myths,who despite the people that tried to be near to them having fading memories,can still be heard at maximum volume.