Ground Control to Todd Haynes

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2003)

I just finished VELVET GOLDMINE, and I'm not quite sure what I think of it. While visually stunning (including the creative faux rock video and the filming of the "movie within the movie"), I still was a little disappointed. ***SPOILER*** Since this was a fictional story, couldn't Haynes officially have tied up Brian Slade's whereabouts instead of focusing on Arthur's frolicking with Curt Wild?
The use of cool, redone and original artist hits from the period were brought down by the original cuts made for this film. After reading one comment about Haynes' being unable to secure the rights to use Bowie's music, perhaps he should have just scrapped the Bowie angle and just went with an Iggy story. Ewan's portrayal for the Stooges era (and "full montified"!) James Osterberg was dead on and certainly held my interest the most during the movie.