An excellent and exciting late 90's rock drama about the funky 70's glam-rock scene

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2006)

A dazzlingly brash and spunky work of fiction that has an engagingly loose basis in fact, this terrifically dynamic rock drama centers on the sparkling, glittery, outrageously camp and hedonistic anything-goes uninhibited lunacy of the 70's glam-rock phenomenon. It's chiefly about legendary mercurial David Bowie-like glam-rock god Brain Slade (the strikingly charismatic Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who at the peak of his popularity notoriously faked his own audacious on-stage assassination death and subsequently vanished altogether from public view. Ten years later former glam-rock fan turned successful British investigative journalist Arthur Stuart (excellently played by Christian Bale) is assigned by his editors to write a story on Slade, so Stuart tracks down Slade's old pals and associates to find out the exact reasons for his sudden disappearance.
Todd Haynes' spirited direction and smart, witty, precisely etched script relate the compelling story in tricky flashback fashion, tracing Slade's humble beginnings and upward ascent to glam-rock superstardom with provocative insights into how glam-rock rode the crest of the swingin' 70's sexual revolution, glam-rock's deliberate attempt at erasing gender lines that separate men and women, the wanton bisexuality, gleeful decadence, bold androgyny, and flamboyant excesses that were fundamental components of glam-rock, and how being famous blurs the distinction between private life and public life. Gorgeously shot in loud, splashy, yet still elegant bright colors by Maryse Alberti, with a moody score by Carter Burwell and a marvelously ornate and melodic glam-rock soundtrack, the film lavishly evokes glam-rock's gloriously gaudy and theatrical over-the-top style in deliciously thorough and baroque detail. Although Rhys Meyers' spellbinding portrayal of Slade clearly dominates the picture, there are equally impressive turns by Toni Collette as Slade's bawdy, sassy American wife, Ewan McGregor as crazed, grungy Iggy Poppish garage hard rock maniac Curt Wild, and Eddie Izzard as an aggressively brazen record company executive. Intelligent and animated, "Velvet Goldmine" works wonderfully well as a highly exciting and incisive cinematic ode to an especially thrilling and colorful 70's rock movement.