Overlong mish-mash

Rating: 6/10 (2 December 1998)

I've been reading the previous reviews and most of them appear to be divided into two camps: it was either a "glorious" look at the glam rock days or it was a bizarre pro-homo mess. I loved Haynes' previous films ("Safe" and "Superstar", which is pretty impossible to find, btw), but I was really disappointed in this. I don't care about the pro-gay sentiments, but in the end, Haynes seemed to forget the story he was filming. There is no pay-off. Instead of probing into the decadent demise of the Slade character he goes off into this twisted wonderland of the journalist's memories. Sure, that was interesting (the fact that he hooked up with the Iggy character) but in the end, it would have been more satisfying to see some sort of real conclusion to the story, rather than seeing him having sex on the rooftop. Great costumes, make up, set design...too bad the overall execution couldn't have been better.