I just love this film. It is
endlessly visually attractive, as befits
a film about glam rock - oh, the costumes! The hair! Jonathan Rhys Meyers in lipstick, glitter, and platform boots! Ewan McGregor dolled up
in a prettier form of Iggy Pop rockstar excess, and also satyr pants! Eddie Izzard as the sleaziest of sleazebag managers! Oscar Wilde as Ziggy Stardust-like alien plot point! You get the point - it's
pretty. It's also and ultimately rather sad, in a poetic sort of a fashion (though
it doesn't get me down the way a lot of sad stuff does - I think that's
mostly because it's so pretty, but also because it ends as much in
transmutation as in a fall). Three parts rock & roll fairytale and
one part star-crossed love story, the film documents the arc-of-stardom
of Brian Slade/Maxwell Demon, a Bowie-like rock god who falls in love with the wrong
guy and, in the end, finally makes the right choices too late to be
anything but someone else. I can't even tell you how many times I've
seen it, because I've lost count.
Bonus:
brilliant
soundtrack, featuring the illustrious likes of Thom Yorke, Roxy Music, the
immensely talented and, sadly, now-defunct Shudder To Think, T. Rex, Lou Reed, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Carter Burwell, Placebo, Grant Lee Buffalo, Teenage Fanclub, Donna Mathews, Pulp...
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