James R | On 15, Jan 2021

Director: Gabriel Range
Cast: Johnny Flynn, Marc Maron, Jena Malone
Certificate: 15
Where to watch Stardust online in the UK: Sky Cinema / NOW / Curzon Home Cinema / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / TalkTalk TV / Rakuten TV / Google Play / Sky Store

David Bowie is one of the most iconic, recognisable and yet unknowable figures to have graced pop culture in the past century. As enigmatic as he was vulnerable, as human as he was otherworldy, he was at once a recognisable reminder that being different’s OK and a force of nature who felt entirely unique. While several documentaries by Francis Whately have done justice to peering behind this singularly masked singer, it’s a brave soul indeed who dares to capture that lightning in a dramatised bubble – not least without the approval of the Bowie estate.

Making a music biopic without a musician’s songs isn’t necessarily a guarantee of failure – John Ridley’s Jimi Hendrix: All Is by My Side turned the lack of Hendrix’s on-stage charisma into a strength, by giving us a creative, experimental snapshot of the man off-stage. But Stardust, directed and co-written by Gabriel Range, is a space oddity of its own making – namely because it feels like it has a gaping void at its centre.

The premise is well tuned enough, taking us back to 1971 when Bowie went to America to promote The Man Who Sold the World. But due to a complication with his visa, he’s not allowed to work or perform, and instead has to spend his time talking at people. “Its not as bad as it sounds,” his tour manager Ron (Marc Maron) assures him. But the sad truth is that it is.

Maron brings a gutsy against-the-odds charisma to his role of a failed publicist who still lives with his parents, but he’s fighting a losing a battle against a script that insists on turning the rise of Bowie and the formation of Ziggy Stardust into an odd-couple road trip – despite the fact that Bowie’s tour was successful and ultimately effective. (Jena Malone, meanwhile, is wasted as Angie, Bowie’s first wife, who is left at home moaning at him over the phone.)

At the heart of this is all is Johnny Flynn, a genuinely talented musician and a charismatic screen presence in his own right. But at no point does it ever feel like you’re watching David Bowie, as the film seems to actively try and avoid not only the legend’s music but also any sense of style, wonder, transgression or even colour. When Flynn does get behind a mic, it’s to perform cover versions of songs that Bowie did, indeed, perform, but it’s too little, too late, with any invention or curiosity sapped by the shallow script – an attempt to dig into his fears surrounding his half-brother, Terry, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, rings awkwardly hollow.

There’s room for an official Bowie biopic, or even an unofficial one, that tries to peel back the ambiguous layers of a fascinatingly unknown figure, while still maintaining his aura of mystery and inspiration. Stardust, sadly, isn’t it.

Stardust (2020) is available on Sky Cinema. Don’t have Sky? You can also stream it on NOW, as part of an £11.99 NOW Cinema Membership subscription. For the latest Sky TV packages and prices, click the button below.

 

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