Stardust (2020) Review

 

Stardust (2020)

Stardust follows David Bowie on his first American “tour” where he would find the inspiration for Hunky Dory and his Ziggy Stardust character.

At first I was shocked coming across this, like “how did I miss this one?” but then I realized why soon after. This musical biopic which did not have the approval from Bowie’s estate, is a disaster in every sense. It is so, so bad. For starters, it does pin on a fairly interesting chapter in Bowie’s life but it goes about it all wrong, attempting to Green Book it, but without the evident racism and more less-than-subtle homophobia, and lots of driving.

We also get a ridiculously dark and out of place subplot about Bowie’s schizophrenic brother, that juts out like a sore thumb, being given no real explanation for it’s purpose other than scaring Bowie into becoming Ziggy. If anything, his first American tour here is just a bunch of bad interviews and weird experiences that seem like the worst possible thing for an up and coming artist.

Oh, did I mention that the MUSICAL BIOPIC ABOUT DAVID BOWIE doesn’t contain any of his music? Not a note and barely a few references, forcing them to continuously play covers and leaving this a lifeless mess that doesn’t have a hint of Bowie in it till the final 10 minutes.

The cast was also horribly misused and miscasted, featuring Jena Malone, Derek Moran, Marc Maron, and Johnny Flynn. Flynn wasn’t given much to work with here, but he isn’t Bowie and doesn’t even slightly resemble the musician, feeling like an effeminate truck stop transvestite instead of the gender fluid icon of pop. Maron is possibly the one bright spot, with his roadside rant to Flynn, saying everything we were thinking the whole time during this atrocity.

Stardust, directed by Gabriel Range, is an underwhelming and downright awful attempt at telling the story of Ziggy Stardust’s rise, feeling like a giant slap-in-the-face, fictionalizing his life (and not even making it interesting like Rocketman) and losing any hope it could’ve had in never using the singers actual music in this utterly forgettable musical biopic.

1.2/10