Review of Velvet Goldmine (1998) by Bill M — 31 Jul 2015

This is a truly strange and unique little movie, on the surface (and this movie is all surface really) nothing much works, the acting is really uneven, the accents are terrible ( thank you, movie people, for never allowing an american accent to come out of Ewan McGregor's mouth again) and it even seems to get the era of music a bit wrong, this feels more 80's new wave than 70's glam rock, although the movie is really capturing an entire time (the mid 60's through to the early 80's) but alot of it feels misguided and confused, especially in regards to what the movie is trying to actually say, if anything, about it's subject, there is a view to be had that it's a haunting, faded, fever dream recollection of a lost time of music, rather than a conventional biopic/ period tale, it's a kind of drugged up fairy tale, rise and fall of a star, detective story as well.

Weather there's any real subject matter here to be had, this is still an absolutely fascinating film, experimental and feverish, visually fantastic and very unconventional a look at how quickly things that are in become passe, forgotten, it is then, possibly a eulogy on a lost time in music history that happened and moved on too quick for some, certainly director Todd Haynes, there's a sad, bittersweet quality to it all that lingers after.

Other things that linger in the mind, McGregor bumming Christian Bale, a strange sight.