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The Age of Commercialism

Sorry, this movie sucks

Load of rubbish!!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! This is a great film. Todd Haynes is a genius. It's really a sttruggle for me not to watch it every day. Actually all Todd Haynes' movies are great and very unique, but this one...The world would be a little bit darker without Velvet Goldmine.

Todd Haynes puts Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyer in bed together nude. With eyeliner. What more do you need to know?With a zillion reviews here, you already know what this is, and why people love or hate it. The scope of the film is epic, if not downright operatic. Gorgeous to look at, and fun to watch.In a sea of showy performances, Toni Colette's gets overlooked. She does a remarkable job as the long-suffering but reasonably practical wife. Take note!

This film is definitely one of my favorites among the ones who pay some kind of homage to rock'n'roll history. That opening scene with Jack Fairy's childhood and then the credits rolling to the sound of Needle In the Camel's Eye is one of the best and most exciting things I've ever seen. I guess I could say I love everything about it, how can you not love a cast like that? They're all wonderful and so believable in their performances, especially Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor, who had very physical roles, but pulled it off just fine – I thought McGregor was especially brilliant in this, performing the songs live and jumping and throwing himself around, a certain Mr. Osterberg would be proud.The story is an obvious portrait of David Bowie's relationship to Iggy Pop and Lou Reed in the 70's (adding a little mixture of Kurt Cobain, why not?), a decade I imagine was unique to rock'n'roll, filled with exciting new music, rebellion and social changes, but it's also a story about discoveries and growing up, represented by Christian Bale's character ("That's me, dad, that's me!"). It's not an unknown feeling to us all, coming across a circumstance where we have to revisit years past, and the memories of what we once were may sound strange. Along with the glitter and the glam rock comes the melancholia of being a part of a movement that is already in decadence, because all great things must burn fast and come to an end. Besides, what other movie presents us with a more delightful sight than that of Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale loving each other beneath a glitter rain brought on by a UFO? Words are unnecessary after that.

Reading a long retrospective about David Bowie,one of the main sections in the piece that really surprised me was a mention that he had threatened to sue a movie studio over an adaptation of a tell-all book written by his ex-wife Angela Bowie called Backstage Passes,and a bio written by Henry Edwards and Tony Zanetta called Stardust:The David Bowie Story.Being intrigued by the details in the article,I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the movie had been chosen as IMDb's Indian Cinema board's "Film Club" movie of the week,which led to me getting hold of a DVD and a tub of glitter to witness Todd Hayne's take on the Glam Rock era.The plot:1974:Pushing past the rows of other fans surrounding the stage,Arthur Stuart gets hold of the perfect view point to witness his Glam Rockstar hero Brian Slade stage an epic,extravagant music concert.Cheering Slade and his band on as they start to play a number of their most well known songs,Stuart and all of the other fans cheers quickly turn to screams when Slade gets assassinated on stage.1984:Having almost left all of his Glam Rock fandom behind to become a straight lace newspaper reporter for The Weekender,Stuart is surprised when his editor asks if he could do a special "10th anniversary" piece about Slade's "assassination" and the ensuring "fall from grace" that Slade experienced when it got revealed that the "assassination" had in fact,been a complete hoax.Initially being uninterested in doing the article,Sturart slowly finds himself being slowly drawn back to his past as he starts to search round for member's of the faded- into history entourage,so that he can hopefully discover what has happened to the now completely "disappeared" Brian Slade.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,writers Todd Haynes and James Lyons, (who also edited the movie) cleverly use Stuart's gradually increasing interest in his own investigation and interviews with various members of Slade's old entourage to go into terrific,extend hazed flashback scenes of various peoples different points of view and relationships during Brian Slade's rocket-powered rise to fame, to his destructive fall from grace.Interestingly taking their Glam Rockstars in a similar direction that Haynes would extend upon for his 2007 anti-bio pic film about Bob Dylan:Im Not There,Haynes and Lyons use the extremely hazed memories of Slade's past entourage,to make Brian Slade and a number of other musicians almost transform into mythical like creations that no one was able to get a real grip on or a possibility of discovering the real people hidden behind the glimmering Glam Rock masks.Sadly,whilst Haynes and Lyons make the extend flashbacks a wonderful bright burst of dazzling energy and colour,the main plot thread set in the "present" which is meant to act as a backbone to the flashbacks feels incredibly weak,partly due to Haynes deciding to film "the present" in a rather grey style to show how much the "glitter" from the past has disappeared,to be replaced by a dour,lifeless environment,and also due to the paternally exciting moments of Stuart tracking down members of Slade's entourage weirdly feeling rather ordinary and flat.Filling the soundtrack up with tremendous songs from the era and perfectly lively cover versions featuring band members of Radiohead and Suede,director Todd Haynes kicks the movie off with a real bang,by shooting Slade's "assassination" in an extremely stylised way which makes it look like a scene straight from an Italian Horror movie.Whilst Haynes does give the present setting a faded appearance,for the hazy "flashback" confused recollections,Haynes slowly pushes the bright primely colours right to the front of the movie,as the musicians go from being "earthy" people playing in half empty fields and booze spieled gigs to becoming near myths,who despite the people that tried to be near to them having fading memories,can still be heard at maximum volume.