Review | Stardust movie review: David Bowie drama pictures the rocker before he was famous and at his most introspective
- Stardust tells the story of a young Bowie, searching for fame and haunted by his brother’s mental illness
- It may lack the big Bowie hits, but Johnny Flynn is perfectly cast as the singer
3/5 stars
If you compare Stardust to Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman – the two recent big-budget biopics about Queen and Elton John – then this David Bowie drama is like a rare groove B-side. There are no lavish costumes, extravagant dance numbers or scenes at Live Aid. It’s a micro-snapshot of Bowie before he was famous – before he’d evolved his Ziggy Stardust persona or let all the children boogie with his career-making song Starman.
Directed by Gabriel Range, who co-scripted with Christopher Bell, Stardust shows Bowie plagued by self-doubt, haunted by the spectre of failure while rival glam rocker Marc Bolan just seems to get more famous. Playing this angular, awkward Bowie is Johnny Flynn, the British actor who made such an impression as the earthy Pascal in Jersey-set thriller Beast back in 2017.
The setting is 1971, as Bowie’s record company reluctantly sends him to the States, despite the flop of All the Madmen, his first single from his album “The Man Who Sold The World”. Helping him is Mercury Records publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron). He believes in Bowie, patiently driving him cross country to radio stations, gigs and interviews, despite the artist’s maddening refusal to play the PR game.
In Britain, Bowie has left behind his pregnant wife Angie (Jena Malone), and as guilty as that makes him feel, he’s even more haunted by thoughts of his older brother Terry (Derek Moran), who suffered a psychotic breakdown. Bowie is scared that he too will suffer from schizophrenia – madness runs in the family, it seems – and this terror looms in the dark corners of his mind.