Velvet Goldmine

It is a universal law of popular culture that no idea or look or fad is so crap that it will not be gleefully recycled a few years down the track.

Even so, the positively embarrassing era of 1970's glam rock looked as immune as any to this retro trendifying. But perhaps what Boogie Nights did for the late 70's, Velvet Goldmine will do for the early 70's.Director Haynes is chiefly known for Poison, his cult study of gays in prison and Safe, an unreleased film about household phobia starring Julianne Moore. His latest film centres around the quest by a young gay fan-turned-journalist (a grown up Bale from Empire Of The Sun) to find the elusive glam rock singer he idolised in his youth. The film unfolds in a series of Citizen Kane-like reminisces. The pop idol Brian Slade (Rhys Meyers from A Man Of No Importance) is obviously based on David Bowie. However, the film is more about the evocation of a time than a rock biopic. Haynes's approach lacks any significant 'rock feel' and the concert scenes are used more as backdrops for drama. One suspects Haynes was more interested in the sexual ambiguity than the music. Still, there are some wonderful moments. The performance of Collette as Slade's wife Mandy is worth a lot on its own, and an honourable mention too for Ewan Macgregor as Curt Wild (aka Iggy Pop) who further extends his range here. The sense of playful narcissism and of the power of youth subcultures is also spot on. Haynes showed some real auteurish touches in Poison, and here again the strongest moments are those where he somehow imbues his camera work with a sense of desire and longing all wrapped in a haze of beauty rising from the essentially mundane.
People who know Haynes's work will find some confirmation of his cinematic talent. However, he is more artist than communicator and so one hesitates to recommend it to everybody. ---Julian Wood