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Velvet Goldmine

1998

Todd Haynes

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Toni Collette, Christian Bale ...

6.5

5,533

Drama. Musical Set in London during the early 1970s, this film chronicles the growing glam-rock scene at the time. Apparently David Bowie -- who perhaps best epitomizes that periods androgynous flamboyance -- would not allow his songs to be used in the film. Why? Well, it seems that he just might have a film of his own on the subject he'd like to save his songs for.

	Media	Author	Review
		Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"It wants to be a movie in search of a truth, but it's more like a movie in search of itself (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The plot only slows a film that works best as a feast of sight and sound (...) In re-creating an era as a gorgeous carnal dream, Haynes celebrates the art of the possible."
		Rob Mackie The Guardian	"Your degree of interest is likely to be in proportion to your interest in the musical era it represents"
		Janet Maslin The New York Times	"Haynes brilliantly re-imagines the glam-rock '70s as a brave new world of electrifying theatricality and sexual possibility"
		Richard Harrington The Washington Post	"Like much of glam's legacy, 'Velvet Goldmine' looks far better than it plays."
		Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"An eccentric hybrid of pop opera and surreal essay (...) Velvet Goldmine is no masterpiece, but, at its best, it’s a ravishing rock dream."
		Todd McCarthy Variety	"A constantly imaginative, stylistically lively but dramatically inert chronicle of cultural and sexual rebellion."
		William Thomas Empire	"Its sole triumph is to replace Absolute Beginners as the most derided British music movie of all time (...) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"

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