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- TV-14
- HBO
- TV-14
- HBO
Summary Francis Whately's documentary uses archival clips, music videos, and interviews with friends and collaborators who worked with David Bowie on his final two albums, The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016) as well as the Broadway musical, Lazarus.
- TV-14
- HBO
- TV-14
- HBO
David Bowie: The Last Five Years
81
User Score
User reviews are not available yet
Summary Francis Whately's documentary uses archival clips, music videos, and interviews with friends and collaborators who worked with David Bowie on his final two albums, The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016) as well as the Broadway musical, Lazarus.
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
81
100% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
81
100% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
"David Bowie: The Last Five Years," which premieres Nov. 10 at the DOC NYC film festival (it will then be shown on HBO), is a singular and haunting pop documentary.
Although this is a serious and inevitably sad film, there is also great joy in it.
If you are unfamiliar with the final, fertile phase of Bowie's career — which followed his retirement from performing, after a 2004 onstage heart attack — this is a fine introduction. If you know the period, there are many odd delights: goofy tour-stop footage, behind the scenes glimpses of videos in production, a good taste of "Lazarus" in rehearsal on stage, tales of genial collaboration, and lots of music.
With a tone more celebratory than elegiac, this is a worthy screen memorial that should interest serious Bowiephiles and casual fans alike.
The Last Five Years will be a must for even casual Bowie fans, who are most likely still reeling from their idol’s absence. It captures the ever-changing artist in his most surprising incarnation yet: a mortal man.
Lifelong Bowie fans will be appeased by the amount of old material woven in between more recent interviews with Bowie’s band members and producers. But the film really doesn’t get going till it reaches his final projects, specifically his collaborations with jazz composer/bandleader Maria Schneider and saxophonist Donny McCaslin, which came to be among the more musically adventurous of his career.
User Reviews
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Awards
Bafta TV Craft
• 2 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 1 Nomination
