Bowie: The Final Chapter Review – A poignant and entertaining tribute to the music legend’s last stand | film

IThe Bowie nostalgia industry seems to have spiraled out of control, with London’s V&A store opening the David Bowie Center this year, 2022’s comprehensive documentary Moonage Daydream and the 2017 BBC show David Bowie: The Last Five Years, among others. So this new film covering Bowie’s final decades could be difficult for the uninitiated: the ’90s and ’00s were not, let’s be honest, Bowie’s golden years, creatively or reputation-wise. After constantly reinventing himself throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, fans were somewhat puzzled by his new band Tin Machine, which critic John Wilde described as “glorious rock” in his scathing review of Melody Maker (even Wilde shakes his head when he reads it again here; the last line is: “You’re a fucking disgrace.”)

However, it’s not all doom and gloom, even if Bowie seems to be following the zeitgeist rather than leading it – not least his short-lived foray into drum and bass music. The story acknowledges almost as much through frequent flashbacks to the halcyon days, and Bowie’s lifelong fascination with outer space. There are enjoyable contributions from the likes of Tony Visconti, Rick Wakeman, Dana Gillespie, Hanif Qureshi, and guitarists Earl Slick and Reeves Gabriels.

Bowie’s 2000 Glastonbury show was positioned as a sort of comeback, after which he enjoyed living legend status, but it is arguably only his final album, Blackstar, that truly stands out creatively. Ten years later, it’s poignant to hear Visconti, his lifelong friend and collaborator, talk privately about recording what they all knew was his final project. It would be wrong to call it a high-profile exit, under the circumstances, but it’s encouraging that Bowie can craft such a poignant, defiant and dignified exit.