35
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 58IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandWhile there are flashes of originality in the film’s script — which quite artfully builds on Bowie’s worries with a distinctly personal edge — most of it is relatively straightforward, never as psychedelic or sophisticated as its opening shot, which finds Flynn stuck in spacesuit and unable to engage with the world around him.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyStardust is a mostly listless odyssey, its lack of excitement compounded by the absence of Bowie's music.
- 50VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanThe movie gives us only a small taste of it, but it’s enough to whet your appetite: for a Bowie biopic that captures this cracked actor in all his funhouse-mirror rock ‘n’ roll glory.
- 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzBecause while Stardust covers the period of Bowie’s life just before he released his breakthrough 1972 album, the film doesn’t feature a single track from the record. Or any Bowie music at all.
- 50IGNKristy PuchkoIGNKristy PuchkoUltimately, it's bland, not bold, and achingly absent of enchantment.
- 48TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondFlynn’s ferocious commitment to the role is something to admire, even if we’re not completely convinced.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaLos Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaThe new David Bowie biopic Stardust could be marketed as “Bowie as you’ve never seen him,” but it feels like “Bowie as no one ever saw him.”
- 30The New York TimesGlenn KennyThe New York TimesGlenn KennyThe director, Gabriel Range, who wrote the movie with Christopher Bell, opted to press on, even after he was denied permission to use Bowie’s songs. They might not have helped much, however.
- 25The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAs played by actor-musician Johnny Flynn, the Halloween-costume Bowie we meet in Stardust is a miserable, charmless wannabe. Which is to say that the film fails where a single photo of this most chameleonic of music legends would succeed: It makes Bowie boring.
- 0ConsequenceScout TafoyaConsequenceScout TafoyaI saw this movie last Wednesday, and I still feel like I’m watching it, like its dry and stuttering dynamic hasn’t yet ended, like I’ll never hear a real Bowie song again. Someone commit me before I’m forced to don my famous alter ego, Lights Camera Jackson, to cope with my insanity.