Todd Haynes’ roaring and vivacious Glam Rock drama Velvet Goldmine begins with a phrase: “although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume”. This, in succinct fashion, sums up Velvet Goldmine. It is a pseudo-biopic, an abridged telling of queerness and Glam Rock; an era of liberation and repression as shown through a bombastic and exuberant queer lens.
A spaceship opens Velvet Goldmine. The extraterrestrial vehicle flys over a Belfast sky in (1854) to drop off noted Irish poet Oscar Wilde as a baby in Belfast, an emerald pin fastened to the baby’s blanket. Flash forward one hundred years and a bullied and bruised child finds the pin amongst the dirt of London. That child would grow up to become Jack Fairy, a gender-bending rock icon who swaggers across the screen in glamorous make-up and a stylish panache of non-conformity. The proclaimed ‘shipwreck of the streets’ Jack (Micko Westmoreland) would, in turn, inspire a young Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to become a musician that is as sexually free as Jack. Velvet Goldmine collates the lives of Brian, Jack and fellow rocker Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) as a series of non-linear vignettes on their lives, shown through flashbacks during the investigative journalism of Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale).
His investigation delves into Brian Slade and his on-stage persona Maxwell Demon, a rock star who had faked his own assassination as a PR stunt ten years prior and promptly lost his crown as one of the biggest names in music. Throughout this investigation, Arthur speaks to various people that were involved with Brian’s rise and fall, including polyamorous wife Mandy (Toni Collette), former tour manager Cecil (Michael Feast) and ex-lover and musical collaborator Wild. But Stuart’s own sexual traumas bleed through throughout his investigation, which is where Haynes speaks on the sexual oppression put towards the queer community, as Arthur is shown to be forced out of his home after his family catch him masturbating to a Brian Slade newspaper.
This review was first posted on March 23rd 2024. Full review linked below.
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