For director Brett Morgen, unlocking the mystery of David Bowie meant letting it be

Brett Morgen dashes across his office to grab his phone. But you never know what something might illuminate.” Having finally absorbed it all, he set about writing a script, which he called an “arduous and traumatic process” involving months of writer’s block; at one point, the married father of three even suffered a heart attack before finding his way to a structure he says was inspired by the “Iliad.” “Chaos and fragmentation were the throughlines of David’s work,” Morgen says, and so they became his watchwords for “Moonage Daydream.” The movie works in part because of how stunning some of the source material is — none more so than a gorgeous performance of “Heroes” filmed at London’s Earls Court in 1978 that makes you feel like you’re practically onstage with Bowie. In its deeply immersive quality, “Moonage Daydream” — with a soundtrack of classic and more recent Bowie tunes newly stitched together by the singer’s longtime producer Tony Visconti — shares something with Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” docuseries, each episode of which Morgen says he woke up at 5 a.m. to watch as they were released one by one last Thanksgiving. “Also, ‘Get Back’ is cinéma vérité in its purest form, and ‘Moonage’ is anything but.” As with the Beatles’ stakeholders and Jackson’s film, Bowie’s estate — which includes his widow, model Iman, and his son, filmmaker Duncan Jones — gave its blessing to “Moonage Daydream,” a fact that’s been played up in the movie’s marketing, even if Morgen says he’s not sure it represents a selling point. David Bowie in a scene from Brett Morgen’s 2022 film “Moonage Daydream.” “Why would anyone promote something as sanctioned or official?” he asks.