As an homage to the era ofZiggy Stardust and the Stooges, this 1998 film by Todd Haynes lovingly captures the sights and sounds of an era. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor star in this eye-popping portrait of Brian Slade and Curt Wild, two fictional British rock stars from the 1970s loosely based on David Bowie, Brian Ferry, and Iggy Pop. Both actors had to learn how to sing for the film, which involves a British journalist (Christian Bale), who came of age to Slade’s music, as he's assigned to write a retrospective piece on the very scene that he grew up listening to.
The music that accompanies the story was created by some of indie rock’s finest at the time: Shudder to Think wrote some incredibly accurate glam-rock songs, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Suede’s Bernard Butler, and Ron Asheton from The Stooges, among many others, contributed to one of the finest film soundtracks of the decade. —Finn Cohen
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Monday, April 18
9:50 p.m.
Alamo Ritz
320 East 6th St, Austin
Tickets $2
