Film

David Bowie: The Last Five Years

Name: David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Genre: Music, Documentary, TV Movie
Released: 2017
Cast: David Bowie, Michael C. Hall, Toni Basil, Tony Visconti, Gail Ann Dorsey

Biopic

A 90-minute documentary capturing David Bowie's final creative burst—two albums and a stage musical produced in his last five years. Made with unusual access by Francis Whately, it's a portrait of an artist refusing to fade, still experimenting and evolving. For anyone who loved Bowie, or who wants to understand how genius sustains itself into its final act.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love studio-room documentaries where musicians pick apart how a record got made, and you want a close look at an artist working at full stretch.

Skip it if you want a broad life story with childhood and early fame, since this stays tight on one concentrated stretch of sessions, rehearsals and planning meetings.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes of interviews, archive clips and studio footage, paced patiently rather than rushed, with attention spent on craft rather than gossip.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

David Bowie: Five Years2013

Whately's companion piece mapping Bowie's golden era—the 1970s reinventions that made him a god. Essential context for understanding what he was returning to and deliberately transcending in his final years.

But It's a thorough career retrospective, so it moves deliberately. You need patience for archival footage and talking heads, even if the subject rewards it.

Amy2015

Asif Kapadia's documentary about Amy Winehouse uses similar intimate archive and late-career focus to explore an artist's final years. The texture of decline, defiance, and unfinished business feels kindred in surprising ways.

But It's brutally sad—a very different trajectory than Bowie's, and genuinely difficult to watch. Not uplifting, despite the artistry on display.

Cobain: Montage of Heck2015

Brett Morgen's visceral documentary uses animation and archival chaos to capture creative genius at maximum intensity. Like Bowie's final work, it's about an artist still evolving, still hungry, still refusing easy answers.

But It's relentlessly chaotic in form and deeply tragic in outcome. The energy can exhaust rather than exhilarate, and the darkness doesn't lift.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from David Bowie: The Last Five Years

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both are works about artists determined to create their own mythology rather than accept the stories others tell about them, even as time runs out.

Charlie Kaufman's bewildering masterpiece about an aging theater director creating a nested labyrinth of art—a play within a play within his own life. It's obsessed with mortality, the persistence of vision, and refusing to simplify or sentimentalize aging artists. Structurally dizzying in ways that echo how Bowie's final albums fold artifice and autobiography together.

But It's deliberately opaque and emotionally exhausting. Most people find it baffling rather than rewarding on first viewing, and it demands uncomfortable self-reflection throughout.

The Defiant Ones1958

Allen Hughes' documentary about the partnership between Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine captures mentorship, reinvention, and the business of making art at the highest level. Thematically aligned with how Bowie was still teaching and creating.

But It's hip-hop focused and very much about commerce alongside art. If you're seeking pure artistic purity, the deal-making might feel cynical.

Life Itself2014

Steve James' documentary about Roger Ebert is a meditation on how artists remain vital and communicative even as their bodies fail. The tone—reflective rather than maudlin—mirrors what makes Bowie's late work extraordinary.

But It's quiet and introspective. There's no music or visual flash, just conversation and memory. Some find it slow-paced, even for documentary.

Searching for Sugar Man2012

An unlikely redemption story about a forgotten artist rediscovered. The documentary shares the emotional arc of finding meaning in late-career reconnection, and the mystery of why some artists disappear and resurface.

But The pacing is deliberately slow and the mystery-box structure feels engineered. Some see it as manipulative rather than moving.

20 Feet from Stardom2013

Morgan Neville's film about backup singers explores legacy, artistic contribution, and the moments that define a career. It's about recognition, voice, and the architecture of fame—themes that haunt Bowie's final act.

But It's a broad ensemble piece, not focused on one figure. Some find the multiple narratives scatter rather than deepen the impact.

The Toys That Made Us2017

This Netflix series celebrates how objects carry cultural meaning and memory. One episode focuses on Bowie and other rock icons. Light, fun, and accessible—a breather from heavier documentaries about artistic decline.

But It's essentially celebratory fluff. There's no real critical engagement or depth, just affection and nostalgia. Museum-quality rather than challenging.

I'm Not There2007

Both celebrate artists who saw their own lives as ongoing creative projects, where the self is something performed and reinvented rather than discovered.

Todd Haynes' fractured, six-actor reimagining of Bob Dylan's life and myth-making. It's formally audacious—refusing a chronological narrative, embracing performance and construction of identity, treating biography as art rather than document. Captured the spirit of what Bowie was attempting in his final work: collapsing fact and fiction into something stranger.

But It's aggressively nonlinear and some performances feel mannered. If you want a coherent life story, this shatters it into fragments by design.