The Man Who Fell To Earth

Weird looking thin guy creates a hugely successful corporation whose wealth increases with every new fantastically technologically advanced product release. Yes madam, it's the story of Steve Jobs and Apple. Sorry. I make the funny. David Bowie's your main man here playing a freaky, fragile alien. I love his acting roles, I find him curiously mesmerising. Even in Labyrinth ('You remind me of the babe'). But here he is simply perfect - no one could have done a better job.

The mood and visual style of this film is brilliantly bonkers 1970's. Nic Roeg didn't much like signposting things for an audience did he? You have to keep up with it, fill in the gaps yourself and get used to sudden jumps forward in what passes for a narrative. No 'Ten Years Later' text titles here. One thing he did like though was a good sex scene. If by good you mean weird as hell and always intercut with anything that's quirky and contrasting that is. Rip Torn must have loved his agent for getting him this gig. Agent - "Yeh Rip, you play a college professor who gets to bounce around in the nuddy with as many of his pupils as possible". Rip - "Where do I sign?".

I was completely into this film for about 80% of it. Maybe 82%. Loved it, got it, wallowed in it. But then it went off in a direction I didn't want it to (how selfish) and ended on a non-ending that made me say pfffft. I like an abstract ending as much as the next movie geek but here I felt a bit cheated. Here's a graph to illustrate this: