That was an excellent one.

Powerful

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen was no doubt a generational talent, one of those burn too bright and die too soon sensations that make great material for a documentary.In turn, the problem for documentarians is trying to create a piece of work that lives up to the real-life hype. Co-directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui have done an admirable job at capturing the light-and-dark duality of the designer's extraordinary career. However, the first half of the documentary was so zoomed in on everything they were featuring on screen that it actually burdens one's eyes, and the rest of the film, while certainly worth the price of admission, is far less groundbreaking than the man they set out to memorialize.

This film moved me like I had never been moved before. I hadn't the highest of hopes on being informed that the film would be produced by Lionsgate, a production company who are somewhat reputable for some bad films (Wings), however this was simply incredible. I am not in the least interested in fashion design (being your generally typical teenage boy), however this is simply a piece of art that must been seen.

PipAndSqueak makes some strong points, but I'm not sure what he's saying about people's (lack of) grief at McQueen's passing -- that McQueen was a control freak and therefore not cared about in the end?I don't know what PipAndSqueak is referring to with "LAM" - does anyone know? I was actually wondering if PipAndSqueak might be Detmar Blow - but no evidence for that.PipAndSqueak titled his (?) essay "Sacrificial LAM" - that's what I was just thinking -- that Alexander McQueen functioned in his life, and functions now, as an 'Art Christ' similar to van Gogh - but for the 21st century. Considering the disposability of males to most species including the human species, it's disturbing to contemplate that McQueen may actually serve as a type of human sacrifice for the art and beauty craving masses, during this era of ugliness and chaos. Perhaps his extreme creative honesty and ability to transmute ugliness into beauty filled the massive cultural chasm we are currently suffering.This documentary is pretty much on par with the documentary put out about Alexander McQueen in 2011. It offers us a lot of new information, for which I am grateful, and it is entertaining.I've found just as much value in watching interviews with McQueen on YouTube. But this movie presents a concise - if not complete - picture of his career and art. I greatly appreciate that this film was made, and I hope we can learn from it and advance ourselves further given the knowledge it affords to us.

It is a shame that the creative genius of this consummate artist and craftsman is so shabbily depicted. We are given tantalizing glimpses of the man himself as well as his chief advocator, promoter and friend, Isabella Blow. We are presented odd interviews with people who had been present at certain points in McQueen's life. In fact, there is little other than the actual filmed footage that we could not have read about in the catalogues and articles published for the posthumous shows that have been staged of his work since. We are not taken, visually or in discussion, to the very down at heel East London where he grew up. The connection with Isabella's wearing of McQueen's creations as day-wear and the fact she wore the heels down on her designer shoes seems never to be noticed. She 'inhabited' McQueen's designs to such an extent that McQueen's devastation on her suicide (referenced in this film as death from illness) is almost as inevitable as his own death. If you have LAM initials (Lee Alexander McQueen) and you go into a trade noted for its ephemeral, disposable products, you won't find the idea of nihilism and self-destruction much of a surprise. McQueen tattooed mannequin hand-arm lines on his wrists - come on, he's telling you everything and you still miss it! McQueen said he wanted to empower women - by giving them armor. We know he did this in several ways, sometimes literally with breast-plates. What the clips in this film do show, however, is slightly at odds with the narrative. It is claimed his focus, once working with a garment was 100%. Well, look out for the clip where he is working on alterations to a piece worn by a model whose bottom half is naked. McQueen is conscious of where the camera is being directed and looks quickly to camera to tell the cameraman to move the focus up....that is, to protect the female model's modesty. That, more than anything else, tells you the nature of the man and, why the people connected to him interviewed in this presentation are still hurting with grief.