The Legend of Leigh Bowery (2002)

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

An interesting piece, this documentary trots out a succession of pseuds and "artists" to express their ideas on Leigh Bowery. Sure he was a sort of original supreme exhibitionist where "getting ready became an art form" as someone says in the course of this. It's a little pathetic the desperation of that clique of people who would go so far in order to be different or original or outrageous. It amazes me how the media fall for this stuff over and over again-they are so gullible- Maclaren, Westwood, Boy George even as far back as Loog Oldham, they have all taken the "meeja" for a lucrative ride and the people have gone along with it. Just because it's outlandish does not make it good, interesting or ART. The arts community are responsible for condoning this and making it acceptable-I just find it boring and immature. You CAN fool a lot of the people a lot of the time. All this said it is a good documentary which tells the tale and holds the interest.

I want to start out by saying that I just happened by accident to catch this piece. I was also unaware of who Leigh Bowery was, being that I'm not into the "clubscene", and I'm not gay or into design. That being said, this is a truly remarkable film. If you haven't seen Leigh Bowery before, what he does is truly art. I was disturbed the entire way through the film. The costumes were disturbing, the subject matter pertaining to his life is disturbing, and the fact that something and someone so interesting could go seemingly unnoticed, by me at least, was disturbing. On a side note it also occurred to me that Marylyn Manson really isn't so original after seeing this as well. This documentary style film is definitely worth checking out, if nothing else but to see some of the amazing costumes that this artist put together.

I saw this movie before i had ever heard about Leigh Bowery and this movie really documented his life and career it was really interesting and it showed a lot of his outlandish works of art Leigh was born in Australia and he was a fay fashion designer many of his works shocked and horrified . He was an infamous clubber and had amazing stage presence. Whether he was in gallery showing himself, nude, or giving birth to full grown women ha always had an amazing outlandish was to shock anyone. There are appearances by Boy Goerge , Rosie O'Donnel and Lucian Freud of which Leigh was his muse. if you haven't ever heard of Leigh or if you have and want to know more about him and what he was about then this is a great movie for you

This short film, coming a decade after Bowery's untimely death from AIDS-related meningitis at the age of 33, presents an honest and interesting portrait of a clearly complex figure under all the glitter, high energy, and mad costumes. A larger than life image took him from Australia to the London gay clubland, costume design, and performance art (including a long association with the superb Michael Clark Dance Company), eventually culminating in the series of astonishing and touching portraits painted of him by Lucien Freud in 1990.This film attempts to give a balanced view of its subject through interviews with his family, friends, colleagues and widow Nicola (a lady with odd fashion sense!). I think it does the job pretty well, and the chance to see so many clips (including interviews, bits from Because We Must, and footage of Minty) and so many costumes more than justifies an entire film on this bizarre kid from Down Under.