McQueen (****)

MCQUEEN follows in the popular documentary trend of dead celebrities. Those especially who met tragic endings. Think "Amy." Or "Whitney." I suppose the Mr Rogers flick partially fits in. I don't think our filmmakers sought to create anything groundbreaking in their chronicle of Alexander McQueen. His fashion and impact on global style was enough to break the mold. This doesn't make "McQueen" anything particularly awful, but I sure felt like there was so much left off the table.

When thinking of high fashion, perhaps no name is as known as McQueen, and yet no physicality is more atypical. The film tracks the man's journey from middle-class Britain to the creative director position at Givenchy and beyond. His appearance was rather shocking: overweight, short hair. Bad teeth. A blue collar twang to his dialect. This is surely not what someone pictures as a designer of women's dresses and couture, but here we are. Alexander (known as Lee to friends) worked hard from apprentice to designer - an endless source of energy and ideas.

Our story is chronicled in several chapters, each bookended with home footage of the man (we have "Amy" to thank for resorting to such crude source material) and interviews of his colleagues and boyfriends. Where the movie lacks insight becomes clear near the mid-section. McQueen is at the top of his game, having won Designer of the Year several times (briefly mentioned) and working his way through more and more dark subjects for his shows. And then a close friend dies. And then he became depressed. And then things got messy. To say that a documentary needs to understand its subject isn't necessarily accurate, but here it felt as though our directors were going through the motions - hitting the chronological beats - but ultimately falling short of what McQueen was actually living through. There is little indication to show why he began to suffer depression, or why his friends did nothing about it. It just sort of... happens. And then the film ends.

Perhaps this was the ultimate goal - to show a life so full of promise cut off so soon. I don't know. For me, I found the ending quite sudden and without a deeper understanding. The footage we have (particularly of his fashion shows) is stunning, and to see the man work on individual pieces behind the scenes is exciting and intimate. I admired the movie for its approach, although the almost cliched use of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman to score a documentary (from "The Thin Blue Line" to "Man On Wire") is already beginning to feel overused. I know many people will love this film. I certainly appreciated it. Just think on this: a documentary should be an accurate representation of its main character - it's only respectful to do so. That doesn't mean the filmmakers shouldn't imbue that story with some personal gusto. Documentaries can be the most moving of all film genres - why not try to make them great?!