
Out now on Blu-ray is director Todd Haynes' (Poison, Far From Heaven) glittery, visionary pop-fable, Velvet Goldmine (Lionsgate/Miramax). Christian Bale plays Arthur Stuart, a reporter sent to track down the mysterious whereabouts of '70s glam rock god Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Slade faked his own onstage assassination and quickly faded into obscurity and Stuart's journey triggers memories of his own teen years, when his sexuality and identity were informed by the low spark of high-heeled boys. Stuart retraces Slade's meteoric rise from androgynous London cabaret singer to Ziggy Stardust-like sensation, and unravels his tangled sexual relationships with his wife (Toni Collette), and Iggy pop-like rock 'n' roller, Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). This 1998 film is so rich and layered -- visually, aurally and emotionally -- and so seeped in movie imagery it's like a sequined fever dream. It would make even Oscar Wilde, the movie's spiritual muse, swoon.
