Post by StevePulaski on Jun 1, 2019 15:14:18 GMT -5
Rocketman (2019)
Directed by: Dexter Fletcher
Directed by: Dexter Fletcher
Taron Egerton in Rocketman.
Rating: ★★★½
Let me riddle you this. Taron Egerton, most famous for his role in both Kingsman films, also starred in Eddie the Eagle, an inspiring little film about Olympic ski-jumper Michael Edwards. That film was directed by Dexter Fletcher. Fletcher was called on to finish directing last year's roaring success Bohemian Rhapsody following director Bryan Singer's dismissal. Fletcher, too, directs Rocketman, which stars Egerton, and is also produced by Matthew Vaughn, the director of both Kingsman films, along with X-Men: First Class, on which Singer serves as producer. How's that for six degrees of I-spend-way-too-much-time-on-Wikipedia?
Onto the main attraction. Rocketman is about as delightful a depressing movie can be, as it paints a vivid picture of superstar rock singer Elton John's troubled childhood, rise to fame, crippling battle with drugs and alcohol, and massive global success. It's an amalgam of the biopic and musical genres, but doesn't use the latter as a crutch, but rather, an outlet for turning some of Elton's most beloved, staple songs into surrealist fantasies that compliment the many outrageous and colorful outfits he used to don on stage. Whatever familiar components of biopics gone past arise, it seems that writer Lee Hall (writer of Billy Elliot and the upcoming adaptation of Cats) is always quick to combat them either with deep introspection of its legendary musician or Fletcher finds a way to use them as fuel to make the musical numbers that much more engrossing. If the biopic genre is going to continue to be as prevalent as it has been, filmmakers would be wise to take note on how to make a story about someone's life that much more complimentary to that subject's story. It also helps that Elton John himself was a producer on the film, and proved to be a very particular one too.
Inevitably, comparisons will be made to Bohemian Rhapsody, not only for Fletcher's involvement on both projects, but because of their similarities in trying to make a digestible film on such a monumental singer's life. I was not a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody, not only because of its ridiculous contrivances and vast oversimplifications, but because of how it factually misrepresented the life of the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in order ostensibly to afford the film the most eye-rolling, conventional storyline. It also says something when your film works more effectively as an origins story for some of the most recognizable American rock songs than it does for the main man behind them, but I digress. Early on, Fletcher and Hall appear on the same page with the film they want to make, and the result is astounding and immersive — as Elton John always has been.
The film begins with Elton John (Taron Egerton) storming into a rehab dressed in a fiery red devil costume, complete with horns and sequins, then surrounded by fellow alcoholics and addicts — a framing device we'll harken back to several times. We see a young Elton, whose birth-name is Reginald Dwight, as a young piano prodigy with two selfish parents but an understanding grandmother, who comforted him even after his mother divorced and later remarried. The story goes on to tag all the noteworthy bases in Elton's life: his friendship with collaborator/songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell, Snowpiercer), his relationship with John Reid (Richard Madden, Game of Thrones), his contemptible manager who was also portrayed in an unfavorable light in Bohemian Rhapsody, his elaborate stage-costumes that complimented his already brilliantly memorable music, and his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
The crux of a lot of Elton's problems with substances, we're told, is genuine but plays somewhat contrived. An early scene shows a blues singer urging the talented but still novice Reginald to kill the person he presently is to become the person he was born to be, and soon after, Reginald assumes his now legal name. His struggles are said to be rooted in his inability to love himself, compounded by a rocky childhood where affection was about as rare as a supportive compliment.
Making up for a marginally formulaic start and an explanation easy enough to gulp down, Hall navigates the trickiness of Elton's songs and their relation to him in a very effective manner. Being that Taupin wrote his music, portraying some of the musician's standards as intensely autobiographical pieces written by the awe-inspiring performer would've been a disingenuous play. This is where the rousing musical numbers come in. Fletcher, cinematographer George Richmond (who also worked on the Kingsman films, mind you), and the invisible team of hard-working effects artists handle the dazzling visual while Hall assures they pop up at the appropriate time. The end result produces some incredible moments made of movie magic.
"Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" loans itself to a raucous barroom brawl, and that's exactly what we get as a young Elton is performing the song in a dive, and as soon as that piano really kicks in, he leaps off the small stage and prances around the room and the adjacent street/carnival into a totally rad choreographed dance. Destined to go overlooked in such a jam-packed film is how "Pinball Wizard" seamlessly fits into the given moment of the film it's assigned, as Elton fights with Taupin, while in a drug/alcohol-induced haze, and proceeds to jump on stage aboard a spinning piano to belt out The Who cover. Then there's the sequence featuring the titular ballad, and it's almost paralyzing in how beautiful and haunting it is used.
It's about time Elton John gets a film about his rollercoaster of a life, nonetheless one that doubles as a gorgeously decorated, kaleidoscopic celebration of his many bold songs. Rocketman benefits from a myriad of talented people behind and in front of the camera, including Egerton, who sings all the songs in the film — so well he earned a compliment from Elton John himself, who doubled it by remarking how difficult his songs are to sing — and takes the whole project up a notch with his conviction. Yet deeply rooted in Rocketman is Fletcher's clear passion for music and film, and one ponders what other musicians' lives he could make so captivating and visually flooring as Elton's down the (yellow brick) road.
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Stephen Graham. Directed by: Dexter Fletcher.