ROCKETMAN
****
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Screenwriter: Lee Hall
Principal cast:
Taron Egerton
Jamie Bell
Bryce Dallas Howard
Stephen Mackintosh
Gemma Jones
Richard Madden
Stephen Graham
Country: UK/USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 121 mins.
Australian release date: 30 May 2019
Previewed at: State Theatre, Sydney, on 25 May 2019.
Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman is yet another film about a controversial rock legend and it comes hard on the heels of the director’s previous biopic of Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody; in this one, however, Fletcher has delivered a full-on musical rather than a biography with songs and its subject is Elton John. It almost appears to be an extended version of the 2018 John Lewis Christmas advertisement that showed Elton reminiscing about his life, only in the feature film the performer’s career plays forward rather than backwards. And, of course, Rocketman delves more graphically into his sexuality and abuse of drugs and alcohol, which came to a grinding halt once his life took a turn for the better. That subsequent period in his life is not covered, which may well be due in part to a discretionary choice by Elton and his husband David Furness (who’s one of the film’s producers), but it’s also a wise choice. Who wants to see a movie about marital bliss? Conflict, whether internal or external, drives action and action makes drama.
At the film’s outset, Elton (Taron Egerton), resplendent in a costume that has him dressed as a sequined horned devil, barges into a group therapy meeting and proceeds to reveal the torments that have led him there. It’s a clever opening device, a terrific intro into the star’s troubled life, and it leads to a big song and dance number that lets you know in no uncertain terms that ‘This Is A Musical’. The early years are shown with much sensitivity, revealing that young Reginald ‘Reggie’ Dwight (Elton’s birth name; played as a boy by Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor) was the child of Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Stanley (Stephen Macintosh), a couple locked in a loveless marriage marked by icy silence or full-on battle and neither of them had much time or love for their son. His grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones) was the only person to encourage him when the boy’s musical ability became evident; she pushed him to apply for a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. When he was accepted the door opened to the possibility of a career in music. And then, a few years later, when he met the man who was to become his life-long song-writing collaborator, Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), the doors swung wide. Taking the advice of a soul singer he met while touring, who told him that he had to “Kill the person you were born to be in order to become the person you were meant to be”, Reggie became the wildly flamboyant Elton John.
Fletcher has used wonderful visual techniques to heighten Rocketman and added terrific, large-scale dance numbers to illustrate aspects of Elton’s life, à la Bollywood cinema. Another strong element is the use of John-Taupin songs to drive the story, beautifully orchestrated and excellently sung by Egerton. Although written for completely different reasons and at different times, many of these well-known songs seem to perfectly encapsulate particular events in Elton’s life and career. It’s a very clever use of the music and highly effective - after Your Song, the preview audience at the premiere burst into spontaneous applause. The actors’ performances are all uniformly strong, especially Jamie Bell, and Lee’s script really brings out the strength of the bond between Elton and Bernie (a lovely narrative thread throughout the film) but this is Egerton’s movie. The actor/singer is on-screen virtually the whole two hours and he nails Elton. It’s a masterful presentation.
Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Elton John said of the film, “when I decided I did want to go ahead with a film, we commissioned a script from Lee Hall, who I’d worked with on the stage musical of Billy Elliot. It was brilliant. It had moments that were pure fantasy and moments that were really hard-hitting, no punches pulled… some studios wanted us to lose the fantasy element and make a more straightforward biopic, but that was missing the point. Like I said, I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didn’t seem real to me…. the point of it, [which] was to make something that was like my life: chaotic, funny, mad, horrible, brilliant and dark. It’s obviously not all true, but it’s the truth.” Which sums up Rocketman pretty well. Don’t miss it.
Screenwriter: Lee Hall
Principal cast:
Taron Egerton
Jamie Bell
Bryce Dallas Howard
Stephen Mackintosh
Gemma Jones
Richard Madden
Stephen Graham
Country: UK/USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 121 mins.
Australian release date: 30 May 2019
Previewed at: State Theatre, Sydney, on 25 May 2019.
Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman is yet another film about a controversial rock legend and it comes hard on the heels of the director’s previous biopic of Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody; in this one, however, Fletcher has delivered a full-on musical rather than a biography with songs and its subject is Elton John. It almost appears to be an extended version of the 2018 John Lewis Christmas advertisement that showed Elton reminiscing about his life, only in the feature film the performer’s career plays forward rather than backwards. And, of course, Rocketman delves more graphically into his sexuality and abuse of drugs and alcohol, which came to a grinding halt once his life took a turn for the better. That subsequent period in his life is not covered, which may well be due in part to a discretionary choice by Elton and his husband David Furness (who’s one of the film’s producers), but it’s also a wise choice. Who wants to see a movie about marital bliss? Conflict, whether internal or external, drives action and action makes drama.
At the film’s outset, Elton (Taron Egerton), resplendent in a costume that has him dressed as a sequined horned devil, barges into a group therapy meeting and proceeds to reveal the torments that have led him there. It’s a clever opening device, a terrific intro into the star’s troubled life, and it leads to a big song and dance number that lets you know in no uncertain terms that ‘This Is A Musical’. The early years are shown with much sensitivity, revealing that young Reginald ‘Reggie’ Dwight (Elton’s birth name; played as a boy by Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor) was the child of Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Stanley (Stephen Macintosh), a couple locked in a loveless marriage marked by icy silence or full-on battle and neither of them had much time or love for their son. His grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones) was the only person to encourage him when the boy’s musical ability became evident; she pushed him to apply for a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. When he was accepted the door opened to the possibility of a career in music. And then, a few years later, when he met the man who was to become his life-long song-writing collaborator, Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), the doors swung wide. Taking the advice of a soul singer he met while touring, who told him that he had to “Kill the person you were born to be in order to become the person you were meant to be”, Reggie became the wildly flamboyant Elton John.
Fletcher has used wonderful visual techniques to heighten Rocketman and added terrific, large-scale dance numbers to illustrate aspects of Elton’s life, à la Bollywood cinema. Another strong element is the use of John-Taupin songs to drive the story, beautifully orchestrated and excellently sung by Egerton. Although written for completely different reasons and at different times, many of these well-known songs seem to perfectly encapsulate particular events in Elton’s life and career. It’s a very clever use of the music and highly effective - after Your Song, the preview audience at the premiere burst into spontaneous applause. The actors’ performances are all uniformly strong, especially Jamie Bell, and Lee’s script really brings out the strength of the bond between Elton and Bernie (a lovely narrative thread throughout the film) but this is Egerton’s movie. The actor/singer is on-screen virtually the whole two hours and he nails Elton. It’s a masterful presentation.
Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Elton John said of the film, “when I decided I did want to go ahead with a film, we commissioned a script from Lee Hall, who I’d worked with on the stage musical of Billy Elliot. It was brilliant. It had moments that were pure fantasy and moments that were really hard-hitting, no punches pulled… some studios wanted us to lose the fantasy element and make a more straightforward biopic, but that was missing the point. Like I said, I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didn’t seem real to me…. the point of it, [which] was to make something that was like my life: chaotic, funny, mad, horrible, brilliant and dark. It’s obviously not all true, but it’s the truth.” Which sums up Rocketman pretty well. Don’t miss it.
"There were no negatives we could think of..."
