Rocket Man review

[Westside Steve]

Rocket Man
Paramount
R.           121 min

No way to avoid comparisons to BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY here. Which is unfortunate because ROCKETMAN is certainly not an imitation, both films were in production for a long time simultaneously. Yes RHAPSODY got a huge amount of attention for a few reasons. First of all Queen appeals to a slightly younger audience than Elton John. A Night at the Opera was 1975 and Tumbleweed Connection was 1970. Not a huge difference but the older you get the less likely you are to go to the movies. At this writing ROCKETMAN trails  monumental POS GODZILLA significantly at the box office. Also while both artists have had major trials and tribulations throughout their lives Freddie Mercury’s was cut short early while Elton John has been cranking out great music for almost 50 years.   Mercury, of course, died at the age of 45 and Elton John (Taron Egerton) is still going strong at 72. An early death always adds to a legend. Can you imagine and overweight drunk Jim Morrison playing Vegas? Janis Joplin as a celebrity judge on The Voice? 
After all of that these are two very different movies. Rocketman is almost a Broadway show featuring costumed dancers and spectacular production numbers. The list of great Elton John songs is almost limitless and including them all would make this film many times longer. Interspersed with the musical interludes are historical snippets from the performers life through childhood until the present told in flashback from group therapy in a rehab center. Mother was something of a self-centered floozy and father a disinterested prick. His musical genius was noticed as a young age and affords him a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Of course as he gets older he finds it’s harder just for a piano player and songwriter to find work (image Burt Bacharach without Hal David) when one would be agent tosses him an envelope full of poems instructing him to “put these to music.” If you guessed that was the poetry of Bernie Taupin you would be correct, and the two will form a symbiotic bond that will carry them to the top of their profession and beyond.  Our hero deals with many of the same problems as we will find in most celebrity biopics, problems with management, drugs, alcohol, insecurities Etc. Not unexpected hurdles for a shy fat boy who becomes arguably the world’s rockstar. Most of the things we find out here are things we never really knew about, at least specifically. I mean we’ve known John was gay for decades but didn’t really know the depths of his depression and family life. And thankfully in the end the film ends on a positive note as he comes to terms with family friends and the younger version of himself. What I found out that Egerton actually did his own singing in this film, which was excellent and had been given the blessing of the actual Elton John I raise the grade of this flick from an A- to an A. 
I think it’s a better film than Bohemian Rhapsody (which I really liked ) and Egerton delivers an even more impressive performance. I hope that’s enough to get this film the attention it deserves. 
A
WSS