Rocketman (2019) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Drama | Music | Musical

Tagline: The Only Way to Tell His Story is to live His Fantasy

The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.

Storyline: A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 23, 2019 If you were a nerdy little piano player in the 1970s (ahem), chances are you had at least two then newly minted Top 40 heroes to emulate: Elton John and Billy Joel. I haven't seen any announcement of a Joel biographical film in the offing (though Billy did get his own so-called "jukebox musical" several years ago courtesy of Twyla Tharp's Movin' Out), but in Rocketman Elton John is memorialized in several not so coincidentally similar ways to how Freddie Mercury was in the relatively recent Bohemian Rhapsody. And much like Rami Malek's eventual Academy Award winning turn in Bohemian Rhapsody gave that film much of its energy, Rocketman is similarly propelled by a viscerally involving performance by Taron Egerton as a guy who was born with the name Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Kind of interestingly, given my mention of Movin' Out above, Rocketman assumes certain "jukebox musical" tendencies itself, with several of Elton's (and Bernie's of course) tunes utilized to comment on the proceedings, rather than only trotting them out for "live performance" sequences. That tends to give Rocketman at least some of the trappings of a traditional musical, but the film also wants to provide a bit of psychology (again much as was the case with Bohemian Rhapsody, and again not so coincidentally at least partially focused on matters of sexual preference).

That psychological aspect is brought to bear just about from the get go with a conceit that finds Elton (Taron Egerton playing the role as an adult) storming into a so-called "12 step meeting", albeit in an outlandish horned and winged stage costume. The very theatrical ambience of this approach would seem to chafe at any "realistic" depiction of underlying emotions and/or traumas, and it's here that even some diehard Elton fans may feel that Rocketman never quite finds sure footing, vacillating a bit between "kitchen sink" dramatics and over the top flourishes that aren't necessarily tied to those aforementioned "live performance" aspects. Rocketman may also suffer a bit from too on the nose dialogue, where every jot and tittle of foundational "issues" needs to be overtly discussed, with an emphasis on how various things made Elton "feel". By the time the film has an older and ostensibly wiser Elton in an AA meeting interacting with ghosts from his past, including "forgiving" his parents and then hugging his childhood self, even self-appointed psychoanalysts may be rolling their eyes, if only a little.

It would be easy to say that Rocketman depicts Elton (played appealingly by Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor at younger ages) with pretty significant "Daddy" issues, Daddy in this case being martinet Stanley Dwight (Steven Mackintosh). Except, Elton most definitely also has "Mommy issues" as well, Mommy in this case being the somewhat callous Sheila Dwight (Bryce Dallas Howard). About the only family member young Elton (then of course known as Reginald or Reggie) has to depend on is his grandma whom he calls "nan", but whose given name is Ivy (Gemma Jones). The film rather quickly documents the roiling family dysfunctions of the Dwight household, while also giving an overview of young Reggie's first forays into piano repertoire.

Rocketman of course goes on to document Elton's ultimate partnership with Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), while also detailing occasional skirmishes with music impresario Dick James (Stephen Graham). This film is arguably a bit more overt in its approach toward Elton's sexuality than Bohemian Rhapsody was with regard to Freddie Mercury's, with a kind of overheated subplot featuring Elton's manager and lover John Reid (Richard Madden). All of this supposed "biographical" information spills out in a carnival like atmosphere, where the music is often not all that diagetic, and in fact often springs out of dialogue and/or events, much as in a "traditional" musical. That kind of tends to once again bifurcate the proceedings, though, as many Elton fans are going to of course recognize the songs as Elton tunes, where they are often offered here in different contexts, and just as often with a number of characters singing at least snippets of them. Even some of the so- called "source" music, like tunes played by Elton in various auditions or performances, are almost non sequiturs, at least in terms of the timeline, and often in terms of the actual history involved.

Rocketman at least has the courage of its stylistic convictions, for better and/or worse, and utilizes this kind of odd approach to arguably fitful effect, but the film is often bright and breezy despite its subtext of potential overuse of that vaunted trifecta of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. This is certainly miles away from the sort of revisionist Hollywood biopics of folks like, for example, Cole Porter in Night and Day, and it's obviously trying to make a point about show business artifice masking some deep psychological traumas (as evidenced by the late reveal of Elton "losing" the fantastic 12 step getup that opens the film), but this is a "biography" that is intentionally as much "show" as it is "business". In that regard, it's kind of interesting that this edition comes replete with a little booklet written by Elton which is obviously a PR stunt to promote his upcoming autobiography Me, but which gets into both his life and the liberties Rocketman has taken with it. "It wasn't all true, but it was the truth," is Elton's summation of the situation, and that statement (advice?) should probably be taken to heart when watching the film.

As might have been gleaned from my opening statement above, I was indeed a nerdy little piano player in the 1970s and I completely idolized both Elton and Billy, along with a host of other fantastic keyboard artists whose music was featured prominently on the radio in those days. Back in those perhaps more innocent times, I certainly never thought about any artist's personal life all that much, and my hunch is a lot of other fans never did, either. As such, psychologically ruminative efforts like Rocketman may strike some as needless, cathartic to their subjects perhaps but maybe not to the audience. That said, Rocketman has a ton of fantastic music, some artfully staged song and dance sequences, and at least the general outlines of Elton's amazing life and career. Egerton is first rate as Elton, and he may be offering yet another analog between this film and Bohemian Rhapsody by scoring a Best Actor Academy Award nomination next year. Though not a self avowed armchair psychoanalyst, I was indeed rolling my eyes a few times at the silly psychobabble and other melodrama that sometimes informs this feature, but that said I was never less than completely entertained by this film. With caveats noted, and with an appreciation for solid technical merits and a nice slate of supplements, Rocketman comes Recommended.

[CSW] -1.7- It is a "musical" done like a Broadway play. For that reason I took away points. No one is playing the actual music and no one song is played in its entirety. But Taron Egerton is excellent as Elton, and his singing is excellent. The songs are the whole movie, and all the songs are awesome as we all know. I still enjoyed it, but I am not a fan of "musicals", even though I like movies about music. However if you were expecting an in depth look you might find it a disappointing attempt at a biopic, I did. The real history is given in the end credits and took all of 5 minutes. Finally, you may find the closed captioning useful - without it would have been difficult to understand some of the thick accents. Buy the music, rent the movie and skip to the end credits.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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