Rocketman (2019)

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2019)

Rocketman is a strongly directed, performed and put together cinematic experience about the life of Elton John.
Taron Egerton excels as the titular Rocketman with a poignant, soft but still all guns blazing performance. His singing is wonderful and he jumps head first into the role and gives a brilliantly tender soul to the film.
Egerton is only as good as his support and my god his support is good. Jamie Bell as Bernie gives for some of the film's most poignant scenes.
Bryce Dallas Howard is an inspired casting choice to play Elton's mother and she gives it her best (although it was very clear she didn't do her own singing!)
Stephen Graham is just fantastic as usual. Charlie Rowe and Tate Donovan do very well with their limited parts.

Steven Mackintosh and Gemma Jones were great reliable support whilst Richard Madden was brilliant fiendish as John Reid (who was also played by Game of Thrones alumni Aiden Gillen in Bo Rhap and one wonders where he could've taken the role if it was as fleshed out as Madden's).
Little Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor were fantastic as little Elton and they deserve as much praise as Taron.
The film is so well put together, the way the film is constructed with this circular narrative puts Bo Rhaps' circular structure to shame and although one shouldn't compare, the comparison between these films is hard to avoid, because Rocketman is so bloody brilliant.
The set pieces / transitions between scenes are just wonderful, director Dexter Fletcher deserves all the praise for how he has constructed this film. He directed the bloody hell out of this film and deserves all the accolades coming his way.
Never been a massive Elton John fan, didn't grow up on his music and that is exactly why I wanted to see this film, everybody I know loved Bohemian Rhapsody for the "nostalgia" but nostalgia shouldn't overshadow poor storytelling and construction.
Rocketman proves you don't need to rely on nostalgia to make a bloody great film.