Good Musical Biopic

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2019)

Rocketman: A musical biopic in the form of a Musical! And a fantasy musical at that. Elton John enters an AA meeting clad in an orange devil suit, confessing to alcoholism, being a cokehead, addicted to prescription drugs, bulimia, shopaholic, sex-addiction. His six tear old self appears in the room and everyone goes singing and dancing back to the 1950s. The AA room is used as a framing device for flashbacks. This being a musical anyone can burst into song and start dancing. An Elvis quiffed 12 year old Elton plays Saturday Nights All Right For Fighting, naturally fights break out and the segues into a 20 year old Elton at a fairground. Other great numbers are Crocodile Rock where Elton and the audience levitate and Rocketman, underwater and with him on a stretcher. Pretty good musical and it's warts and all about John's excesses at just about everything. Taron Egerton as Elton, Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin, good acting, directed by Dexter Fletcher. 8/10.