A dazzling reinvention of the musical biopic

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2020)

This musical fantasia gives a giddy jolt to the predictable musical biopic genre. Taron Egerton's performance as Elton John is simultaneously playful, vulnerable, dark, joyful, and damaged. You can't take your eyes off of him.
Instead of the traditional "and then this happened, and we had this big hit" structure of most of these films, the musical numbers here burst out of the action the way beloved pop songs burst out of our own emotional memories.
In a year of lumbering, overlong movies, this is a dizzying joyride with heart and soul and rock and roll.