Everything I wanted "Bohemian Rhapsody" to be.

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2019)

I do not hate the film, but I do not like the reputation that "Bohemian Rhapsody" has received (Best Picture nomination, seriously!?) and thought that it was a hugely overrated film filled with flaws. What that film failed to do, this film did it in spades. The film does follow the typical beats of a biopic and it's a formula that is hard to get away from. However, what director Dexter Fletcher did here was to focus onto the life of Elton John as a musical and in a very nice fashion, used various songs of his to tell this story and I thought that was brilliant. I don't know much detail about Elton John, so it was nice to learn a little about this great singer and to know the life that he had lived. If you've seen or heard stories about famous musicians, they tend to tell the same story and had similar problems from addiction to music producers. This is no exception as this film does tell a similar tale, but at the same time, I was intrigued with this film and just enjoyed watching this story. Another great point is that the people involved in this movie did a great job recreating some parts of his life, but to make costumes that are really close to the original. The best thing that this film had done was to have me interested and wanting to listen to his music.
I've always liked Taron Edgerton and I thought he was absolutely phenomenal here as he acted his butt off and actually sang proving how great of an actor he is. Without a doubt, he really deserves an Academy Award nomination for this role. From the first time you see him, he embodied himself as Elton John and for the whole film, he was able to bring so much emotion to his role, allowing us as a viewer to connect and sympathize with him. His singing is amazing and I really liked the fact that he actually sang those songs rather than using another person to sing it for him. Edgerton is not only the stand out role as every single person in this film was great! Jamie Bell was great and I never knew he had singing chops. Richard Madden was amazing and brought a sense of cynicism to his character. Also, Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Mackintosh as the parents of Elton were such terrible parents, especially the father and their performances were so good that you simply despise them and sympathize more with Elton. I won't say much, but I absolutely hated his father in this movie.
One of the major surprises of the film was that this was a full on musical. I expected to see the basic biopic story, but to tell this story as a musical and actually using his music as a base to tell the story was a pretty smart choice. Most of the musical numbers were extravagant with great visuals and unique shots, along with having a cast who can sing. Each number did allow us to see what Elton was going through, from his ups and downs to showing part of his life that was filled with joy to this downward spiral he had entered due to his addiction.
I'm praising this film a lot, but I did have a few minor gripes. I did feel that there were parts of the movie, mostly in the third act that dragged a bit, which felt that the film had gone a tad bit too long. Also, some of the musical numbers, as well sung as they were, felt a bit too overbearing in the third act and I felt that the movie focused more on the singing rather than the actual dialogue. There are moments where after a song, the characters will briefly talk and then the film will jump to a new song. I would have been nice to have a little breather in between rather than having a slew of songs being sung back to back.
Overall, this is definitely one of the best films of this year and Edgerton does deserve an Oscar nod for his performance here. If you love musicals or are interested in the life of Elton John, then I highly recommend this film.