Just Woah!

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2019)

Okay, I don't like biopics, but for some reason a part of me wanted to see this film, not because I am a huge Elton John fan or anything, but rather because it looked interesting. Mind you, when I went to sit in the theatre a part of me started wondering what I had got myself into, particularly since in my mind Elton John was, to me at least, one of the good guys of rock and roll. Well, that turned out not to be the case at all.
One of the reasons I suspected that this film eventuated was due to the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. Look, this is no Bohemian Rhapsody, though there are a number of similarties between Elton John and Freddy Mercury. Well, not that much because while Elton John certainly has dominated the music scene for such a long time, none of his songs could go down in the chronicles of rock history the way Bohemian Rhapsody has. The other thing is that while he is a prodigy when it comes to playing a piano, he simply has no ability to come up with lyrics, which is why his friend Bernie Taupin wrote pretty much most of the lyrics for John's songs.
The movie is told as a form of a flash back, after Elton decided that enough was enough, walks out of one of his concerts, and signs himself into rehab. Not surprisingly, he walks in and begins telling his story, but what is interesting is that as the story progresses, he goes from his flamboyant self to becoming, well, plan dressing. In fact, it seems that after this episode Elton seemed to have toned down a lot, though I guess in a way he had come of age.
Yeah, this is about his struggle with drugs, and well, everything. This, well, isn't all that surprising, though I never realised that Elton had such a huge drug problem, yet it seems as if it is something that pretty much all rockers go through. Some survive, others don't. Elton turned out to be one of the lucky ones, though he doesn't seem to go down in the annals alongside the likes of Keith Richards and Ozzy Osbourne.
The other thing that grabbed me was that this film was much more of a musical than was Bohemian Rhapsody. In many ways it felt a lot more psychodelic, despite me not really considering Elton's music to be all that psychodelic. Yet having all the songs playing, and playing at moments that were reflective of his life at the time, was also pretty good. Mind you, considering that he never wrote any of his lyrics I'm not entirely sure whether these songs really have any meaning anyway.
The other thing that stands out is the idea of loneliness. It seems that throughout the movie we are constantly confronted with how lonely Elton seems to be. Sure, he has a huge party at his mansion, and then spends the entire time in his room with a bottle. There are also suggestions that his sexual orientation was a cause of that, but that is pretty much struck down at the end, and the comment was mostly something that was probably floating around during the seventies. I guess the thing is that being rich and famous can actually be quite a lonely endeavour, and goes to show that money really can't buy happiness.
One final thought is that of John Reid. He was Elton's lover, and also managed Queen for a period during the 70s. Honestly, it really isn't all that flattering, despite the fact that he is still alive and living in Australia. From Bohemian Rhapsody he wasn't painted as a particularly nice guy, nor was he portrayed that way in this film either. It sort of makes me wonder why he hasn't kicked up a stink. Then again, maybe it was just my interpretation.