{"id":7986,"date":"2019-06-04T06:43:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T10:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7986"},"modified":"2019-07-16T06:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T10:15:41","slug":"rocketman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7986","title":{"rendered":"Rocketman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Think back\u2014how many popular music star biopics have you seen\nthat follow this arc: sincere artist\u2019s unexpected (if inevitable) rise from\nobscurity to massive success, addiction to alcohol\/drugs, shaky career\ntrajectory, painful rehabilitation, ultimate triumph? Don\u2019t any ascending stars\nwatch these movies? Maybe it\u2019s a comment on the how young people perceive their\ninvulnerability. Or on filmmakers\u2019 affinity for formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocketman<\/em>, which\ncovers Elton John\u2019s early career, has those elements. Blessedly, it is not that\nmovie (trailer<\/a>). Writer\nLee Hall and director Dexter Fletcher have accomplished something much more interesting\nand creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the opening scene, Elton John (played brilliantly by\nTaron Egerton) strides down an empty hallway in full sparkly devil bodysuit,\ncape, cap, and horns and plunks himself in a chair at an AA meeting. \u201cI know\nhow this goes,\u201d he says and enumerates his many addictions. The group leader\u2019s\nprobing returns him to his childhood where he picks out tunes on the piano by\near. Back in the support group, in costume, he wrenches off the horns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s taken back to other earlier events, and each time he\nreturn to the group, another piece of his outrageous costume is gone. Clearly,\nhe\u2019s stripping off the trappings of his onstage persona to get to the man\nunderneath. So much more effective\u2014and emotionally resonant\u2014than the overhead shots\nof poor Ray Charles writhing on his rehab bed. (I love a great metaphor!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When John is finally able to embrace the sweet child he was,\nwell . . . Whatever process the real-life John went through, it worked. He\u2019s\nbeen sober for 28 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This movie doesn\u2019t set out to be chronologically precise\nbiopic and is not limited by that form. It\u2019s a musical, with toe-tapping dance\nnumbers and bracing energy. The filmmakers weave in Elton John\u2019s songs with\ntheir remarkable lyrics where they fit in the development of the character. The\nfriendship between John and his forever lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) is\nan emotional core of this story. Other relationships may implode or fade, but\nTaupin, whom John met thanks to a complete fluke, has been with him for fifty\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film does not deny audiences the considerable pleasures of the Johns\/Taupin music, which Egerton delivers with enthusiasm. Plus there were probably blood-soaked feathers on the floor as people fought for the job of costume director, which ultimately went to Julian Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do yourself a solid, see it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> Critics Rating: 91%; audiences: 88%. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think back\u2014how many popular music star biopics have you seen that follow this arc: sincere artist\u2019s unexpected (if inevitable) rise from obscurity to massive success, addiction to alcohol\/drugs, shaky career trajectory, painful rehabilitation, ultimate triumph? Don\u2019t any ascending stars watch … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Rocketman - do yourself a solid and see this high-energy toe-tapping musical about Elton John's early career. Steers clear of the cliched biopic approach.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[265,366,57,207,104],"tags":[464,1575],"class_list":["post-7986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biography","category-drama","category-movies","category-music","category-the-morgue","tag-elton-john","tag-rocketman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Rocketman.jpg?fit=545%2C653&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-24O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7988,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions\/7988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}