*POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD, BUT I'M TRYING TO STILL KEEP THOSE VAGUE*
Elton John has made no secret of him having a glamorous life. He has his farewell tour going on now, and with that in mind, it was interesting to see what made this rock 'n roll titan into such an insane talent.
I should also specify that I went to see this movie with possibly the world's biggest Elton fan, my lovely friend Delaney. She has all of Elton John's albums on vinyl, follows numerous fan accounts and Tumblr feeds (one of which supplied my awesome cover pic for this article-- thanks again, Jordan! Check out their profile! https://instagram.com/jordanhillustrations?igshid=1bvpzm2z5rx30 ), and she was capital R READY for this movie. I was more excited to see Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell and Richard Madden (can Robb Stark sing? Are we going to hear him sing?). We both left breathless and energized, and OH MY GOD, did I learn a lot.
Rocketman was brutally honest. It did not try to paint Elton John as someone who was perfect and had everything bad happen to him (though there were some times he was doing everything right and people were TERRIBLE). The movie quite literally has John laying out all his issues for the audience to see, starting at the end, so to speak, and then getting us back to that point.
I was particularly excited that the movie is oftentimes structured like a movie musical, so people burst into song and there are many songs sung by multiple characters. For the most part, the score came in at perfect times to highlight parts of the story. I am told those songs probably were not so perfectly timed in real life because some events were illustrated with songs that weren't written yet, but I was just there for the MAGIC, you know? And I got that.
There were so many costumes and over-the-top moments, and it was really interesting to go online afterwards and find those costumes and their real context. All of the costumes came from real performances! Someone give this movie an Oscar.
Additionally, the movie focused a lot on the relationships Elton John built in the build of his career. Of course, some are great and some are terrible. There's a character I was rooting for the whole time that was not given enough credit. I cried a couple times watching Elton try to navigate some of the more, shall we say, dangerous, situations and relationships.
This movie is great for anyone who wants to gain a basic level of knowledge about Elton John and his life up until now or for the established fan who wants to jam to a lot of music of his that might not be the most popular (there was a wide range of music in the movie). If you like any of the actors involved, go see it. If you enjoy music, go see it.
And, most importantly, if you like MOVIES, go see it.
