Biopics have always been a major draw at the movies. Whether it be the true story of a war hero or an inventor of a game-changing modern technology, people have always loved movies that tell the inspiring stories of real people that have had an impact on the world. In the last decade, there has been a particular love for biopics about famous musicians. There has been a slew of musician biopics in recent years, ranging from Bohemian Rhapsody, to Straight Outta Compton, Respect, Judy, and, most recently, Elvis and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Many of these films end up receiving loads of critical praise and Academy Award nominations. Straight Outta Compton was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, meanwhile, Renée Zellweger won the award for lead actress and Bohemian Rhapsody won four Oscars (film editing, sound editing, sound mixing and Rami Malek for lead actor) in addition to being a Best Picture nominee.
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Unfortunately, one of the best films in this genre was overlooked and has been largely forgotten in the years since its release. That film is 2019’s Rocketman, which tells the story of Elton John. While the film did win one Oscar for Best Original Song, that was the only one it was nominated for. While it did get a little more recognition from other awards like the Golden Globes, the film’s quality warranted much more than that. Rocketman continues to be one of the most overlooked and underrated musical biopics in recent years. It was one of the best films that 2019 had to offer, and it deserves a positive and longstanding legacy. Here’s what sets Rocketman apart from the countless other musical biopics of the 21st century.
Its Historical Honesty
Paramount Pictures
A lot of modern biopics, especially those about musicians, have a tendency to sugarcoat many unflattering aspects about the person they are focused on. This is especially true when the person the movie is about or the people that they surrounded themselves with are actively involved in the development of the movie. The most notorious example of this is Bohemian Rhapsody, which Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor were consultants for and the band’s manager, Jim Beach, was a producer. That film underplayed much of Mercury’s drug use and sexuality, while also rearranging key elements and events of his life. Rocketman, on the other hand, openly embraces these aspects of John’s life.
That’s not to say that everything in Rocketman is accurate, but the movie does do an excellent job of representing the events of John’s life and his generally unstable mentality throughout much of it. The film opens with a fictionalized sequence that shows him attending an addiction rehab session dressed in a colorful devil outfit. From there, he talks openly about being addicted to pretty much everything, from alcohol to sex and all sorts of drugs. The film uses this rehab session as a device for John to serve as a narrator of the film. He is recounting much of his life’s story to the other people at the meeting, often having to admit many of his more shameful moments aloud. This approach to the story essentially requires Rocketman to fully explore these darker aspects of John’s life, which gives a lot more dramatic weight to the overall story.
One of the most impressive things about this is that, despite the film’s focus on John’s self-destructive tendencies and antics, Rocketman somehow manages not to be a real downer of a movie. It’s actually a lot of fun to experience. It’s a real rollercoaster of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. It also fully and openly embraces John’s sexuality. It’s able to entertain the audience while still exploring the overall drama and tension of John’s life. It doesn’t make John out to be a great guy all the time. The movie doesn’t shy away from the fact that he could really be a self-centered jerk sometimes, especially when at his peak drug use and fame. While there have been some who have argued against specific aspects of the film, namely the depiction of John’s father, on the whole, Rocketman does an excellent job of telling an honest account of the musician’s life and all the great and not-so-great moments within it.
Taron Egerton’s Performance
Marv Films
Adding to the overall quality of the story are the consistently stellar performances across the board in the film. The biggest highlight of the film is, predictably, the performance of Taron Egerton in the lead role. It would be a monumental task for anyone to step into the shoes of a star like John, but Egerton makes it seem easy. He fully dives into the character, embracing many of John’s eccentric and pronounced personality traits while still bringing his own sense of life to the film. He fully embodies John while avoiding the dangerous trap of just doing an impersonation the whole time. He takes this larger-than-life individual and brings him down to earth in the film’s more personal sequences while still shooting for the stars every chance he gets. Egerton is a fantastic actor, which he has proven time and time again through the likes of the Kingsman movies and shows like Apple TV+’s Black Bird. His performance as John in Rocketman is nothing short of outstanding.
Thankfully, despite being snubbed for an Oscar nomination for the role, Egerton did get plenty of other awards recognition for his work in Rocketman. He was nominated for Best Lead Actor at the BAFTAs, the SAG awards and the HCA awards. He also won the award for Best Lead Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes. Rocketman was a career-best performance for Egerton, and he deserved every ounce of praise he received for his performance. He was truly infectious, and his performance elevates the film to a whole new level with every scene. Much of the movie’s colorful nature and dramatic weight was set on Egerton’s shoulders, and he carried everything without as much as the blink of an eye.
Beyond Egerton, the entire cast really steps up to the plate as well. One of the biggest standouts is Richard Madden, who many will recognize as Robb Stark from Game of Thrones, who plays John’s questionable manager and romantic interest John Reid. Madden is one of the most underappreciated performers of the last decade, and in the role, he really gets to flex his acting capabilities. He is as unwaveringly magnetic and charismatic as he is detestable. Plus, his duet performance with Egerton on “Honky Cat” makes for one of the best musical numbers of the movie. Other standouts in the cast include Jamie Bell, who plays John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard as John’s mother.
A Full-On Movie Musical
You would think that movies about musicians would fully embrace their musical roots, but that’s often not the case. In films like Bohemian Rhapsody and Judy, the music is there, but it’s only ever presented through the songwriting process and stage performances. Rocketman, on the other hand, embraces the theatricality of its central character by making the entire experience a big-budget movie musical. There are massive musical numbers throughout the film, complete with extensive dance choreography, impassioned vocal performances from the cast, and all the classic songs that made everyone fall in love with John to begin with.
From start to finish, the film features nearly two dozen of John’s classic hits. Which, granted, some of them are included only briefly through interludes or montages; but many of them are given complete and lengthy moments to shine. The song “The Bitch Is Back” serves as the exciting opening musical sequence to the film, introducing the character of Reginald Dwight/John, both as an adult and a child. Much of John’s inner turmoil, general grandiosity, and tense family relations that will be explored in the film are introduced during this sequence, serving as an excellent setting of the stage for the story that follows. From there, the movie blasts off with one musical number after another, all while never forgetting to tell a compelling story. Some of the most standout moments are the renditions of “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting),” “Tiny Dancer,” “Honky Cat” and “Goodbye Yellow Bring Road.”
Another aspect of these musical sequences that adds to the overall effect of the movie is the genuine performances of the cast. Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, which recreated the voice of Freddie Mercury by mixing his original vocals with those of the Canadian singer Marc Martel, with very little of the sung performance being Malek, Rocketman actually uses its cast’s voices. Egerton provides all the vocals for John, while the likes of Bell, Madden and others populate the rest of the soundtrack with their own in-character performances. This seemingly obvious decision does a lot for building the overall atmosphere of the film. There’s not a moment where the viewer is distracted by a character suddenly having a different voice when they start singing. It’s all real, authentic singing talent, with each song being a faithful and exciting new rendition of one of John’s classics. The result of this is that Rocketman, unlike many other modern music-based biopics, is endlessly entertaining and enjoyable to watch. It’s a truly electric movie, with a real sense of momentum and energy that is often difficult to achieve on screen.
