Francesca’s Film Recommendation: Rocketman

I love musicals and I love biopics. I think music is an excellent way to carry a story along. That’s one of the hallmarks of a film like Rocketman. The songs don’t exactly follow a chronological order, instead, they’re placed in the story where it seems fitting to like I said, carry the story along.

Rocketman is the story of British musician Elton John’s life and musical career highlights. It stars Taron Egerton as Elton John, Jamie Bell as Elton’s lyricist Bernie Taupin and Richard Madden as Elton’s former partner and manager John Reid. The film features some of Elton’s best hits such as “Your Song”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Tiny Dancer”, and “I’m Still Standing”.

Before anyone starts to bring the cold hard facts into this I’ll disclose that some of the events in this film are exaggerated or twisted a little bit. The reasons range from time, plot, etc. For example, Reginald Dwight wants to change his name to Elton because a bandmate at the time has that name and he liked it. That part is true. What isn’t true is that he chose the last name John because of John Lennon like the film alludes to.

The musical numbers are my favorite parts. They’re eccentric and flamboyant and that’s everything that Elton embodies. Don’t even get me started on the costumes, those are next level. Julian Day, the costume designer for both Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody is out of this world. His attention to detail is phenomenal. One of my favorite fun facts is from the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” scene. Clearly, the song is reminiscent of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, at least the album art is. In the scene, Elton is wearing a fur coat, a metallic silver shirt, a straw-like hat, and ruby red sparkle boots. The entire outfit pays tribute to the four main characters and there are so many other little easter eggs like that.

If you follow me on my personal twitter then you know how much I love this film! I want to know what you think. Do you love it too? Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the film’s release at Cannes, maybe it’s time for a rewatch. Let us know your thoughts on twitter at @TheCinemaSpot.