I decided to see Rocketman for a few reasons- one because I am partial to Elton John, two I find the actor Taron Egerton quite talented and thirdly because I wanted to see if they would straight wash this movie.

With all this in mind, and already having brought the soundtrack via iTunes, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie.

The main thing to note is that this movie isn’t a lineal movie in the traditional sense- the time frame bounces from the “present” to the past and back again- so you better be paying attention (though it’s quite easy to follow). The movie opens with Elton John going into rehab before bouncing back to his childhood. The rehab is the point of return for the movie- we come back to it quite often and it’s a frame work for both us as the audience and for John himself, as we see how the “rock and roll lifestyle” affect him.

In between the meltdowns and going off the rails, Rocketman is a pretty campy movie; for a lack of a better description this is one of the gayest movies I’ve ever seen and I’ve also seen a lot of LGBTQIA films in my life. The fact that this movie is such mainstream and it hasn’t shied away from showing John’s gay side- you see gay sex scenes and quite a lot of gay kisses too!- shows that this movie isn’t afraid of showing the true aspects of it’s star.

Speaking of stars, we must talk about Taron Egerton. As mentioned above, I already purchased the soundtrack on iTunes so I knew he could sing, but my lord it’s so much more then that! Egerton is a true performer- not only can he hold a tune, but he encapsulates the essence of John in the performances as a he bumps it up to 15 and showing why people love Elton John so much.

This is a movie that’s well worth viewing and gets 5 stars from me