Rocketman

The music bio is exceptionally easy to parody, with the same combination of early struggle, rise to success, personal drama, spiralling collapse and uplifting finale applied to virtually anything from Queen to the Four Seasons to Johnny Cash. And to a certain extent, “Rocketman” doesn’t challenge the formula – Elton John has a messed up childhood, a startling rise to fame, and a laundry list of addictions and personal problems. But playing this as a slightly surrealist musical, told by Elton as he recounts his story to a support group in rehab, allows this to colour outside the lines a little bit – songs are repurposed to where they might fit the narrative best rather than sung strictly in order of release (and, due to the film acknowledging Bernie Taupin’s role in writing the lyrics, there’s no cheesy moments when Elton’s suddenly inspired to write a song by someone dropping a choice phrase into dialogue). There is a little bit of box ticking to work through the various addictions (shopping, sex addiction and several of Elton’s various costumes get montages, and bulimia gets a quick shoutout), but there’s also some great surrealism in the images to capture how pivotal moments of the story felt from the inside. For an authorised bio, it’s reasonably unsparing of Elton’s dignity, allowing him to be flawed, petty and petulant. As well as Taran Egerton’s lead as Elton, there’s some great supporting cast work – Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin gives the less visible partner his own purpose and dignity, Richard Madden is suitably creepy as manager John Reid, and there’s a great cameo from Tate Donavan, playing the height of diffident California cool as the owner of the Trocadero. It’s a fun and enthralling celebration of a great musician, with a lot of delightful surprises