ICYMI: blessed man Taron Egerton spent the weekend in Sydney to celebrate the Aussie premiere of his latest flick, Rocketman, the bedazzled biopic of one Sir Elton John. There’s been a lot of hype in the lead-up to its release Down Under and rightfully so, the blue ticks of the entertainment industry froth it and at the Cannes Film Festival, it received a four-minute standing ovation.
Egerton cried, John cried, we all cried.
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Rocketman was helmed by Dexter Fletcher, the director who rescued Bohemian Rhapsody after its original director, Bryan Singer, was axed from the film.
At the time of publication, Rocketman is sitting on an 88 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based off of 84 critic reviews. The usual suspects: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, IndieWire and so on and so forth gave mostly positive reviews of the film. The gist? It’s better than Bohemian Rhapsody.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s bottom line: “We have liftoff, even if the trajectory gets a little shaky.”
It’s largely the credit of star Taron Egerton, who leans fearlessly into the role’s wild excesses, that the movie remains airborne.
They continued:
The fact that Egerton does his own singing with such confidence adds a whole other layer to the characterisation, appropriating the style of John without ever veering into impersonation.
Variety thought Egerton gave a solid performance and commended his singing.
The film, however:
“Rocketman” seems mostly preoccupied with the surface idea of Elton: the outrageous wardrobe, the spectacular showmanship, and his relatively unusual status as an openly gay megastar.
Entertainment Weekly, with a score of B+, praised Egerton’s performance and film for having a lot of heart.
Egerton’s whole-body commitment captures not just Elton’s extravagant physicality — in costume designer Julian Day’s hands, he’s essentially a one-man Mardi Gras.
They also described the film as a “dizzy, bedazzling biopic” that’s about as “subtle as its famously outré muse.”
With a grade of B-, IndieWire put it quite bluntly:
Of course, it doesn’t take much to surpass “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the biopic department, and if that’s the metric for measuring the success of “Rocketman,” then it soars into the stratosphere.
IndieWire also thought Egerton’s performance was solid enough to work however they weren’t as kind as the others.
Taron Egerton gives the karaoke performance of his life in a sufficient impersonation of a very familiar face.
Oof.
Vanity Fair disagreed though, writing: “Egerton tears into the material with an intensity that elevates Rocketman’s standard-issue-tortured artist drama.”
They continued: “It’s a terrific performance, nuanced and emotionally intelligent while still loose, carried with verve and agility.”
As for the film itself, Vanity Fair thought it was a pretty standard biopic with a few moments of fire here and there.
For Time, even if the movie contained scenes that didn’t quite work, “it’s just so damn alive” that you have to love it.
Rocketman is magnificent and ridiculous, a feathered melanage of clichés and originality, of respectful homage and unrepentant nostalgia.
Sometimes it’s comfortingly conventional; other times it’s gloriously off the charts.
Time called Edgerton’s performance an “impersonation as tribute, and it’s filled with tenderness.”
You can check out a whole slew of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, HERE.
Rocketman will hit Aussie cinemas Thursday, 30 May.
