Cheesy feat | 23 May 2019

There have been claims that Rocketman, the biopic of Elton John, is ‘cheesy’ and ‘clichéd’, but, in truth, you do want these films to be a bit cheesy and clichéd. (In Bohemian Rhapsody if a record executive had never cried: ‘Nobody wants to listen to a six-minute opera song with words like “Galileo” in it!’ I’d have walked away in a huff.) So I’m fine with that — would you want a musical biopic without a montage of concert dates and newspaper headlines whirling past? — plus this is more than just that, as it’s also a fun, visually dazzling, extravagantly camp romp. And while the script is, generally, platitudinous, it still has its moments. ‘I started acting like a cunt in 1975,’ says Elton at one point. ‘And just forgot to stop.’

The film is directed by Dexter Fletcher (who took over Bohemian Rhapsody after Bryan Singer was fired), scripted by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and stars Taron Egerton, who is sublime.