JUNE 8 2019 LISTENER 57
sideshows tangential to the drama.
Some are just a weird fit. The Bitch Is
Back might be John’s traditional live set-
opener, but having it start the film as a
song-and-dance number in his boyhood
suburbia is quite odd. As far as delivering
something new or insightful, Rocketman’s
grand artifice tends to bury the artistry.
True, the John story has already been told
many times in biographies and documen-
taries. He kicked off the closet doors and
threw out the skeletons years ago.
As a rock biopic, it is much less sanitised
than last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody, with
which it shares a director, Dexter Fletcher,
and a mutual character: John’s manager
and early-70s lover, John Reid (here played
by Richard Madden in a prettier incarna-
tion than the Queen movie).
But it still doesn’t quite excite or, well,
rock in the way Rhapsody did, which made
that film’s shortcomings forgivable. Part of
that is the result of Egerton’s performance.
It’s a decent impersonation, both acting
and singing, but only that. The script by
Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall doesn’t give him
much breathing room, although it does
spend time depicting John’s enduring
partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin,
nicely played by Jamie Bell.
The story is framed in flashbacks
recounted by John at a group therapy
session where, early in the film, he has
arrived wearing a stage costume of devil
horns and wings, looking like a man
clearly dressed to face his demons, even if
he is wearing rose-tinted spectacles. That
post-rehab confessional device gives the
flashbacks to his roller-coaster high life an
air of regret and cautionary tale. It can all
feel a bit tut-tut. That said, Rocketman is
infectious fun when it’s charting the rapid
rise of Reg Dwight from gifted teenage
pub piano player to late-60s blues band
sideman and early 70s glam-rock superstar
via a name change and a firecracker string
of early hits.
There, Rocketman achieves lift-off – as
do John and his audience during a scene
depicting his 1970 breakthrough show in
a Los Angeles club. It’s quite a moment.
The film isn’t a great or illuminating bio-
graphical drama, but does a good job of
bringing us Elton, the madman showman.
For many, that will be enough.
IN CINEMAS NOW
Russell BaillieRocketman is infectious
fun when it’s charting the
rapid rise of Reg Dwight
from gifted teenage pub
piano player to 70s glam-
rock superstar.
able to juggle these competing feelings,
because he’s done it before. In 2013, he
made Gloria, set in Santiago, in his native
Chile, with Paulina García in the lead role.
There’s something audacious in doing
a cover version of your own film (appar-
ently at Moore’s insistence), let alone
doing it shot-for-shot, and it’s uncanny
how this new version registers so many of
the same emotions and qualities. If there’s
a distinction between them, it’s a matter
of history: the former had a potent post-
Augusto Pinochet mood, whereas this one
barely brushes up against current Ameri-
can fractures.
But I’m not complaining, especially
if we get to see Moore doing some of
her finest and most delicate work. She’s
incredibly good, even when it’s just her,
eyes closed, dancing alone to the groove
of a distant tune.
IN CINEMAS NOW
James RobinsALADDIN
directed by Guy RitchieI
n 1992’s Aladdin, a centrepiece in
Disney’s animation renaissance, Robin
Williams’ buff ultramarine genie
laid the ground rules for granting three
wishes. You can’t bring something back
from the dead, he warned, doing his
best Boris Karloff impression. “It’s not a
pretty picture.”
An apt premonition. This new Aladdin
is a live-action, CG-heavy resurrection
directed by Guy Ritchie (still in story-
book mode after his terrible spin on
King Arthur). It sticks to the plot and
action of the original, but it’s 30 minutes
longer and it’s turned out worse.
Despite the cast (which includes Mena
Massoud, Naomi Scott and Marwan
Kenzari) adding a touch more authen-
ticity, the setting is still generically
“Oriental”, hoovering up costumes, cus-
toms and architecture from anywhere
between Islamabad and Istanbul. Will
Smith, meanwhile, has an enthusiastic
go at making the genie role his own,
keeping pace with Williams’ famously
motormouthed performance.
The songs – perhaps the most memo-
rable aspect of the original film and
the stage musical – have been given a
big-band boost, but they’re largely per-
formed in the key of High School Musical:
every vowel drawn out to grating
lengths. Are we really, as Aladdin howls
aboard his flying carpet, in “a whole
new woooooorrrhhhhld”? The answer is
no. It’s a cold copy of the old.
IN CINEMAS NOW
James RobinsFilms are rated out of 5:
(abysmal) to (amazing)SHORT TAKES