Yesterday

It's interesting to look back and see the huge impact the music of The Beatles made on the world. The band didn't even make it out of the 60's intact, but while they were together, the four of them managed to create some of the most incredible and popular songs of all time. The new film Yesterday is a celebration of sorts of those songs, with a unique and fantastical twist. Is it successful? For the most part, yes. 

Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer/songwriter, playing small gigs here and there but feeling frustrated his career hasn't taken off. He's accompanied by his lifelong best friend and manager, Ellie (played by Lily James). One night, all the lights across the world mysteriously shut off all at once, causing Jack to get hit by a bus. When he awakens in the hospital he finds the world has changed in unusual ways since the previous day. He is shocked to discover that somehow, The Beatles have never existed. No one remembers their songs and internet searches pull up nothing. Their albums have even disappeared from his record collection. When he plays one of their songs for his friends to incredulous looks from them he makes a fateful decision to start performing their songs and passing them off as his own. He begins reverse engineering each Beatles song he can remember to recreate them (with Eleanor Rigby amusingly proving to be the hardest to remember right). Soon enough, his performances catch the attention of Ed Sheeran (played by Ed Sheeran), who offers him a spot opening for him on the European leg of his current tour. Of course, Jack accepts but has to leave Ellie behind as she opts to continue her day job as a school teacher. His performances opening for Ed Sheeran catch the attention of Ed's manager, Debra Hammer (played by Kate McKinnon), who sees Jack and his music as the next big thing.  As his rocketing fame becomes overwhelming and being seperated from Ellie brings up new feelings in both, as well as the mounting guilt of passing off someone else's work as his own, Jack increasingly feels trapped and unsure what to do next. 

Danny Boyle directed the film from a script by Richard Curtis. The two of them spin an intriguing tale that I wanted to see just based on the premise alone: What if you woke up one morning and you're the only one that remembered The Beatles? Now, amusingly, there are some other aspects of our current world that are missing that Jack discovers throughout the film (the best one being Jack searching other bands online to hilariously finding out the 90s band Oasis never happened either). But the big one is that, somehow, The Beatles never happened. Of course, Jack decides to exploit this for his own gain and the plot line does more or less go where we expect it to, although Richard Curtis does throw in a couple of nice curve balls to keep us on our toes. Especially a very bold one that I wasn't sure they were going to go for but am so glad they did because it was surprisingly emotional for me. I won't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it. 

Where the film stumbles a bit is in the music sequences. They just never catch fire in the way you'd want them to, especially for a film directed by such a visual director as Danny Boyle. I mean, they're fine and everything but it just lacked the sort of energy or emotional punch, aside from one performance towards the end, that the songs of The Beatles should inspire. When you compare how the songs are used here with how they were used in Across the Universe (and to be fair that movie is a far more surreal jukebox musical), I just wish it they had a little more behind them and were a little more memorable. 

Himesh Patel gives a real everyman quality to Jack in his performance that makes his character easily relatable and certainly empathetic, especially as his life begins to get more and more crazy. He also performs every song in the film himself and is actually quite good with each one. Lily James is a good match for Patel and the two share some decent chemistry as well. You really buy that these two have been friends since they were kids. She also is really good at conveying in subtle ways that her character wants their relationship to be more, but is hesitant to say anything because she is also happy for all of Jack's success. I was also surprised just how much Ed Sheeran is in this film. It's a good and proper supporting role and I appreciated how game he was to gently mock himself. And of course, as a long time Kate McKinnon fan I am always thrilled to see her turn up on screen. She's great fun as manager Debra Hammer and at times a bit scary as well.     

For the most part, Yesterday was a fun and entertaining salute to the music of The Beatles with a fantasy twist. It isn't perfect and the plot is a bit predictable at times. But Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle make the formula work this time, with good performances and a funny script, keeping things fun and inventive enough that I didn't care that I knew where it was headed. Except for that one moment I didn't and boy, I think it made the movie for me. 

A Hard Day's Night

As I look back on A Hard Day's Night, which celebrates it's 55th anniversary this year, I try to recall when I first saw it. If my memory is correct, it was part of a Music Appreciation class I took in Eighth Grade. But I do know that I loved it immediately. One part day in the life documentary and one part slapstick comedy makes for an infectiously fun film and my personal favorite of the films The Beatles made together. 

The film opens with The Beatles (played by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) travelling by train to London for a live television appearance. Along for the ride is Paul's very clean Grandfather (played by Wilfrid Brambell). Looking after the band is Shake (played by John Junkin) and Norm (played by Norman Rossington). The film more or less consists of their assorted adventures over a 24 hour period. Among them is an impromptu jam session on the train, retrieving Paul's Grandfather from a gambling den in London (who used an invite sent to Ringo to get in), dealing with press interviews, and amusing themselves between rehearsals for their show, often at the expense of Norm and Shake. Meanwhile, Paul's very clean Grandfather is continuously getting into mischief, including creating forged autographed Beatles photos to sell to legions of fans.

Richard Lester directed the film from a script by Alun Owen. When he was writing the script, Owen spent a week with John, Paul George and Ringo to get a feel for who they were and what their life was like at the height of Beatlemania. A lot of that went into the film and then was punctuated by slapstick and absurdist humor, as well as some fantastic musical performances to break up the film. There are some great comedic bits in the film, such as the Fab Four antagonizing a stiff older gentleman who intrudes on their compartment on the train or George discovering that Shake has never used a safety razor and demonstrates it for him in front of a mirror by putting shaving cream on the mirror and pretending to shave his reflection, with Shake reacting to it nonetheless. Then it goes even further with John in a bubble bath next to them, playing like a little boy with a toy submarine while pretending the shower attachment is the sub's periscope. They then take it even further with John submerging himself under the bubbles and Norm walking in to get him out of the bath and pulls the drain, only to find the tub empty despite us never seeing John leave. And that is just one small sequence of many hilarious vignettes throughout the film. I've always loved the inclusion of Paul's scheming Grandfather, who in a recurring joke people always refer to as very clean (I didn't fully get this joke until very recently when it was pointed out that Wilfrid Bramble was on a U.K television show Steptoe and Son (later remade in the U.S as Sandford and Son), where his character was frequently called a dirty old man hence the very clean remarks here). A fair amount of the humor also comes from John's attempts to antagonize Norm, much to the latter's chagrin. 

The Beatles themselves have fantastic comedic timing throughout the film delivering witty line after witty line naturally as we progress from one sequence to another. A fantastic example of this is the press conference where every answer The Beatles give to a question is a witty comeback, whether it's Paul responding to every question with, "No, actually we're just really good friends," or Ringo responding to the question if he's a Mod or a Rocker with, "No, I'm a mocker." And then we have John Junkin and Norman Rossington playing the straight men of sorts to all these shenanigans and are quite humorous in their own right, with Shake's general easy going nature to Norm's exasperation, they make a good comedic pair in their own right. Of course, there is Wilfrid Bramble as Paul's Grandfather. He plays the mischievous gentleman so well and is so amusing in the role with the antics he gets up to throughout the film.   

There isn't a lot in terms of plot to A Hard Day's Night, but that's part of it's charm. It's part documentary (for all it's staged shenanigans, it's also a great representation of the Beatlemania days, especially in the opening of the four Beatles fleeing an onslaught of screaming fans), part mockumentary (part of me wonders if we would have This is Spinal Tap if we hadn't had A Hard Day's Night) part Concert Film and part slapstick comedy. Somehow all of these pieces fit together to create one of the more purely joyous films I've ever seen. It's one of my favorites and I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're a Beatles fan. And if you're a Beatles fan that has never seen A Hard Day's Night...how? Why? Call me...I'll bring over my Blu-Ray...

Nowhere Boy

There are two different kinds of biopics. Ones that try to cram an entire person's life into a single film and ones that opt to focus on a particular, pivotal chapter in a person's life. Sam Taylor-Wood's film Nowhere Boy falls squarely into that category, focusing on the early years of John Lennon, his unique home life and his first forays into rock and roll music. 

John Lennon (played by Aaron Johnson) was raised in Liverpool, England by his Aunt Mimi (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) and Uncle George (played by David Threlfall), who took him in when it became clear to them that his mother, Julia (played by Anne-Marie Duff) was incapable of raising John herself. When his Uncle George dies suddenly, John discovers that his mother has been living just a short distance from him all this time, living with her husband Bobby (played by David Morrissey) and her two daughters. Reunited with his free-spirited (and likely bi-polar) mother, John feels a sense of freedom he didn't with the far more practical and strict Mimi. She introduces John to rock and roll music who is immediately taken with it, especially Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. At the same time, John finds himself torn between two households: the strict but caring Mimi and the loving but troubled Julia. As his love of music continues to grow, John decides to form a band of his own with some of his schoolmates. After their first performance, John has a chance meeting with Paul McCartney (played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and the two hit it off as John invites him to join the band. As they practice together, Paul pushes John to write his own music rather than focusing on playing covers of other people's music. Things come to a head though when Julia's more free-spirited influence comes to exacerbate John's own rebellious instincts. 

The film was directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Matt Greenhalgh. They wisely keeps a strong focus on John Lennon's home life and how those relationships helped forge his future. The film goes to great lengths to avoid ever saying "The Beatles", although there are a few cheeky Easter eggs for viewers. The film kicks off with the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night" as it opens on a teenage John Lennon running through Liverpool. There's a lingering shot of Strawberry Field, a children's home in Liverpool that inspired "Strawberry Fields Forever," and a scene where John gets refused entry to The Quarry, a venue the Beatles would famously play. The filmmakers even do a fairly good job traversing the minefield of contradictions that make up reports of John Lennon's early life. For example, there are differing accounts of whether is was Mimi or Julia that bought John his first guitar. The film compromises by having Mimi buy it initially, but then Julia buys it back after Mimi sells it when John gets in trouble for skipping school. There are a few moments of blatant fabrication in the film, such as a physical altercation between John and two of his bandmates that never really happened. But other than that, the film does a reasonably good job keeping true to the truth. 

The performances are quite good. Aaron Johnson really embodies all the different aspects of John's personality, from his mischievous and rebellious side as well as inner turmoil and insecurity. Kristin Scott Thomas turns in a great and multi-layered performance as Mimi. It would be so easy for her to fall into dragon lady mode but she avoids that wonderfully. Yes, Mimi is strict with John and is very no-nonsense and practical, but her love for her nephew still comes through and its clear to the audience that she is doing what she thinks is best for him. She does show support for his musical aspirations as well, even if she doesn't always understand it and their tastes in music diverge. Anne-Marie Duff is quite good as Julia and really captures her mood swings and struggles in a convincing way. As much as John enjoys being reunited with her, it becomes clear that she is ill-equipped to be a parent, acting more as a friend to John, and not a great influence at that as she allows him to cut school. Duff really conveys how much Julia loves her son, even though she is completely incapable of taking care of him. Thomas Brodie-Sangster is an interesting choice to play Paul McCartney as the two really don't look anything at all alike, but he does a fairly good job in the role and McCartney himself did admit he came off cooler in the film than he felt he was in real life, so there is that at least. Besides, I have to give Thomas credit for learning to play the guitar left handed really well for the film while actually being right handed.    

Nowhere Boy is an intriguing look into a largely unknown chapter of the life of John Lennon and covers his teenage years, his formation of his first band that would eventually evolve to become The Beatles everyone knew (the film covers not only his introduction and friendship with Paul McCartney, but later George Harrison as well). But it also takes a look at his unique home life and the two women who helped shape him into the person he would become. It's probably a lesser known film, especially to those who are not huge Beatles fans, but it's a well made and well acted film that is worth seeking out. 

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

I've been a Beatles fan ever since I first heard their music as a kid. Growing up, my Dad had the car radio perpetually tuned to the local Oldies station, so I gained an appreciation for classic Rock and Roll from a young age and The Beatles were a definitive part of it. But, since I was never around for the actual days of Beatlemania, I've had to turn to films that portrayed what it was really like at the time. Aside from the classic A Hard Day's Night, one of the best examples is Robert Zemeckis's directorial debut, I Wanna Hold Your Hand. 

The film focuses on a group of four friends, Pam (played by Nancy Allen), Rosie (played by Wendie Jo Sperber), Janis (played by Susan Kendall Newman) and Grace (played by Theresa Saldana), who are traveling from their hometown of Maplewood, New Jersey to New York City to try and get into the Ed Sullivan show to see The Beatles perform. Of the group, Rosie is the most enthusiastic of the group as she falls into hysterics at even the sight of a cardboard cut out of Paul McCartney. Pam is about to get married and trying to be practical about her impending nuptials, but decides to go along anyway. Grace is an avid photographer and is plotting to get her own pictures of the Fab Four. Janis, on the otherhand, looks down her nose at The Beatles music and is planning to protest the show. Deciding to start at the hotel the Beatles are staying at to catch a glimpse, Grace figures they need a Limo to get as close as possible and convince their friend Larry (played by Marc McClure), who has access to one, to help. Also joining them for the ride is Tony (played by Bobby Di Cicco), who hates the Beatles and wants to disrupt the broadcast. Their plan works, but in the ensuing chaos when Tony is mistaken for a Beatle, the friends get separated. Rosie makes it into the hotel and crosses paths with a Beatlemaniac named Richard (played by Eddie Deezen) before getting thrown out by a hotel security guard (played by Dick Miller). Grace tries to sneak into the studio but is stopped by a stagehand who promises to let her in once the show starts...for $50. Janis starts to soften in her opinion of the band when she meets Peter (played by Christian Jutter), whose Dad is holding his tickets to the show hostage until his son gets a haircut, losing the mop top cut he has now, leading Janis to team up with him to get the tickets back. Meanwhile, Pam manages to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four as the depart through the back of the hotel and manages to sneak up to their room, overcome by the sight of their belongings. All of this leads to an assortment of shenanigans as each of the characters tries to scheme and sneak their way into the Ed Sullivan Show before the show starts. 

The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis from a script he wrote with Bob Gale. The two of them manage to craft an amusing ode to Beatlemania while crafting plenty of hoops for our hapless characters to jump through in pursuit of their prize. At the same time, the way they both show and don't show The Beatles at the same time is ingenious. Using a combination of stand-ins, either far away or obscured, along with footage from the actual show they manage to get away with it. Which is just as well as the film's story is with the kids anyway as they try to get into the show. What Zemeckis and Gale capture so well within the film is how it feels to be a fan of something as well as the excitement and euphoria that can come along with that against the backdrop of maybe the most hysterical and excited fans, ever. Yet, they never make fun of the character themselves for their fan driven pursuits and we as the audience want to see each one of them reach their goal. They also keep the action moving at a strong pace as we move from one misadventure to another. Zemeckis also elects not to have a standard score to the film, instead populating it with a number of Beatles songs throughout. It's also a nice touch that the four main girls' initials correspond to each of the members of the Beatles.

The acting in the film is great, starting with Wendie Jo Sperber who is a force of nature as Rosie. She is a massive fan of The Beatles and carries a handheld radio with her throughout the film, flying into a panic any time a drawing for tickets to the show is announced, even jumping out of a moving car at one point to call in. In an amusing running gag, she doesn't even stop to put money in the pay phone and instead just throws a handful of change at the phone. As the film progresses, her path keeps crossing with the Beatle obsessed Richard and Eddie Deezen brings him to life in all his obnoxious, hilarious glory as Richard manages to hinder Rosie's attempts to see the Fab Four more than he helps. Nancy Allen has fun with her character's arc as Pam, who finds herself second guessing her engagement through the assorted adventures she has herself. Theresa Saldana is a lot of fun in portraying Grace's single minded determination to getting pictures of the Beatles and willing to pretty much do whatever it takes to do it. I also appreciated her blossoming relationship with Larry, who Marc McClure brings his character's shy, nervous self to life. I also loved how their storyline turned out, although I won't dare spoil it. I also enjoyed Susan Kendall Newman as Janis, who starts off the film as a bit of a snob, looking down her nose at the Beatles because of their popularity, but comes around to it the more immersed in the fandom she becomes. I liked her unlikely friendship with the much younger Peter, and their scheme to get his tickets to the show from his strict father, along the way finding an equally unlikely ally in Tony.    

This film kicked off the filmmaking careers of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. They would reteam with Steven Spielberg (who produced this film) the following year with 1941 (which would carry over four cast members from this film as well, Wendie Jo Sperber, Nancy Allen, Bobby Di Cicco and Eddie Deezen) and are probably best known for creating the Back to the Future trilogy. Still, as far as debuts go, this is a pretty strong one and is certainly one of the more underrated and lesser known screwball comedies. The film was recently remastered for release through the Criterion Collection and the results are fantastic. If you are a fan of the film, like I am, it's the version to have. If you haven't seen it, and are a fan of the Beatles, I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out.

The Dead Don't Die

"I told you this was all going to end badly."

Jim Jarmusch's zombie horror-comedy The Dead Don't Die is likely to be one of the more polarizing films of the summer and much of it will depend on where your sense of humor falls. Because I'm not going to lie, this is a much weirder film than the trailers let on. Which for me is by no means a bad thing, but it's not going to be a movie for everyone. 

In the small town of Centerville, local chief of police Cliff Robertson (played by Bill Murray) and Officer Ronnie Peterson (played by Adam Driver) are patrolling their peaceful hamlet, noticing certain strange things going on, including it being bright and sunny at 8 o'clock at night. They are joined by a third officer, Mindy Morrison (played by Chloe Sevigny), to look over their sleepy hamlet of a town, as well as the corpse of Mallory O'Brien (played by Carol Kane), who passed away recently while in custody and they are still waiting for someone to pick up from the coroner's office the next town over. Among the colorful residents are Bobby (played by Caleb Landry Jones), who runs the local gas station/comic book and novelty shop, the local hardware store owner Hank Thompson (played by Danny Glover), the new and decidedly odd mortician Zelda Winston (played by Tilda Swinton), the local farmer no one else likes, Frank Miller (played by Steve Buscemi), and the local motel owner Danny Perkins (played by Larry Fessenden). Things escalate when the dead start to rise and climb out of their graves. At first it's a pair of zombies, one that is played by Iggy Pop no less, who attack the local diner as it is closing up. The bodies are discovered the following morning by the three officers, who aren't sure what to make of the situation although Ronnie suspects it might be zombies. He's proven right when the following night the town finds itself overrun with the walking dead. Following the guidance of Bobby and Ronnie, the three officers are faced with trying to defeat the growing threat, with some unexpected assistance from Zelda, who turns out to be quite handy with a Katana sword. 

Jim Jarmusch wrote and directed the film, clearly drawing inspiration from 70's era zombie films, primarily the Romero zombie films, such as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead and infusing his tale with a very dry sense of humor, with flourishes of the absurd, including a very unexpected plot twist towards the end (that the characters even admit as such) and some equally unexpected fourth wall breaks. For good measure, there is also a fair amount of social satire, much like Romero did, with jabs at the lack of respect for the environment and attention given to the growing threat of climate change, with the plot suggesting that polar fracking has impacted the tilt of the Earth and might be responsible for what is happening, as reported on television several times through the movie from reporter Posie Juarez (played by Rosie Perez). How one correlates to the other is not made clear, but the movie is probably too goofy for it to really matter anyway. Much of the film's humor is derived from the characters' comically understated reactions to the horrors around them, as well as the absurdity of the zombies themselves, many of which resume activities they did when they were alive, such as tennis, lawn mowing or getting coffee. This is mixed with genuine horror elements and a good amount of the requisite gore one would expect from a zombie flick, which makes the characters' reactions all that much funnier, at least to me.  

For this film, the cast is quite impressive. Bill Murray, who memorably had a cameo in another Zom-Com Zombieland, leads the cast as Chief of Police Cliff Robertson. He's a laid back Chief, content to take the night shift so his officers can have the night off and used to not much happening in his little burg. Adam Driver is clearly having fun as Murray's Smart Car driving deputy and the two share most of their scenes together. Any time they are alone in their squad car talking are some of the highlights of the movie. They play off one another so well. Tilda Swinton, as could be expected, steals every scene she is in as the oddball town mortician Zelda. She was absolutely hilarious in her role as a Scottish Buddhist who is also a badass with a Katana sword, taking out any zombies that cross her path. Chloe Sevigny gives the film some heart as Mindy, who is the only character that seems to have the appropriate response to the events of the film. Tom Waits shows up in the film as the town's eccentric hermit who watches the events unfold from a distance. Playing one of the first zombies to rise, Iggy Pop is pretty amusing as he shambles through the movie looking for flesh...and coffee. Carol Kane has a similarly amusing cameo, except she's craving some chardonnay.   

I caught a sneak preview screening of this film with two good friends of mine and between the three of us, I liked it, one of my friends liked it and one did not like it. All are valid responses and I feel a perfect illustration of what I anticipate the reactions to this film to be. Some will be down with it's very dry humor and satirical weirdness and some won't. And that's okay. It's going to be a polarizing film and audience mileage will definitely vary. But, if you are hankering for something a little more unique, a little more oddball, this one might be the ticket for you.

Speed

It's hard to believe that Speed is 25 years old today. It was a surprise breakout hit in the summer of 1994 that confirmed Keanu Reeves, then best known as playing Ted "Theodore" Logan in the Bill & Ted films, as a a bona fide action hero and at the same time launched the film career of Sandra Bullock. After all this time, the still holds up as a non-stop thrill ride all it's own too.   

When mad bomber Howard Payne (played by Dennis Hopper) has an extortion attempt foiled by SWAT team members Jack Traven (played by Keanu Reeves) and Harry Temple (played by Jeff Daniels), he comes up a new scheme. He plants a bomb on a Los Angeles City Bus. The threat is simple: Once the bus goes over 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If the bus goes below 50 miles an hour, the bomb explodes. He even calls out intrepid hero to give him the details. Jack races off to find the bus, but he's too late, the bomb is already armed. Leaping from a moving car onto the bus, Jack finds himself amongst the assortment of morning commuters, including one who thinks Jack is there for him. He pulls a gun and in the ensuing scuffle, the driver gets shot. A fellow passenger, Annie (played by Sandra Bullock) takes the wheel, who ironically is taking the bus after losing her license due to speeding. With no other choice, Jack and Annie have to figure out how to keep the bus above 50 while making their way around the city of Los Angeles and it's incredible traffic, while Harry and their boss Mac (played by Joe Morton) try to track down the bomber and figure out a way to defuse the bomb. 

Speed marked the directorial debut of famed blockbuster cinematographer Jan de Bont, who keeps the action running at an intense momentum. From the moment Jack finds out about the bomb on the bus, the film kicks off and barely slows down for the duration of the run time. It's a testament to the filmmakers, de Bont and screenwriter Graham Yost (along with uncredited re-writes from Joss Whedon) that the film works as well as it does. They manage to pile one problem onto another onto another, including the big action sequence of the film, jumping the bus over is missing section of freeway. This was pulled off for real, with a specially rigged bus to perform the stunt, with the missing piece of freeway removed digitally. With a fleet of specially rigged buses, a small army of stunt drivers, and the free reign of a recently completed section of Los Angles freeway, the filmmakers had the freedom to create a number of incredible and tense action sequences. The momentum of the film is helped by a fantastic score by Mark Mancina that keeps the momentum of the film going from beginning to end. I remember vividly the first time I saw this movie and feeling physically exhausted by the time we got to the third act of the film.

Keanu Reeves had dipped his toes in the action genre with Kathryn Bigelow's fantastic thriller Point Break, but it was here that he really came into his own as an action hero, making the role of cowboy cop Jack Traven his own. Cinema is littered with cop heroes and with Jack they take things up a notch, with his character being a bonafide daredevil and maybe a bit nuts. At the beginning of the film, Harry is quizzing Jack about what he would do when facing a gunman with a hostage, Jack responds he'd shoot the hostage. When that very scenario plays out a short time later and Jack actually does it, Dennis Hopper gives a priceless reaction that clearly says, "Damn, and I thought I was crazy." Speaking of Hopper, he makes for a great adversary, delighting is making Jack and the rest of LAPD jump through his hoops as he manages to stay a step ahead of them at almost every turn. Sandra Bullock was a rising star at the time Speed came out and filled the role with a perfect level of girl next door charm that made her character so memorable. It didn't hurt that she had really good chemistry with Keanu Reeves as well. Jeff Daniels makes the most of his sidekick role to Reeves, making his character funny and lovable even though for the most of the picture he's stuck in the office, talking to Reeves via phone. 

Speed still holds up remarkably well 25 years later and is just as thrilling as it ever was. It helps that the majority of the action was all done with practical effects and real stunts as CGI as we know it today was still very much in it's infancy. It's the perfect combination of a simple but effective premise, great actors and some truly daring stunts to make this one of the more memorable action films of the 90s.       

Rocketman

Aside from Avengers: Endgame, the Elton John jukebox musical biopic Rocketman is easily my most eagerly anticipated movie of the summer. The film is a honest look into the early life of Elton, with lavish musical numbers and larger than life flights of fantasy. Honestly, telling Elton's life story any other way just wouldn't do it justice. And as a lifelong Elton John fan, I loved every minute.  

The film kicks off with a look at Elton's childhood, then known as Reginald Dwight (played by Matthew Illesley, Kit Connor and finally Taron Egerton), saddled with a distant father (both emotionally and literally as he was often stationed away from home), and an emotionally cold mother (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). The best support he gets as a child is from his Grandmother (played by Gemma Jones). When Elton begins to show a prodigious talent for music and the piano in particular, able to re-play music after just hearing it once, it's his Grandmother that supports him the most, which leads him to a scholarship to the Royal Music Academy. When his parents eventually divorce, Elton finds another positive influence in his life, his eventual step-dad Fred (played by Tom Bennett), who introduces young Reginald to rock and roll music and encourages his musical ambitions as well. It's during the time that Reginald begins playing with a band, Bluesology, that he starts to figure out what he wants to do, including coming up with a stage name Elton John. It's the moment that he meets Bernie Taupin (played by Jamie Bell) that things really begin to change as they develop a fantastic partnership that continues today with Bernie writing the lyrics to all the songs as Elton writes the music. The two develop a music writing partnership that becomes the through-line of the entire film as Elton's career takes off like, well, a rocket, engages in a rollercoaster of a love affair with John Reid (played by Richard Madden), and battles substance abuse problems. 

Dexter Fletcher directed the film from a script by Lee Hall who both play with the genre of the Music Biopic in really interesting ways with this film. It hits the usual touchstones of this type of film, but yet does it in a way that is a bit more unconventional. For starters, the movie is a full blown musical fantasy, with the songs used not so much in their chronological order but for hitting the right emotional notes. Which means we have kid Elton singing "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" in a massive musical number that transitions from a pub fight to a full blown dance number at a carnival, transitioning from kid Elton to late teens Elton, ushering Taron Egerton into the picture in the process. You also have Elton and his parents breaking out into "I Want Love," a song that wasn't released until his 2001 album, Songs From the West Coast. The film also has it's share of fantastical elements such as Elton playing the Troubadour for the first time in a performance that was so energetic and exciting people described made them feel as though they could levitate to in the film Elton and the audience literally levitating. Another one would be Elton at his lowest point singing a duet with his younger self on the bottom of his pool. Yet, within all of this, the film is a searingly honest portrait of Elton's life. The film does not shy away from his troubled childhood, his sexuality, his relationship with John Reid and his substance abuse problems. The film's narrative is framed by Elton in a group therapy session in rehab, which in another of the film's fantastical flourishes, he enters in a garish orange and red devil outfit that is slowly discarded as the film goes on until he's laid bare and is sitting there in a plain, brown bathrobe. It's a terrific visual choice that really gives a cue to Elton dropping his defenses and opening up. I also have to give props to the costuming folks on this film for their flawless recreations of many of Elton's most famous outfits, including my favorite: the sequin Dodgers uniform from his legendary Dodger stadium concert. 

There was a whole brew-ha-ha earlier this year when word got out that Paramount was wanting to edit the film down to get a PG-13 rating and honestly, I have to say I am so glad the filmmakers won that battle and got to release the film they wanted because a scrubbed clean version of Elton John's life would not have resonated nearly as well as this film does as it does not shy away from the darker elements of his life, as Elton himself quipped, "I have not led a PG-13 life." There is an honesty to this film that adds a real poignancy that transcends all the spectacle to become genuinely moving. That is not to say the film is gratuitous as it is far from it, but at the same time it doesn't shy away from some of the darker times either.            

Taron Egerton gives the performance of his career (at least thus far) as Elton John. He manages to channel Elton throughout the film perfectly giving the performance all the energy and emotion that it requires. Along with that, he does all of the singing throughout the film, giving his all to every song with an impressive gusto that even impressed Sir Elton himself. He give it his all and never shies away from some of the uglier moments of Elton's life (the man was famous for his tantrums after all). But the lowest of lows make the highs feel all the more triumphant, especially once we get to them to the point where he literally walks away from it all and checks himself into rehab and I for one wanted to stand up and cheer. Jamie Bell is equally great as Bernie Taupin, who plays of Egerton really well and you believe these two would be long time friends even from their first meeting, bonding over their shared love of Country Western music. Bell does well showing Bernie as a steady rock in the craziness of Elton's life. The two never have fight and the closest they come to it in the film is Elton biting Bernie's head off before going on stage and even then he turns around and immediately apologizes. In a lot of ways, their relationship is the true love story of the film even though it was always strictly platonic, but both have described the other as their brother and both Egerton and Bell put that across beautifully. 

Richard Madden's turn as John Reid is the other main man in Elton's life through much of the film, both romantically and as his business manager and is a far more tumultuous relationship as he starts off as a charming guy but as time goes by, his far more manipulative, tempestuous and downright abusive side comes out. Madden does a great job balancing both sides of the role and it's easy to see why Elton fell for him. Bryce Dallas Howard likewise gives a fantastic performance as Elton's rather cold and distant mother who does a great job of portraying the complicated relationship between her and Elton. It was a tricky role to play but she pulls it off really well. Gemma Jones is great as Elton's loving grandmother Ivy, and she gives the character a real sense of warmth and genuine support that was otherwise missing from Elton's life.      

It's easy to want to compare Rocketman with last year's Bohemian Rhapsody, not the least because there is some overlap between the two as John Reid figures into both films, although he is curiously portrayed much warmer in the latter film than here (although this film is very much from Elton's perspective, as Elton was a producer on the film, and their split was far from amicable as Elton did wind up taking him to court, so that likely plays into his depiction here). But more than that, there is a difference in how the films were approached. Between the two, this is by far the more satisfying film and the film that Bohemiam Rhapsody should have been. It was honest and poignant as it really delved into the warts and all look at the life of Elton John. To illustrate further, I walked out of Bohemian Rhapsody thinking it was a reasonably entertaining film. I walked out of Rocketman really wanting to give Elton John a hug. That should say it all right there.