“Rocketman” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”
The new bio-pic of Elton John, “Rocketman,” is directed by Dexter Fletcher. Last year, he assumed command of the Freddie Mercury film, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and steered it to a safe harbor, after the previous director walked the plank. If you need somebody to recount the rise of a British rock god from pallid suburbia to the baroque extremes of fame, and to create a stir without causing too much of a fuss, Fletcher is your man. He is the helmsman of the acceptably outrageous. David Bowie fans, watch out.
“Rocketman” is framed as a therapeutic exercise. We first encounter the adult Elton John (Taron Egerton) as he stomps down a corridor in a tangerine catsuit, tricked out with wings and horns. He looks like Hellboy, only shorter and angrier. Bursting through a door, Elton finds himself in group therapy, and immediately reveals his addictions: sex, drink, and drugs—the usual suspects—plus bags and bags of shopping. “I was actually a very happy child,” he adds, and, with that, we are spirited back to his youth, and thence through his personal past. We get the early gigs in pubs; the meeting with his lifelong lyricist, Bernie Taupin ( Jamie Bell); the doomy arrival of John Reid (Richard Madden), who became Elton’s lover and manager; the globe-straddling glory; and the statutory crackup, without which no rock fable is complete. The whole thing winds up where it began, with the star, effiiently cured of his miseries, embracing his younger self, and carolling “I’m Still Standing.” Job done.
Denne historien er fra June 10 - 17, 2019-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra June 10 - 17, 2019-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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NO WAY BACK
The resurgence, in the past decade, of Paul Schrader as one of the most accomplished and acclaimed contemporary movie directors is part of a bigger trend: the self-reinvention of Hollywood auteurs as independent filmmakers.
PRIMORDIAL SORROW
\"All Life Long,\" the title of the most recent album by the composer and organist Kali Malone, is taken from a poem by the British Symbolist author Arthur Symons: \"The heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea,/ All life long crying without avail,/As the water all night long is crying to me.\"
CHOPPED AND STEWED
The other day, at a Nigerian restaurant called Safari, in Houston, Texas, I peeled back the plastic wrap on a ball of fufu, a staple across West Africa.
TOUCH WOOD
What do people do all day? My daughter loves to read Richard Scarry's book of that title, though she generally skips ahead to the hospital pages.
HELLO, HEARTBREAK
Heartbreak cures are as old as time, or at least as old as the Common Era.
ENEMY OF THE STATE
Javier Milei's plan to remake Argentina begins with waging war on the government.
THE CHOOSING ONES
The saga of my Jewish conversion began twenty-five years ago, when I got engaged to my first husband.
OBSCURE FAMILIAL RELATIONS, EXPLAINED FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Children who share only one parent are half siblings. Children who have been bisected via a tragic logging accident are also half siblings, but in a different way.
NOTE TO SELVES
The Sonoran Desert, which covers much of the southwestern United States, is a vast expanse of arid earth where cartoonish entities-roadrunners, tumbleweeds, telephone-pole-tall succulents make occasional appearances.
BADDIE ISSUES
\"Wicked\" and \"Gladiator II.\"