Rocketman ⭐️
Happy Monday and welcome to summer! ☀️ If you know someone that would enjoy the newsletter, share it with them!
Today’s movie is Rocketman (2019)—streaming on Prime Video and Hulu. This musical biopic is the penultimate entry in my Pride Month series. It was directed by Dexter Fletcher and follows legend Elton John, a bonafide queer icon—and manages to be miles better than a certain Oscar-winning musical biopic from the year prior.
Here’s what it’s about: The movie follows Elton John (Taron Egerton) from his childhood as a musical prodigy to his rocketship career that eventually leads to his struggles with his sexuality, addiction, and reckoning with his past. [Trailer // 121 mins]
Why you should watch it: Unlike the movie about Freddie Mercury that shall remain unnamed, Rocketman has a full understanding of Elton John, his struggles, and what set him on his path to fame and self-destruction. It doesn’t shy away from his struggles and instead goes fully through them to gives us a full, unflinching view of a man that many see as an unadulterated legend.
Fletcher infuses the story with a musical rhythm that is as infectious as Elton’s music and presents the story as a full-throated movie musical filled with fantastical dreamlike numbers that are dazzling to watch yet still drive the plot. From the out of this world interpretation of “Rocketman” to the Broadway-busting staging of “Honky Cat,” you’ll find yourself falling in love with his music all over again.
📺 Buy: Prime Video | Apple TV | YouTube
Pair it with 🍷
Sing Street: Set in 1980s Ireland, Sing Street follows Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a teen attending a private Christian school, forms a band in an effort to get his crush (Lucy Boynton) to star in a music video with him. [Where to watch]
Use this week as your fresh start.
See you Thursday —
Karl (@karl_delo)