In the past, I rarely watched movies or series that only served to fill my free time. Mainly because I usually watch what either interests me or has a very interesting trailer. Rarely do I have an "I have nothing to watch so I'll see what they show on TV". I always have different series, anime, or movies - depending on my emotional state or the amount of free time. Since I found my better half, I watch movies more often, which either I did not have in the "plan to watch" tab or they were so far away that I would probably never watch them by myself - because every year such films come to my P2W and I don't remember most of them 5-10 years ago. Usually, I don't have much to say about such productions, which is why I decided to restore the type of text that I rarely post on the blog - recommendations. Not only will you find movies (although they are mostly), but also some anime or series that I liked, but I am not able to write a longer text about them (or I find it unnecessary). The texts will be compact, specific, without dragging - only concrete facts. At least in theory, because I will expand some topics a bit more.
Let me start with a title that captivated me for exactly the same reasons as "The Social Network". Those of you who know me from outside the blog or have been following it for several years know that honesty and lack of censorship (or at least in most things, because some things are better left unsaid) are some of the most important factors for me. Both in the case of interpersonal relationships and getting to know a certain title. It is known that every person has their privacy and could do things that they are ashamed of in front of the world and themselves, so I do not always require 100% truth, especially when we are not dealing with an evidently bad person, institution or situation. I do not like powdering reality and pretending that certain events did not happen or presenting them in a one-dimensional way - justifying or demonizing the page depending on the narrative (in terms of texts, videos, personal opinions of private people who are not public figures, what another). It is different in situations that are more or less known - such as, for example, toxic traits of people that cannot be hidden (in the case of Elton John or Mark Zuckerberg). My attitude towards Elton John can be described more or less like this - neither cold nor warm. He is a great artist and musician, which I appreciated only on the occasion of this film (because I did not pay attention to him before, as with many artists, I knew that he was talented, but I did not know what it resulted from, why he was given such a title), but never I was not a fan of his work and it is unlikely to change. Yes, I liked his songs a lot, like "I'm Still Standing", this song for "Lion King" or a few others that I only "got to know" on the occasion of this film, but they didn't charm me enough to play them instead of synthwave, Eurobeat, metal, hard rock or techno. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly a great piece of music that defends itself despite enormous competition and the passage of time.
Once, Rafał Ziemkiewicz (for readers from outside Poland - a right-wing publicist, sometimes he talks nonsense, sometimes is a hypocrite, but just as often has accurate or at least worth considering observations, I would not call him an idiot) said about artists, musicians, actors, art creators in general, that if they don't have a traumatic childhood or unpleasant experiences, they are often boring or unattractive. Whether it is so, I do not know, there must be some greater or lesser truth in it. I conclude this at least because poverty, the above-mentioned negative experiences, or other similar factors give a person a greater chance of being successful. It seems to me that this is due to a stronger feeling of hunger in the pursuit of success or wealth, or the fact that they quickly understood and assimilated the lesson that in the world you rarely get a gift from fate (don't confuse this with a specialist or was lucky in childhood to choose a hobby - e.g. IT specialists, who currently earn PLN 10-20 thousand per month compared to PLN 2-4 thousand for me and most of my colleagues) and it is often hard to earn for it. The perfect example of this is Elton John - a sensitive man with a head full of ideas about creating music and creating an amazing show that did not have a light childhood. Not only was there not much love in his house (either towards him or his mother), but he was also treated like a freak by his father. He despised him so much that he disowned him. Not in a literal way, but even worse - he showed him less than a minimum of interest, pretended he didn't know him, generally treated him like an underprivileged schoolmate who would most likely be told to fuck off the house, but he did not do it out of courtesy and deeply rooted, Catholic rules. Why am I saying it's even worse this way? Because I also experienced some unpleasant behaviors from my family + I know the experiences of my peers, colleagues, famous people. It is better for someone to tell you what it is like instead of pretending otherwise. This is worse in the very beginning, but after a shorter or longer period of time, a person gets to their feet or at least a clear situation, rather than stuck in a limbo full of false hope or insecurity.
Referring to the previous paragraph, "Rocketman" is very honest on this point. It shows in a painful way what Elton experienced in his childhood and how it influenced his life, as well as does not hide the negative qualities of this man. Throughout his childhood, he is self-centered, cannot cope with emotions, abuses drugs, generally tries to cut himself off from his previous life as much as possible. Some transsexual, non-binary people, etc., do the same. I do not judge this attitude, although to be honest, for most of my life I saw some (I mean extreme cases) of this type of behavior as sick quirks. Including Thanks to this video, I understood why they do it and why the assessment of such behavior is often bad. Often it does not mean always, because, as "Rocketman" has shown, when escaping the past, you can fall into exaggeration the other way, fall into a state of learned helplessness or think that "I'm good, the whole world is bad". Elton experienced it in a more or less painful way at several stages in his life, and probably even more often than this movie showed. The fact that he is an outstanding individual does not give him the right to do what he wants or to treat people according to his current emotional state. I loved that Elton might not agree to show some embarrassing things in his life, and he didn't. I am not talking about drugs, alcohol, or casual sex - if most (ie, earning enough money to afford it) of people could live like this, they would. As long as such an emotional and entertaining rollercoaster doesn't last too long or you really go overboard, there's nothing wrong in my opinion. Life is a lot of shit, so if it makes anyone happy then go ahead. Or to put it differently, some of these actions were not some outstanding deviation from the norm - after all, even at the last Eurovision one of the musicians took the path of amphetamines, just like one night stands with boys, girls, or getting drunk or mixing alcohol and drugs. However, with some of them, I felt something like embarrassment or cringe, and if I were in Elton's place, I would have some of these scenes shown in a lighter, less compromising way. However, he did not hide it, which made the film gain a lot - it was not another polished biographical production, and it was easier for us to put ourselves in his shoes or understand that theoretically, each of us can achieve success, provided certain conditions are met, of course.
When it comes to all aspects of the film (script, cinematography, music, editing, directing, actors), I have nothing to complain about. Everything is at least good, and often very good. Apart from the script and the performance of Elton, which I have already written in detail, I liked the "Rocketman" narrative the most. It is not particularly original, I can even call it cliché and repetitive. I don't know what it looks like in new movies about famous musicians or bands, but I've often seen this way of scripting in older productions that I have seen as a young viewer on VHS or on TV. Ie. various clippings from different stages of the artist's life, which were combined into one film by several scenes created in the form of a music video. But here it was done very well - the scenes look effective, the actors played convincingly, and their roles were well and honestly written, they behaved and talked, like most people - in a gray way. As I wrote several times in my texts, few people are almost pure evil or their analogous counterparts on the good side. Even good people have their dark sides, and the bad guys sometimes show their positive side. I especially liked the lead actor, who perfectly captured Elton's rich personality, as well as his publisher - the one who fucked him not only in terms of earnings, but also in bed. I can rate the rest of the game at a good level, at least, nobody played poorly. On the other hand, some may be equal or even better than the two heroes I mentioned. Rocketman is a show worth checking out both as a psychological film and as an entertaining cinema - it works great in both cases. Although I love music and I cannot imagine my life without it, I do not like concerts. I would like to visit only a few of them, I prefer to avoid the rest. In this production, however, I really enjoyed the concerts! They were beautiful, stunning, some of Elton's numbers made a huge impression on me (like leaning on the piano, if that happened) and I didn't think I could have so much fun in such scenes. And I say this as a self-declared hatter of musicals and other films that are based to such a degree on the musical aspect.
To sum up, before the screening, I was a bit skeptical and at best I thought that I would have a nice and good screening, such as 7, 8/10 maximum. However, my expectations changed as I watched the next scenes. When we finished "Rocketman", I was delighted and regretted that it was only a movie, not a series of several episodes, such as "Vinyl" (I haven't seen it, but I assume after reading the description and name that it is similar at least in terms of the topic). I want more and would love to see more about Elton John. I also hope that there will be more biographical films of this type in the future - less artificial and more realistic, please! My rating is 9/10 with a big heart.