Rocketman (2019) review

Singer Elton John (Taron Egerton) sits down at a support meeting for people with addictions - he has quite a few - and is asked about his childhood, which gets him chatting about his early years attending the Royal Academy of Music, his first band Bluesology, his chance meeting with songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), his sexuality, his love of cocaine and shopping and so on.  If you've seen last year's Bohemian Rhapsody - about the band Queen - you should spot the pattern: sad childhood issue, hit song, fighting with his lover/manager John Reid (Richard Madden), hit song, arguments with Absent Father or Emotionally Negligent Mother, hit song, overdosing or attempting suicide, hit song, etc.  Naturally, it ends with an Airing of Grievances in a counseling session and takes off again: he is, despite it all, still standing.  Egerton's fine as the lead (as is Bell - what a bromance), which should secure him a handful of awards, but the heavy lifting is by the real-life Mr. Dwight and Taupin: it's cinema-as-greatest-hits-compilation.