Joker (2019)

When I first saw Rocketman upon its release on May 31, 2019, I instantly fell in love with it. I found it to be brilliantly conceived, and led by an extraordinary performance from Taron Egerton. I loved it so much that it ended up being my second favorite film of the year, behind Joker. It’s a truly astonishing film, and one that I am excited to revisit as it becomes available to stream today on Amazon Prime and Hulu.

What makes Rocketman so utterly unique is how it incorporates the music into the film. Instead of being a straightforward biopic, Rocketman becomes a musical fantasy. It strays from reality, allowing for elaborate dance numbers and for characters to burst out into song — all renditions of Elton John’s music. Director Dexter Fletcher finds the most creative ways to weave in between reality and fantasy. There is enough of a grounded story that we can follow Elton’s life and see how he evolves as a person. Fletcher knows exactly when to put that on the back burner in order to dive head-first into the fantasy.

The music would have no weight to it if it wasn’t for how layered and developed of a character Elton John is in this film. His ultimate struggle is to find love and happiness. As he is told many times by his own parents, no matter where he goes he cannot find it. This leads him down a dark, self-destructive path of drugs, alcohol, and several suicide attempts. The movie gives us a well-rounded look at who Elton John is as a person, and it holds nothing back.

Taron Egerton is absolutely magnificent in this film. I first came to know him from Kingsman: The Secret Service. He’s great in that movie, but I had no idea he was capable of a performance quite like this. He has deep emotional moments of pure dramatic acting, he has elaborate dance numbers, and he sings all of the songs in the movie himself. When it comes to movies about musicians, I always think the actors should perform the music themselves. It heightens the realism of the film for me.

Author: Nathanael Molnár, originally published 5/27/2020

The tale of the Snyder Cut will undoubtedly go down as one of the most fascinating stories in modern film history. It is one of the rare times that movie fans were able to rally together and champion an issue so much so that it actually came to fruition.

The Snyder Cut is director Zack Snyder’s original version of Justice League (2017). It is a cut of the film that Snyder had initially assembled after the production wrapped; a cut that Warners Bros. did not like. They weren’t happy with the direction of the film, and wanted to fire Snyder. It was at this time, in March of 2017, that Zack Snyder’s daughter passed away, and he stepped down from the film on his own.

Warner Bros. then brought in Joss Whedon to oversee massive re-shoots and a full re-edit of the film, all while intending to keep their November 2017 release date. While Whedon and other creative officials lobbied to delay the film until early 2018 in order to properly finish it, studio executive Kevin Tsujihara refused. Delaying the film into 2018 would have ensured a decrease for his end-of-year bonus.

Justice League was released in theaters on November 17, 2017. It was met with mediocre reviews at best, garnering a 40% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans were massively underwhelmed by the film, but what was more underwhelming was its box office results. Justice League made $658 million worldwide. With a production budget of $300 million and hefty marketing costs, Justice League just barely broke even. To put this into perspective, this film was supposed to be DC’s equivalent to Marvel’s The Avengers — bringing all of their heroes together for the big team-up movie — which made $1.5 billion when it debuted in 2012.