musical

WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME

Cert 15 105mins Stars 4

Drugs, booze and sexual jealousy feature heavily in the tragic life of 1990’s music superstar Whitney Houston, compassionately explored in this fascinating documentary.

The first black solo female artist to achieve global mainstream pop success, Houston was famous at 19 and dead at 48 from a drug overdose.

Having lived her adult life in the media gaze, there’s little new information here. But in a triumph of research, editing and storytelling, we see her story from a new perspective.

With her close family coming from a gospel music background, it’s suggested the church’s stance is complicit in her fall from grace.

A crowded marriage to Bobby Brown was made worse by the pressures of fame. It’s made clear Houston’s substance abuse began long before entering a destructive co-dependent relationship with the bad boy singer.

Of all her entourage, Houston’s bodyguard is the most clear eyed observer, but unlike in her smash film The Bodyguard, he was unable to save the star.

WILD ROSE

Cert 15 100mins Stars 4

Music and motherhood create spiky discord in this honest, raucous and irrepressible British musical drama, which is as full of heartache and hardship as the foot-tapping Country tunes which power the story.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley won renown last year for her riveting big screen debut turn in the terrific thriller, Beast, and here she’s staggeringly great as Rose-Lynn, a Glaswegian sweary single-mum who aspires to singing stardom in Nashville.

No retiring wall flower, Rose is immature and untamed as she struggles with the harsh truths of choosing between her kids and her dreams, but her passion and vulnerability makes us root for her.

And she’s the thorn in the side of her put-upon mother, Julie Walters, who responds by giving her most affecting performance in years as she copes with her daughter’s chaos.

The grandkids are generally un-impressed by the adults except when Buckley’s extraordinary voice belts out her own compositions, as she demonstrates why this Rose is blooming marvellous.

ROCKETMAN

Cert 15 121mins Stars 4

Taron Egerton launches his inner diva into the spotlight with a wonderfully versatile performance as Elton John, in this redemptive musical biopic of the singers stellar career.

Charting his rise from suburban schoolboy to global superstar, we sees the tears behind the tantrums as Elton struggles with a lack of self-worth which results in a multitude of self-destructive addictions including, drugs, booze, sex and shopping.

Packed with greatest hits such as Crocodile Rock, and Your Song, it’s an orgy of clothes,, cars, mansions, and um, orgies, though unlike the outrageous costumes, the intimate sex scenes are tasteful, sincere and won’t scare the horses.

I’ve never been a fan of Kingsman star Egerton, though I did enjoy his turn as a singing gorilla in 2016’s animated caper, Sing.

But no there’s no denying the range, commitment and all round excellence of his performance as the Pinball Wizard, particularly his ability to transition in a moment from from heartbroken heap to grandstanding onstage star.

He makes Elton a magnificently flawed, petulant, often unpleasant figure who wins our sympathy through his honesty and eventual willingness to confront his demons. And the actors playing the childhood Elton are also terrific.

Jamie Bell plays Elton’s lyricist, Bernie Taupin and their bromance is the beating heart of the movie.

As Elton’s abusive manager, Richard ‘Bodyguard’ Madden is a compellingly sharklike, and Bryce Dallas Howard is breathtakingly cold as Elton’s mother.

From playing as Babyface in kiddie caper, Bugsy Malone, to making The Proclaimers jukebox musical, Sunshine on Leith, and taking up the reins on last years smash, Bohemian Rhapsody, director Dexter Fletcher is a veteran of big screen musicals.

His dynamic and slickly choreographed numbers full of visually inventive flights of fancy reveal his empathy for Elton and is  clearly a huge fan of the Rocketman. And so will you be after this.

BEATS

Cert 18 101mins Stars 3

Experience the thrill of an illegal warehouse rave in this sincere if slight Scottish coming-of-age drug-taking drama whose energy is driven by the irresistible tunes of 1990’s dance music.

To mark the forced end of their close friendship, a pair of teens abscond with a fistful of stolen cash to an all night party where various family conflicts are brought to a head.

Lorn Macdonald gives a wonderful uptempo comic performance as Spanner, though Cristian Ortega’s Johnno is a sullen, slouching and too much of a passive observer whose one decisive moment feels forced.

Filming mostly in black and white drains the period of vibrancy, however colour is used to communicate the intensity of experiencing ecstasy, and the sweaty drug-fuelled ambience of the 1990’s club culture is convincingly recreated. The soundtrack is exceptional.

Beats is a nostalgic companion to 1999’s superior Human Traffic which starred John Simm and Danny Dyer, while to compare this to Danny Boyle’s masterpiece, Trainspotting, would be an unfair for all concerned.

YESTERDAY

Cert 12A 116mins Stars 3

This juke box musical romcom is an amiable and safe disappointment from the creative dream team of writer Richard Curtis, and director Danny Boyle.

Gently humorous but shy of laughs, we have every right to expect a much funnier script from the guy who gave us Four Weddings, and something more interesting from the director of Trainspotting.

Watching it is akin to the experience of listening to a coffee shop song cover compilation while leafing through the Boden summer clothes catalogue.

Following a road traffic accident and a global electrical blackout, a part-time busker wakes up to discover he’s the only person in the world with any knowledge of pop group, The Beatles.

Using their songs to become famous, Himesh Patel must choose between global superstardom and the true love of Lily James. The pair are sweet and charming, and in her least annoying big screen performance, US comic actress Kate McKinnon is nicely acerbic as a US music promoter.

As the Beatles had split up before I was born, it’s questionable how many of those under 30 years old are sufficiently well versed in their music to understand the many laboured references and jokes.

So alongside Beatles songs such as the title dirge, Hey Jude, and Back in the USSR, there’s also lots of singer Ed Sheehan, who is game for being the blunt end of some gentle mockery while getting paid to push his unique brand of forgettable pop which seems ever more insignificant in this company.

Ed’s presence along with James Corden who plays himself, and location work at the Latitude music festival illustrates how middle class and middle-of-the-road this all is.

Boyle contributes typically bold flashes of colour and clearly has had a ball crafting animated visuals to accompany the classic tunes, while riffing on The Beatles film caper, A Hard Day’s Night.

But it’s mostly a greatest hits package of Curtis’ well-worn tunes, so stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The lead is a tongue tied Englishman who’s oblivious to the fact his gorgeous best friend fancies him, and in order to get him to notice her she has to humiliate herself a couple of times, including at least once in public.

Their mutual vaguely posh friends have ill-defined jobs, nobody speaks like a real person, there are public declarations of love, and a last minute dash to a train station.

Curtis has built a career by borrowing heavily from authors such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Evelyn Waugh, and here has a written a script about a singer who steals from the biggest pop band of all time, and which suggests having The Beatles in facsimile is better than not having them at all. It’s an exercise in self–justification and Curtis should let it be.

LIAM GALLAGHER: AS IT WAS

Cert 15 85mins Stars 3

With even the biggest screen barely able to contain his formidable charisma, the former frontman of 1990’s rockers, Oasis, swaggers into cinemas with this indulgent documentary charting his recent life with a cheerily casual and charitable eye.

It’s a reasonable attempt to rebrand the notorious hedonist as a fitness-minded family man and tea drinking elder statesman of rock music.

He was rescued from a post-Oasis creative, personal and financial low by his new manager and romantic partner, Debbie, and their complex relationship has interesting echoes of the marriage of reformed wild man, Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon.

Liam’s mother is a scene-stealing Irish charm, and he can’t resist sticking the boot again into his brother, Noel, whose absence along with the songs of Oasis is a loss.

Irresistibly funny and foul-mouthed, Liam’s a fascinating mix of humility, arrogance, sensitivity and bravado. Plus judging by recent musical output, he’s also the most interesting and talented member of the family.

ALADDIN (2019)

Cert PG 128 mins Stars 4

Will Smith unleashes his magic charm in Disney’s confident, colourful and crowd-pleasing live action remake of their 1992 classic Oscar winning musical animation.

Hollywood’s once biggest star delivers a larger than life performance as the giant magic genie of the lamp, and burns charisma, warmth and heartfelt maturity in the role originally played by the comic, Robin Williams.

The story very closely follows the original, with street thief Aladdin teaming up with a genie to win the heart of the princess Jasmine and help save the desert kingdom of Agrabah from the unfettered ambition of Marwan Kenzari’s villainous vizier, Jafar.

Unlike Tim Burton’s lumbering Dumbo remake, this is full of fun, excitement and of course glorious songs, with fresh sparkle given to the diamond tunes of ‘Friend Like Me’ and ‘A Whole New World’, with ‘Prince Ali’ is delivered in grand show-stopping style.

Mena Massoud is an earnest and endearing romantic lead as Aladdin, and is game for the thankless task of playing the straight man to not just Smith and the rest of the human cast, but a flying carpet and the adorable monkey, Abu.

I wish his opposite number Naomi Scott, had more to do as Jasmine, but she makes the most of her screen time with constant bridling at the constraints of her gilded cage existence in a star-making performance.

She has enjoyable chemistry with Nasim Pedrad’s handmaiden and knocks her solo song out of the park. ‘Speechless’ is one of two new numbers, and is an assertive anthem about challenging authority which Scott delivers with impressively fierce defiance.

Director Guy Ritchie desperate for a hit as his last box office success was nearly a decade ago, with the second of his and Robert Downey, Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes adventures, so it’s  a canny movie to style the climax in the CGI manner of a Marvel superhero film.

This rarely feels like a Ritchie movie and whether you consider that a good thing, he’s certainly put a shift in with this huge production, which sees him successfully negotiate the different demands of action, romance, comedy, special effects and big song and dance numbers.

The two eight year olds I took to the screening had a great time even though they aren’t familiar with the original animated version, or with Smith’s lengthy TV, music or movie career, and he’s certainly won two new fans of the next generation.

And as Smith swaggers into silver screen musical theatre, it’s great to see the Fresh Prince discover a whole new jam.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Cert 12A Stars 5

In a year when musicals have ruled cinema, this supersonic biopic of Freddie Mercury allows rock band Queen to claim their rightful crown as the champions of the box office.

Sympathetic, moving, funny and filled with some of the greatest rock anthems ever recorded, at a rare lick we see Freddie’s rise from airport luggage handler to global superstar.

As the band’s outrageous and supremely gifted vocalist, he struggles to break free of his traditional family, beginning the film by chasing what he wants and ending up with what he needs.

Powered by his finding somebody to love, 1985’s famous Wembley charity gig, Live Aid, becomes a redemptive, poignant and climactic celebration.

Though the film steers away from showing anything graphic, Freddie’s rockstar party life leads to his being diagnosed with AIDS, the disease which would kill him at 45 years old.

Rami Malek is tremendous as Freddie, and who cares if the American-Egyptian doesn’t particularly look like the Parsi Indian Brit, he absolutely captures the essence of the man as we’d like to remember him, dynamic, creative, outrageous and a world class crowd-pleasing frontman.

With the actors miming to the bands actual recordings, Queen’s chart-topping and lengthy back catalogue supercharges the script, and it’s worth the ticket price to hear the soundtrack, which rockets through their best-selling greatest hits album.

The majestic title track is the first song I can remember hearing that wasn’t a church hymn, and the scenes of its recording imbue the song with deeply personal meaning, a trick used repeatedly on songs such as, Love of My Life.

Band members, Brian May and Roger Taylor are executive-producers, and you might expect more of a contribution from their characters. Efforts are made to emphasise their contribution to the group, but even in their own band they were always the supporting act.

It’s a kind of magic this films is as great as it is, after the original director, Bryan Singer, was sacked with two weeks of filming to go. For the sake of brevity some of the dialogue is very direct, but it’s not afraid to ask the important questions, such as ‘how many Galileo’s do we need?’.

For his Tom Hanks-starring 1994 drama, Philadelphia, director Jonathan Demme persuaded Bruce Springsteen to contribute a title track. Demme argued the Boss’ song would encourage people who otherwise might  be disinclined, to go see a film about a gay man who dies of AIDS.

Similarly the music of rock royalty Queen will draw in an audience to this determinedly mainstream Hollywood biopic where they’ll watch a drama which celebrates the life of a much-loved performer who dies from AIDS.

And though this isn’t a ‘message’ film, if it kickstarts a discussion among parents and young teens of sexual health then that can only be a good thing.

Also in this film is a scene featuring a passionate, tender snog between two men, conducted without shame or fear. How many other broad-appeal saturation release Hollywood films will be showing that this year, next year or the year after?

It’s unlikely the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will feature Jude Law’s young wizard Dumbledore snogging Johnny Depp’s titular villain. The Star Wars, Marvel and Fast Furious franchises fail repeatedly to do anything more than pay lip service to gay representation at best, and the decision to cut a gay kiss from Star Trek Beyond tells us all we need to know about Hollywood timidity.

I loved last year’s gay drama, God’s Own Country as much as anyone else who saw it, but far more people will see , and I suspect many will be people who wouldn’t normally consider to pay to watch a gay love story.

 isn’t a warts and all expose of the life of Freddie Mercury, it’s the unapologetically enjoyable, accessible, music-laden celebration it sets out to be. It promises a good time and it delivers.

And for once don’t worry about the size of the cinema screen, see this at the venue with the biggest sound system. And this will rock you.

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN

Cert PG 114mins Stars 4

This unashamedly feel-good sequel to 2008’s musical box office chart buster is another sequinned celebration of sisterly love and the unbreakable bonds of motherhood.

With the original pulling nearly half a billion pounds at the global box office, this sticks rigidly to the successful formula.

So once again the irresistible platinum-plated pop tunes of ABBA set the tone for this flamboyant escapist fantasy, which sees the original cast reunite in a split storyline which flicks between events now and from twenty five years ago. 

In the present Amanda Seyfried is organising her Greek island hotel’s grand opening night, and frets about her relationship with Dominic Cooper. Meanwhile a deliciously lusty Christine Baranski and a lovelorn Julie Walters banter for space alongside Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan.

Bless the former 007, he still can’t carry a tune in a bucket but that doesn’t stop him from manfully trying.

There’s a conspicuous deficit of Meryl Streep as Seyfried’s vivacious screen mother, Donna. However the younger version of the character is played in the earlier timeline by Lily James, and the former Downton star treats us to a barnstorming turn worthy of Streep herself.

Bristling with defiance, optimism and enthusiasm, we see how Donna meets a trio of buff and eager suitors who become responsible for the confusion surrounding her daughters parentage.

All this turning back time sets up a show-stopping singing turn by the ever fabulous Cher, who unlike much of the cast, has the advantage of being a bona fide vocalist. It’s one of many preposterous and crowd-pleasing scenes, my favourite of which is set at sea and best described as Dunkirk with a disco beat.

This brazen and cheerfully loopy sense of fun mingles with heartfelt multi-generational bonding and the pains of summer loving.

Among the barely choreographed mass dance-alongs and ill advised attempts at singing lurks a finger so firmly on the pulse of its intended audience it was rewarded at the packed-out world premiere with an all singing and dancing ovation. 

Mamma Mia 2’s manic determination to give you a good time is relentless. I’m not saying it’s a great movie, but if you’re in the mood for irresistible sun-kissed feel good poptastic silliness then it’s terrifically entertaining.

Sing

Director: Garth Jennings (2017) BBFC cert: PG

This giddy animated musical comedy is stuffed with silly sparkling fun and will make you grin until the top of your head falls off.

Produced by the inspired creators of the Minions Movie and The Secret Life of Pets, it’s a gloriously mad musical mashup of TV’s The X Factor and Gene Wilder comedy The Producers.

Buster is a cuddly Koala whose theatre is going to be closed by the bank unless he has a hit show. He advertises a singing competition but a typo means the winnings are far more than he can afford.

As creatures of every stripe and hue perform a dizzying number of pop, rock and soul tunes, the story squeezes in bank robberies and car chases among the first night nerves and pushy showbiz parents.

The animals are stuffed with Judy Garland’s ‘lets do the show right here’ spirit and just about keep Buster’s show on the road. Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Hudson are among those providing the pipes.

★★★★☆

@ChrisHunneysett