Rocketman (2019)

Rocketman, about the life and music of Elton John, is a formulaic, paint-by-numbers biopic. It actually begins at a moment of crucial emotion and flux in the singer's life, then backtracks to show us how he ended up there, a narrative device that already was a cliche when the brilliant Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story parodied it back in 2007.

It is a tried-and-true jukebox musical fantasia, seemingly prepackaged for the Broadway stage, packed with toe-tapping sing-alongs you've known and loved for decades. Songs spring from significant moments in John's life, or so we're led to believe. And of course, there are plenty of montages: the obligatory depiction of John's hits rising up the charts and racking up gold records; the concerts, headlines and adoring fans; the shopping sprees to spend his insane riches; the trying-on of various ornate hats, glasses and spangled get-ups; and all the sex and drugs that go along with the rock 'n' roll.

Egerton gives a performance with such thrills and vulnerability, such charisma and pathos, that it's hard not to be wowed. Previously best known for his starring role in the action-comedy Kingsman movies, Egerton truly gives it his all, you can see the effort on display here in what was clearly a physically and emotionally arduous role. That includes doing all his own singing, which adds an element of accessibility that, say, Bohemian Rhapsody lacks (and we'll get to all the inevitable comparisons in a moment). He doesn't look or sound exactly like John, and that's probably preferable to doing a straight-up impression. He gets the vibe right and he has a genuine, appealing screen presence. It is almost enough in itself , but it's also enough to make you wish the film surrounding him were as brash and gutsy.

Rush (2013)

Rush is based on the true story of Formula One adversaries James Hunt, a swaggering rock-star-bad-boy Brit, and Niki Lauda, a tersely pragmatic Austrian with zero social skills and an itchy middle finger, as they vied for the 1976 world championship title. If you know anything about these two not-quite-gentlemen, it's that one them will be sorely tested when tragedy strikes at speeds close to 200 mph. Much praise already has been heaped upon director Ron Howard no stranger to car-themed movies as both a filmmaker (Grand Theft Auto) and an actor (American Graffiti), for striving to capture the visceral thrill of the sport.

Rush is not so much a bromance as a foe-mance with rivals who are completed and in this case, literally driven to succeed by their polar opposites. While Hemsworth as Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Lauda are perfectly believable as their characters, I found it hard to root for either one although Bruhl's charisma impaired Lauda is closest to being a sympathetic Salieri like underdog. Howard and writer Peter Morgan eventually show how these bitter adversaries form a bond of mutual respect that can only be achieved when you both put your lives on the line to do what you love. But this moment arrives too late to break up a wearying pattern of bragging, bashing and crashing.

At least one scene did capture and hold my attention: when Knaus's car breaks down with Lauda driving and leaves the pair stranded on the quiet road in the Italian countryside, they each attempt to hitch a ride, and the outcome provides a clever twist on a similar scene performed by Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in 1934's It Happened One Night.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Extra incisors, that's how a young Freddie Mercury, played with magnetism and breathtaking physicality by Rami Malek, explains his four-octave vocal range to prospective bandmates. The moment arrives early in Bohemian Rhapsody, a film that doesn't share Mercury's surfeit of incisors; it has none. Which is not to say this conventional, PG-13 portrait of an unconventional band offers nothing to chew on. Or that it doesn't acknowledge the tale's darker facets. It does, ever so lightly, all the while fervently emphasizing what's sweet and upbeat about it. Someday another feature about Queen might go deeper. That might or might not make for a better movie. Who says every rock 'n' roll biopic has to wallow in Behind the Music confessionals?

The involvement of bandmembers Brian May and Roger Taylor, as consultants and executive music producers, has more than a little to do with the gentle sheen that tamps down unruly narrative possibilities. But their involvement also amps the material's musical authenticity. To the filmmakers' credit, and even though they don't entirely avoid the clunky factoid-itis that often plagues the genre, this is a biopic that favors sensory experience over exposition. It understands what pure, electrifying fun rock 'n' roll can be.

The Social Network (2010)

Here is a film about how people relate to their corporate roles and demographic groups rather than to each other as human beings. That's the fascination for me; not the rise of social networks but the lives of those who are socially networked. Mark Zuckerberg, who made billions from Facebook and plans to give most of it away, isn't driven by greed or the lust for power. He's driven by obsession with an abstract system. He could as well be a chess master like Bobby Fischer. He finds satisfaction in manipulating systems.

The tension in the film is between Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins, who may way have invented Facebook for all I know, but are traditional analog humans motivated by pride and possessiveness. If Zuckerberg took their idea and ran with it, it was because he saw it as a logical insight rather than intellectual property. Some films observe fundamental shifts in human nature, and this is one of them.

David Fincher's direction, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay and the acting by Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and the others all harmoniously create not only a story but a world view, showing how Zuckerberg is hopeless at personal relationships but instinctively projects himself into a virtual world and brings 500 million others behind him. "The Social Network" clarifies a process that some believe (and others fear) is creating a new mind-set.