Happy Birthday to my father, who turns 76 today! Last year I posted a Frank Sinatra video to honor my dad’s 75th birthday, so I have little confidence that this year’s Random Weekend selection will live up to that.
But let’s spin the wheel and see what the Random iTunes Fairy has in mind for my father.
OK… a cover of Elton John’s classic ‘Your Song’ by English pop singer Ellie Goulding. He could have done far worse.
This has been a week for conflicted movie reviews. I enjoy these films and recommend them, but with reservations. I guess that describes about half of the movies I see every year.
Rocketman is a biopic about legendary rocker Elton John, directed by Dexter Fletcher (who took over the reins of Bohemian Rhapsody from Bryan Singer), starring Taron Egerton, and produced by Elton himself. That last fact is key, because you have to be a little wary of a film purporting to be a “warts and all” depiction when it is delivered by the subject himself.
Moulin Rouge is one huge heaping mess of a film. At times it feels like a runaway train in danger of flying off the tracks into a fiery pileup. But somehow it keeps its balance and emerges as one of the most memorable films of the 00s.
Most of the credit, in my opinion, belongs to Ewan McGregor. I can’t imagine another actor pulling off the naive innocence and the unabashed romanticism of his Christian, let alone one with a terrific singing voice to match. Nicole Kidman got the Oscar nod for this film, but McGregor was its MVP.
Meet Me In Montauk 