Who’s looking forward to Deliver Me From Nowhere, the forthcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic? As much as the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown? Even more than the Elton John biopic Rocketman? Certainly more than the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, I’d imagine. But watching a trailer for the Springsteen movie, I wonder why anyone would want to watch what clearly, obviously is a bloke playing Springsteen and not him at all? You watch the clip and tell me different.
I was tempted to view A Complete Unknown because I was told by Dylan fanatics that Timothée Chalamet was just like the real thing. “He looks and sounds just like him,” one said and he does. Sort of. But to me, it was still someone pretending to be Dylan and without even seeing the movie, I know I’d spend the whole show thinking exactly that.
I understand Taron Egerton was excellent as Elton in Rocketman but just looking at one of the promo pics for Bohemian Rhapsody, like the one heading this blog, all I can do is laugh. Rami Malek looks vaguely like Freddie Mercury but Gwilym Lee just looks like Gwilym Lee, whoever he is, but with a silly comedy wig. Even those who, for reasons that completely escape me, enjoy the wretched music of Queen must surely draw the line somewhere? It looks like a tribute act and not a very good one at that.
I know that biopics and shows about people who really do and did exist must be hard to get right and I imagine there must be a few I have watched and enjoyed over the years. Perhaps my problem is that I don’t have a particularly vivid imagination?
When Steve Coogan played Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning, he captured the old pervert and paedophile perfectly. Yet the best I could do was to say something like: “Coogan is brilliant at playing Savile, the voice, those mannerisms and the like.” No one else could have done it better. But here’s the thing: I was watching the genius of Coogan. I knew who he was and couldn’t pretend it was Savile. Possibly my bad, I know, it was a stretch of the imagination too far for me.
These type of films and shows are hugely popular, so maybe it’s easy for the super fans of Springsteen, Dylan, Elton John and Fucking Queen to buy into them? I am a big fan of Springsteen and Dylan, but the movies are not for me, yet here’s the thing. I am a Brian Wilson super fan and a few years ago there was a biopic called Love and Mercy. I know his story inside out but I was, at first, interested. Until I saw the trailer. Immediately, it was: hang on. This is an actor playing Brian and the other Beach Boys, family, friends and associates. There is absolutely no point in me watching it. And I didn’t.
There have been many other biopics of artists I like and doubtless there will be many more to come. I have concluded that they are not for me and never will be. It will always be the real thing for me and when someone says Jeremy Allen White is great at being the boss, it suggests to me they can tell the difference too and maybe they know, in their heart of hearts, that this sort of thing doesn’t really work.
