Dexter Fletcher

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Rocketman is a Bo Rhap glow-up... but then again, no

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 22nd May 2019

    Put Bohemian Rhapsody out of your head: this jukebox musical about a flamboyant rock singer directed by Dexter Fletcher is nothing like that jukebox musical about a flamboyant rock singer directed by Dexter Fletcher. In principle at least, Bo Rhap made sense as a tribute to the mercurial nature of the Queen frontman, a celebration of his musical genius and his tragic legacy. Rocketman, however, is quite different. For starters, Elton John (Tantrums & Tiaras, Kingsman 2, every other fucking episode of the The Graham Norton Show, apparently) is alive and well and executively producing his own vanity biopic. As a celebration of Elton's music, Rocketman delivers a satisfying and foot-stomping soundtrack of wall-to-wall bangers, but as an exploration of the man himself, it lacks any notable dramatic impetus outside of the generic rise, fall and rise template. It's less a movie, more a West End stage musical in search of a worthy hero.

  • Review: Bohemian Rhapsody isn't the real life, it's just fantasy

    Movie Review | Becky Suter | 25th October 2018

    Watching Bohemian Rhapsody is a bit like seeing Queen perform with Adam Lambert: yeah, the songs are all good, but at the back of your mind you know you're not getting the real deal. Bryan Singer/Dexter Fletcher's biopic is the sanitised retelling of Queen that leaves out all the good stuff in order to be family friendly. Where are the dwarves with trays of cocaine on their heads? The nights out with Kenny Everett and Princess Di in drag? Naked renditions of We Are The Champions? Can anybody find me something to love?

  • Sunshine On Leith

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 3rd October 2013

    You have to wonder whether the jukebox musical is the cultural artefact that spells the end for us as humans. Take a clutch of well-loved songs and have them belted out on stage around a story constructed artlessly to fit lyrics whose author barely thought them through beyond whether they rhymed or not. (An Oasis one, I remind you, is inevitable.) But then take one that features the songs of an act whose words have always told meaningful, funny and engaging stories in themselves, and maybe you've got something. Dexter Fletcher certainly has: as unlikely a pairing as he is with the project, he's hit upon some sort of alchemy with Sunshine On Leith.

  • Wild Bill

    Movie Review | Matt | 22nd March 2012

    "Wild Bill! 'E's a total nutjob! E'll wallop every last one o' yer!" Misleading marketing fail strikes again, because as much as selling this film like a Guy Ritchie-influenced cockney criminal caper might bring in more dough, it's actually anything but. Sweet, unassuming, surprisingly tender… Ritchie couldn't make this kind of film if he tried.