Two biopics in a row, huh? I promise it was a coincidence. But, anyway, Bohemian Rhapsody is a biopic about one of the best bands of all time: Queen. It was directed by Bryan Singer, who also did most of the X-Men movies, and the screenplay was written by Anthony McCarten, who wrote the "Death of a Superhero" book. A similarly themed movie, titled Rocketman, is being released next year that deals with the life of Elton John. I'm really looking forward to that, but, for now, we have Bohemian Rhapsody to talk about. I was really excited for this movie before it came out, and, now that it's here, I finally get to talk about it. I'm a huge Queen fan, as are most people. Does the movie live up to the immense hype it received? Well, let's find out.
First thing I wanna talk about is Rami Malek's portrayal of Freddie Mercury. The movie is about Queen as a band, but Freddie naturally gets the most screentime. Because of this, whoever gets chosen to portray Freddie will have to nail it. I'm happy to report that Rami kills it. He was a flawless Freddie. Rami had everything about Freddie perfectly replicated! His posture, his flamboyance, the teeth, the voice, the jawline. Every single nuance of Freddie Mercury was present in Rami's performance. It was unbelievable! It was as if Freddie had been brought back to life just to film the movie. He was outstanding! Absolutely outstanding! The movie is worth the price of admission just for him. And the rest of the actors portraying the band were great, as well! Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon, they all nailed their roles. I didn't know who any of those three actors were, and I still don't, but I want to now. All four of them were so good. I don't have the words to describe how perfect the actors portraying Queen were. They crushed it! The actors performing the legendary Queen songs are easily the best parts of the movie. And the rest of the actors were great, as well. They played off of the Queen actors sublimely. Lucy Boynton was great as Mary Austin, one of Freddie's love interests. Aaron McCusker was good as Jim Hutton, another one of Freddie's love interests. Mike Myers was in the movie, which was fun to see. He makes a "subtle" joke about Wayne's World when he tells Freddie that "Bohemian Rhapsody" will, quote, "Never be a song that people can turn up on the radio and bang their heads to". It's funny, but it's also kinda cringy in just how on the nose the reference is.
But there are a lot of jokes that actually do work in this movie. When the band is meeting with John Reid to see about scoring a record deal, Freddie comes out wearing this really extravagant jacket. Brian notes that he "looks like an angry lizard". When the band is recording the operatic section of "Bohemian Rhapsody", Freddie makes Roger rerecord him belting the "GALILEO" part over and over again, each time doing a little bit higher, which eventually results in Roger screaming "Who even is Galileo!?" at Freddie. Ray Foster, Mike Myers's character, gets a couple good laughs, too. He complains about the length of "Bohemian Rhapsody", saying that it "goes on forever". Freddie retorts by saying, "I pity your wife if you think six minutes is forever". And then, at the end, when Queen is killing it at Live Aid, there's a moment when it cuts back to Ray silently sitting at his desk listening to them tear the house down with a facial expression that screams "What have I done?". And, yeah, the idea that Mike Myers, who helped re-popularize the song after Mercury's death in Wayne's World, plays a character in this movie that is skeptical of releasing it in the first place is pretty humorous. It's a nice in-joke, but it really gets ruined when Myers spells it out. That didn't need to happen. There are a lot of jokes in this movie, most of which work. The ones that don't work, though, really don't work, but it happens so infrequently that it really isn't worth mentioning.
And there's a lot of good dramatic moments, too. The scene when Freddie is diagnosed with AIDS, he doesn't say a word. His reaction is given to us through facial expressions, and it is heartbreaking. I've given Rami Malek tons of props for his stellar performance, but by God does he deserve it, especially with this scene. And, when he confesses the diagnosis to his band-mates, he hesitates at first, but then he speaks his mind to them in a calm yet slightly scared tone. They accept him and they close it off with a very sweet group hug. It was very nice to see his friends accept him for who he is. I also greatly enjoyed everything about the bit that goes over Freddie's solo career. Reid (I think it was Reid) giving Mercury the initial offer and getting fired over it, Freddie eventually taking him up on his offer anyway, him revealing it to the rest of the band, the downward spiral his life takes after he leaves Queen, him leaving Paul Prenter in the rain. It's all handled superbly and, surprisingly, never once feels gimmicky. I also really like the fact that this movie didn't gloss over the topic of Freddie's sexuality like the teaser trailer implied it would. Freddie's bisexuality is explored, and even explicitly stated at one point. It's really cool.
I think this movie is excellent. However, there are a couple things I'd like to discuss that stop me from giving it a perfect score. When this movie is not recreating famous Queen songs or music videos, it's going more into the backstory of Freddie and the band's upbringing. These scenes feel very rushed. It follows the beats that you'd expect from a movie like this, but it hits them so quickly that it feels like these scenes are only here to get the audience from one music scene to another. Prime example: Freddie proposes to Mary at the beginning of the second act. This is immediately followed by Queen securing a tour of America. I'm not kidding. The proposal happens, and then the band barges into the room and informs Freddie of the tour not even three seconds later. At the beginning, when Freddie meets his future band-mates, he briefly sings a high note to prove to them that he has the talent to be a lead singer. Two scenes later, they have a hit song. Two scenes after that, they have a tour. It all happens too quickly. But these scenes are made tolerable by the actors giving it their all. To be honest, though, the screenplay doesn't work that well for most of the non-music scenes. There are a few that work well, but most of them don't. They're unorganized, poorly-paced, they move too fast. It's a problem, but it doesn't break the movie in my opinion. I also really wish that they used Rami's vocals when Freddie sings. They don't. Instead, Freddie's real voice is heard. I thought it was Rami, I was wrong. Apparently, though, Malek did indeed record himself singing the songs for the movie. I don't know why they didn't use it, but it would've made Rami's performance feel even more real if it was him singing as Freddie. It still sounds amazing, cause it's one one of the greatest vocalists of all time, but I would've loved to have heard Malek sing here. Rocketman better let Taron Egerton sing, is all I'm saying.
Do you know what this movie does do amazingly, though? The third act. The film opens with Freddie walking up to the stage in preparation to perform at Live Aid, but it cuts away before the concert so that the story can properly start. The third act leads up to Queen's set at Live Aid. Freddie reconciling with the band, practicing their songs with them to see if they still work together, trying to sing while visibly ill from the AIDS virus. And, when it finally happens, they do not hold back. They recreate the entire twenty-minute set, and it is awesome! It's recreated extremely faithfully. It's the best part of the movie by far. The buildup pays off beautifully! I'm gonna be honest, I teared up a little while watching it because of how epic it was. The band's actions are done by the actors faithfully, the stadium itself is a spot-on recreation, Freddie sings the songs in the same way as he did in the real event, even the stage cameramen move around in the same way. It's absolutely glorious. It felt like I was there at Wembly experiencing it with the audience. I also loved the shots of the audience jamming along with the music. Queen's set at Live Aid is said to be the greatest rock performance in history, and for this movie to do such a fantastic job of replicating it is unbelievable.
Bohemian Rhapsody is not a perfect movie, but, in my opinion, it's close. The set and costume designs were great, the cinematography was really good, and, of course, the actors absolutely crush it. I understand why people wouldn't like it, though. It does take some historical liberties, as do most biopics. But I personally really enjoyed it. I knew I was in for a good time when the 20th Century Fox theme music was given a really cool electric guitar cover, done by Brian May no less. Another really nice tidbit is that the movie (or, at least, my screening of it) began with Rami Malek as himself thanking the audience I was in for coming and seeing the film, saying that it's because of us that movies like these get made. I don't know if that played before every screening, but I appreciated it. I'm gonna give Bohemian Rhapsody a 9/10, the highest score I've given to a movie yet. I loved it. Go see it if you get the chance to, but, whatever you do, don't Throw The Harpoon at it. The Live Aid scene on it's own is worth seeing.
