Bohemian Rhapsody

20th Century Fox, 2018
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, and Ben Hardy
Directed by Bryan Singer
Music and Lyrics by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and Queen

Our second rock musical of the week is last year's biography of Freddie Mercury, the dynamic lead singer of the 70's-80's hard rock band Queen. I've been a fan of theirs since I first heard the title song in the early 90's. Does the movie live up to their legendary and ferocious on-stage presence? Let's head to a pub in London in 1970, where rock history is about to be made, and find out...

The Story: Indian refugee Farrokah "Freddie" Bulsara (Malek) spends his nights in a pub in London, listening to the band Smile. He befriends Brian May (Lee) and groupie Mary Austin (Boynton), then offers to join the group when their original singer quits. Impressed by his vocal prowess, they agree to let him in. He pushes the group to bigger and better things, selling their touring van to record their debut album. When their sound engineer Roy Thomas Baker (Tim Plester) gives a representative from EMI Records their demos, he offers to sign them for a contract with agent John Reid (Aidan Gillien). They do have a hit with "Killer Queen" (which gives the band its name), but ultimately leave EMI when they refuse to release the 6-minute epic "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single. Freddie manages to get it on the radio anyway, where it becomes one of their biggest hits.

While Queen continues as one of the biggest rock bands of the disco-saturated late 70's, all is not well with Mercury. Having privately come out as homosexual, he amiably breaks up with Mary and begins a relationship with his personal manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech). His is the rock star lifestyle of parties, drugs, and debauchery, and while his performances remain electric, his relationship with the rest of the band is starting to deteriorate. Matters come to a head when he fires John Reid without asking the others and the band does the video for their single "I Want to Break Free" in drag, getting them banned from MTV. He finally does go solo in the early 80's...but realizes how important music, Mary, and his bandmates are when they're offered a gig with Live Aid, a concert to support HIV/AIDS awareness, that Paul refuses to tell him about.

The Song and Dance: Malek studied long and hard to get Mercury's mannerisms down right. It paid off. He's a perfectly swaggering, sexy Mercury, deserving every bit of his Oscar win this past February. Boyton also does well as his understanding girlfriend and long-time best friend Mary. The movie ably recreates some of their finest performances; the Live-Aid concert is so convincing, it makes me wish I wasn't 6 years old at the time and had actually been able to see it for real.

Favorite Number: "Killer Queen" in particular is fabulous; they must have knocked the British kids' socks off on the BBC's music show Tops of the Pops. It's really neat to see how "Bohemian Rhapsody" came about, and "I Want to Break Free" is campy fun. Heck, the movie is worth seeing just to catch the amazing 4-song Live Aid concert at the end; Malek is on fire, and the performances are incredible.

What I Don't Like: Most critics have complained loudly about the historical inaccuracies. Mercury had known members of the band before he met them at the pub, and he'd mentioned joining before then. The EMI executive Ray Foster (Mike Myers) who turned down "Bohemian Rhapsody" is based after Ray Featherstone, and he did like the band. Mercury didn't meet Mary at a pub the same night he met the band, and many details of his relationships with her, Paul, and his later boyfriend Jim Hutton (Aaron McCuster) are glossed over. He didn't find out that he had AIDS until probably around 1986, well after Live Aid. The band never broke up as depicted, and May and Taylor released solo albums long before Mercury did.

Actually, the movie's biggest problem is it's a mess of cliches that aren't that far removed from Lillian Russell and Look for the Silver Lining. Pretty much every biographical trope you can think of is here, from how the band meets to Mercury's drug-fueled out with the group to their triumphant return. Not to mention, Malek is so good in his role, everyone else - including his band mates - pretty much pale besides him.

The Big Finale: For all the critics' carping, enough Queen fans came out to make this one of the biggest hits of 2018...and yeah, I mostly enjoyed it too. If you love Queen and their music or want to see Malek's Oscar-winning turn as one of British rock's great characters, you'll want to grab a guitar and give this one a look.

Home Media: As one of the biggest hits of 2018 about a hugely popular rock group, it goes without saying that this one is easily found in all formats.

DVD
Blu-Ray
4K
Amazon Prime