In this model solar system, all the planets revolve around Mercury, Freddie Mercury (nee Farrokh Bulsara back when he handled other people’s baggage at Heathrow). This is a film about Freddie Mercury. You might think this is a film about Queen or the making of Queen or the history of Queen … and there are some good reasons to have those thoughts, but they’re wrong; please save them for the fan who can name any other member of the band after watching this film. Do the other three ever get named? I suppose they must.
There’s no shortage of oddities when it comes to discussing Freddie, a pop star of Indian parentage born in Zanzibar — how many people can say that? Freddie had four extra teeth at the back of his mouth giving him a comical overbite and something he credited to his four octave range – if you know nothing about music, know that this makes other musicians cry. So whom to cast as the mercurial Mercury must have been a huge issue until somebody saw a season of “Mr. Robot” and said, “OMG, that dude with the huge unfocused eyes who always looks like he’s both entirely present and hopelessly elsewhere at the same time! That guy!” Hence, Rami Malik, with an extended overbite attachment became (emaciated) Freddie Mercury. And he wore it like a Queen.
The arc of Bohemian Rhapsody both begins and ends with Queen’s legendary performance at “Live Aid” in 1985. I’m not sold on the wisdom of recreating the entire performance; a taste would have done, but, to be fair, they probably went to a lot of trouble to recreate the scene and wanted to milk it a bit. I lived through “Live Aid,” of course, and this was my impression:
Madonna: ♪Holiday … Celebrate♫ Phew. That was great! You guys want some more?
Audience: RAAAAAH!!
Madonna: OK, you go it ♪Holiday … Celebrate♫ Wow. You guys are a great crowd. How about some more?
Audience: RAAAAAH!!
Madonna: OK, you asked for it ♪Holiday … Celebrate♫
Me: (turns television off)
Needless to say, I missed the Queen stuff, so I’m glad I caught it eventually, I s’pose.
In the pre-Mercury days, guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) were in a club band called “Smile.” I have no doubt director Bryan Singer wanted to impress two things upon us from the club days: 1) they had a good sound 2) they had no stage presence. Few bands were more in need of a showman, or a Queen.
So one evening in 1970, Freddie shows up, auditions on the spot for vocalist, and overnight there’s a different vibe and a record deal. I felt a little cheated here. There’s no way Freddie’s peacocking on and off stage could have been met with such blasé by his fellow band members … even if these guys were the most open-minded fellas in the world, they had to find his Freddiecentric personality grating from time to time. The guy is a preening, egotistical, condescending diva. And yet the other fellas in the band didn’t even seem to object when he changed the name to “Queen.” Meh, not their story anyway. Speaking of which, Joe Mazzello shows up as Queen’s bass player John Deacon and is almost exactly as much of an afterthought here as in the only other film of his I can name, Jurassic Park
One thing Bohemian Rhapsody did exceptionally well was invite us into the song-writing process. For some people, the best part of any musical biopic is exploring the roots of musical genius. Bohemian Rhapsody delved into the germination of three hits: “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and title song “Bohemian Rhapsody” … all inspired by different band members, btw. These process scenes are as good as any you’ve seen in the genre. I believed I was watching the history of Queen creating art.
Phew, that’s done. Let’s go describe Freddie some more. The camera almost had two frames back there without him.
As with A Star Is Born, I’m not fawning over this picture; like Star, Bohemian Rhapsody was certainly a premise achiever – it sought to tell the story of Freddie Mercury in a complete, (honest), and entertaining fashion. I believe it did so quite thoroughly. While I didn’t love it, I respected it enough not to trash it or put it on any overrated list. There are more deserving pictures, but Bohemian Rhapsody is not the film holding others back and it will certainly please any Queen fan, any Mercury fan, or person with a sense of rock ‘n’ roll history which –as it turns out- is a ton o’ people.
♪Is this a real film? Is this some artistry?
Caught up in act two, no escaping this furtively
Check out his eyes, the head muppet’s still on screen
I’m just a film fan, I need no entropy
Because I’ll see it fast, see it slow
Don’t care who’s in the show
Any way the plot flows doesn’t really matter to me♫
<Oh Hell, no. I’m stopping here. I’ll write the whole thing when I’m caught up from HIFF. Maybe>
Rated PG-13, 134 Minutes
Director: Bryan Singer (I want to say his best film is now about a singer, appropriately enough, but this guy also directed Usual Suspects)
Writer: Anthony McCarten
Genre: A real life Queen
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Freddie Mercury
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Ray Foster”
♪ Parody Inspired by “Bohemian Rhapsody”
