Before I start, let me just say something. I may be a 21-year-old female, but I’m not some clueless kid that “knows nothing about good music”.
This is just a dumb stigma around young people that needs to stop. A devout Queen fan who’s been to 20 of their concerts is just as valid as someone that just discovered the band.
Anyways, I’m going to confidently review what is now considered one of my top 5 favorite movies: Bohemian Rhapsody. Look, I’m no professional movie critic but I have a lot to say about this film. As someone who grew up with a Queen super fan for a dad, I was super excited to see how this movie would play out.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!
Bohemian Rhapsody is a biopic about the legendary band Queen with a focus on their back story and the life of lead singer, Freddie Mercury. The movie begins with a quiet scene of Freddie lying in bed, coughing. Obviously, this is foreshadowing his contraction of AIDS. Then it shows Freddie getting ready for the iconic Live Aid concert. He’s about to go on stage when it snaps to the past where he is working at an airport. I think this was a perfect start to the movie as it allowed the story to come full circle with the Live Aid concert by the end of the movie.
I’d say the movie had a good pace; there weren’t that many scenes that lingered except for the Live Aid concert. But I didn’t mind that that particular scene lingered.
Something I didn’t expect from this movie was the HUMOR. I figured there would be a few funny lines from Freddie, but I don’t know- it was just really funny to me.
One thing I did expect was tears. And there were many, many tears. One scene in particular when Freddie comes out of the doctor’s office and a patient recognizes him and says “Ayo” to him (like he would do with the audience during shows). Freddie says it back. It was over me there.
I was so impressed the detailing in this movie, from all of Freddie’s outrageous outfits to even the specific drinks on the piano during the Live Aid concert. I saw a back-to-back comparison of the actual Live Aid concert and the Live Aid scene from the movie and they really got almost EVERY hand movement, dance move, foot step, EVERYTHING.
I can tell the intentions of this movie were not to focus on how Freddie died, why he died, or even the fact that he was attracted to men. The film showed how he wasn’t afraid to be who he was and all the things he did with the little time he had on earth. Yes the AIDS was a big part of his life, as it attributed to his death. The film isn’t denying that. But Freddie did not let the AIDS become him, just like the film did not like the AIDS overshadow how talented and special he was (and still is).
As for the cast, the casting director deserves a raise and they should cast every single biopic made from here on out. Gwilym Lee, who plays Brian May, looks more like Brian May than Brian May. Rami Malek also deserves a raise and all the awards (If he doesn’t get an Oscar, I will RIOT). He stated that he used method acting for the character of Freddie Mercury and stayed in character even off set. DEDICATION.
There’s also been a lot of criticism over the rearrangement of Queen’s timeline and changes in the movie. Y’all should know by now films are not going to get every detail and every date right. The timeline was mixed around to fit the storyline the film was going for. For example: Brian May wrote “We Will Rock You” in the early days of Queen but in the movie, he writes it later on in their career. You have to remember that Brian and Roger were executive producers of this movie, they had a lot of say. They probably approved a good portion of the film, including changing a few things to work with the story angle.
Again, I’m not an expert on Queen or the life of Freddie Mercury. This was just my personal opinion of the film and I think it was executed very well. To me, it’s definitely a 11/10 recommend!
And to Freddie, I hope you’re talking about how Rami’s hair wasn’t as voluptuous as yours in Heaven (or Hell since you said it was much better). Love you, legend.