Review of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) by Andrewburge — 22 Feb 2019

I will start by getting this out of the way--I'm not a big Queen fan. Please, please, read until the end. They always lacked a deeper, more intricate meaning in their music, insight, they are all about externalizing themselves; but if this is a problem when it comes to their music, it works magic in film.

Director Bryan Singer gets this. 'Bohemain Rhapsody' is visible in lacking insight or bravery into Freddie Mercury's life. When he confesses to his lover, Mary (Lucy Byonton) the fact that he is bisexual, she is like--damn, sucks, bro. And he is like--yeah, I know, right. That's about it. But this is not a documentary. This is an artistic film. Like Mercury himself, Singer gives the people what they want--an extravagant, elegant, virtuoso exodus embodied by the march of Rami Malek's career-defining performance. Seriously, he was astounding as the legendary lead singer.

If the late Freddie Mercury was alive, he would approve of this. Throughout this formulaic biopic, one thing managed to stand out, though, albeit it was not that obvious--Mercury's devotion to his fans. "I'm a performer, darling!" Even after discovering his incurable disease, his sole focus was on putting on a nice show. I admire this about him and I admire the film for at least trying to portrait this. And while I am not a huge Queen fan, damn it if Freddie Mercury is not the greatest performer ever.

The first half had its moments of tediousness, mostly due to its straight-forward basic Wikipedia-style of standard biographic presentation. But the ending performance at the 1985 Live Aid was so explosive, cursive that when I looked at the time left and saw less than 20 minutes, realizing it was not a full recreation, I was a bit frustrated. Still, the glory was there and, I admit it, I like Queen a bit more now.