Bohemian Rhapsody Movie Review

“Fortune favors the bold.” - Jim “Miami” Beach

Bohemian Rhapsody is a biopic directed by Brian Singer, and stars Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury.  The film is about the journey of legendary rock band Queen, and the life of their lead singer Freddie Mercury.  

To start off, I’ll say that the casting choices in this movie are fantastic, with all of the actors looking exactly like their real life counterparts.  Rami Malek gives one of the best male performances of the year, and with the way he chews up the scenery and struts around so elegantly and boisterously on stage, you’d think it was actually Mercury himself playing this part.  I love how they portrayed all the characters, and I thought the way they explored elements of Freddie’s life, and also the life of the band was excellent.

The way they dealt with Mercury’s homosexuality was very tasteful, and I commend the way that they handled that element.  One of the things that I walked away with from the film was how hard it must have been not only to be gay during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, where homosexuality was not as accepted, but also to live that rock star lifestyle and have your life consumed with endless sex, drugs, and alcohol.  I think the way that they portrayed Freddie as a sympathetic figure, a true miracle with some issues of his own to work through, was very true to who he was in real life, and very respectful to the legendary singer.

The music of course is absolutely phenomenal, and the camerawork was fantastic, and really captured the scenery well.  This brings me to the infamous Live Aid concert. They replicated it with incredible accuracy. They played almost the full setlist, and copied every movement beat for beat.  I loved the storyline, and I loved the way that they told it. The script was pretty well written as well.

Now for the things that I didn’t like, I thought that some elements of the film were glossed over, such as how Freddie joined the band.  There were some pretty significant pacing issues; some scenes were very rushed. My only other complaint with the film was that there were some pretty typical story cliches that are quite common in a lot of biopics.  For example, a series of little roadblocks leading up to a massive event that a character must recover from. This is a pretty standard choice for biopics and docudramas, and it came off as being a bit cliche.

Overall though, I loved Bohemian Rhapsody, and I think it’s a film that people should really see, and will probably really enjoy.

Rating: PG-13

Grade: B+