8/10 I might be a little biased because Queen is and always has been my favorite band of all time from when I really discovered them in 7th grade and listened to the song Bohemian Rhapsody on repeat for days on end, to the dismay of anyone and everyone around me. It was fitting then that this film came out the day after my birthday, almost as if it were a birthday gift to me. That being said, my love of Queen aside, this is a solid movie and one whose music is easily one of the highlights. If you didn’t like Queen before seeing this movie, you will after. And if you don’t…you aren’t a real human. Besides the music, which is incredible and covers a wide variety of their songs, the real standout of course is Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. He completely transforms and will definitely be worthy of the Best Actor nominee he is sure to receive. The recreation of the time period by way of costume and production design is expertly done and worthy of praise as well. Even though Malek steals the show, the supporting cast is very strong as well. The film also educates you in an interesting and entertaining way about Mercury’s upbringing/family life and the female love of his life. This film has some beautiful, emotional and tragic moments that really connect with the viewer. I loved seeing how they made some of their songs (specifically Bohemian Rhapsody) in the studio and how inventive and creative they were with creating specific sounds. The biggest flaw with this film is that the overall story is extremely similar to all other musical biopic films. Band gets together, band struggles, band achieves fame, band drinks/does drugs too much, band sleeps around/cheats, band breaks up, band reunites. This formulaic process has been done before and will be done again in upcoming musical biopics, I’m sure (I’m still excited for the upcoming “Rocketman” though). We know this story and the motions it will go through but in having it be specific to someone as unique and controversial as Freddie Mercury as well as having these amazing songs as the backdrop, leading up to the very well done, climactic Live Aid concert, makes for a thrilling time. The behind the scenes director drama luckily never comes across onscreen and the work that was done post Bryan Singer being fired meshes well with the rest of the film. Though not a perfect or original film, the phenomenal soundtrack, expert acting and all around good time make “Bohemian Rhapsody” worth taking a bicycle ride on over to the movie theater to check out.
#HIVWillRockYou / #LongLiveTheQueen / #SlowAndFreddieWinsTheBicycleRace / #PlayTheGameOfThrones / #ImGoingSlightlyGLAAD / #TheseAreTheGaysOfOurLives
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