This film is a 12A, was released on October 24th 2018, and this review will contain NO SPOILERS
Introduction
When it comes to music, my taste is generally all over the place. There's no specific band / artist that I admire but rather several that I admire. However, if I did have to pick one of those several bands, it'd probably be Queen. I love Queen. All their tunes are extremely catchy and have had a huge impact on the music industry, giving them a terrific legacy as probably one of the greatest bands in history. So, with a band that produced such extraordinary music, surely there's something fascinating behind the curtains for them?
Thoughts Going In
I didn't know what to expect going into Bohemian Rhapsody. It's a film that has had quite an interesting life despite the fact that it hasn't been around for long at all. When it first came out, it got very mixed reviews from critics, who criticised it for falsifying many elements of the band's history as well as poorly handling certain elements. But, it had a huge opening here in the UK, and has been bobbing around in the top 10 for around 11 weeks. But what peaked my interest to see this film was that it won the Golden Globe for best motion picture. This was a surprise. So, I finally had the urge to go and see what this film was.
The Story
In 1970, a man named Freddie meets a rundown band who have just lost their lead singer. He quickly joins and they begin to turn out hit after hit. This of course becomes Queen and the film follows them as they face many hardships but eventually are met with huge amounts of success.
What I Liked
The thing I loved about Bohemian Rhapsody so much was that it felt so impactful. What kept me engaged were three things:
Firstly, Rami Malek's performance as Freddie Mercury. This is honestly one of the best performances of a real life figure that I have ever seen. It reminded me of a film called The Theory of Everything in which Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking, and you feel like you're watching the actual Stephen Hawking than an actor playing him. That's exactly how I felt here as it felt like I was watching the real Freddie. He got the character so perfect that I honestly don't think anyone else could've played him. Very deserving of the Golden Globe as well as any other awards that come his way.
Secondly, the atmosphere. I was worried that the film wouldn't dedicate enough time to the actual performances or gigs that the band did, but luckily there was tons of it. What was also brilliant was how it showed the creations of several songs. Although I'm sure it's not entirely accurate, it was so much fun to watch. Seeing all the bonkers methods they used to create Bohemian Rhapsody, or watching them build their way up from a single tune to create Another One Bites the Dust, or my personal favourite, watching them create a beat to involve the audience and eventually leading to We Will Rock You. Then you get some scenes where you see these songs being performed to an audience, and it's just amazing. You want to stamp your feet to the beat, you want to sing along, it's just so so good. Then, when you get to the Live Aid performance, which is everything the film has been culminating to, it goes through the roof. There's such a sense of scale, a sense that this is an unbelievably large audience, so when they begin to sing songs like Radio Ga Ga, it feels so big and so grand and completely involving.
Finally, the story. Before I saw the film, I did some research on Queen's history and it turns out that there are many things this film made up. But, it didn't bother me in the slightest and I think it actually worked to the film's advantage. They've taken a lot of true elements as well as some fictional ones and arranged them in a way that it gives the film a more narrative structure. I don't care if it is inaccurate to what really happened, but it was necessary. You get the sense that the four band members are misfits and don't fit in, you feel the tension between them when they have creative differences, you can understand their anger when not everyone gets a say regarding a certain matter, and because the actors are so good at conveying their characters, you want to see them succeed. So when we do arrive at the Live Aid performance and Freddie knows it'll be one of his last shots due to his unfortunate diagnosis of AIDS, you feel all the tension that you should, and when they start to sing We Are the Champions, you feel the sense of achievement and accomplishment. This was really the cherry on top despite how it ignores history. But in the end, it doesn't matter. I'll take a really well executed and emotionally resonant story over one that goes through history word for word and doesn't try to make it engaging.
What I Didn't Like
There are some things wrong with Bohemian Rhapsody but nothing disastrous. My biggest complaint is that there are some slower scenes which are either too long or they're badly executed. One scene involving Freddie firing one of his agents felt a bit too cold and flippant considering what it was trying to show. Another scene showing his early interactions with a man he later had a relationship with felt uncomfortable. Some people criticised how the film glosses over details of Freddie's sexuality or how it mishandles elements of it. Personally, I didn't get irritated by it and I don't think I would've liked any more of it because that stuff didn't really have me interested nor did it add much. I think what they did do was fine and got the message across just fine. That's really the only issue I have with this film, just a few scenes I think were boring, uninteresting or badly executed, which there weren't actually a lot of, looking back.
Conclusion
Bohemian Rhapsody may not serve as an accurate biopic for those who are genuinely interested in the life story of Freddie Mercury, but I loved it. It has one of the best lead performances of the year, some really powerful and atmospheric song performances, as well as a story that had me engaged and entertained. But above all, this felt like a love letter to Queen. It captures the larger than life scale of their music and pays tons of respect to their legacy. It makes you really understand why they are considered one of the greatest bands of all time, and how upsetting it was that we lost Mercury so soon. This film definitely deserves those Golden Globes it received and hopefully it picks up a few more as we get deeper into awards season. As for me, I'm a really big fan of it and I'm sure it'll live on forever.....
I'm going to give Bohemian Rhapsody an 8/10
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