Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

 

Right off the bat: if you like Queen, this is pretty much a mandatory film to watch. Heck, if you like Queen, chances are you have already seen this anyway. But even if you don't have any feelings towards the music and the band, this is a great biopic. 

Does it take liberties with the history? Absolutely. 

Will it matter? Nope.

Let's be real here: every biopic takes liberties, for the simple reason of dramatic tension and because otherwise most thrilling stories would be boring as fudge. 

So, here we have the 'origin' story of the band Queen with the focus on singer Freddie Mercury. Makes sense, as he always was the most flamboyant member anyway, or at least his persona was. So we go from the early beginnings when Farrokh Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury, because of course that is a much better stage name. You get some glimpses into the early recordings and the making of probably their best known song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and then onto massive success and naturally the cracks begin to show. Here, it is Freddie's sort-of boyfriend/leech that pretty much takes advantage of him and splits him from the rest of the guys. Of course, he will see the light thanks to his lifelong friend Mary Austin, and naturally they all come back together and then perform one of the most legendary shows ever during Live Aid. 

Heck, it's not easy to make the story sound all that thrilling, because it is what it is. But this isn't a film you watch for the story as such, you will watch it for the music and the excellent performances from everyone and Rami Malek in particular. Heck, Malek pulls off the feat of making you actually believe you're watching Freddie, even if he doesn't really look like him. Sure, they also gave him the large teeth that Freddie had (and that partially gave him his wide range), but it is in the speech patterns and mannerisms that you can feel it all coming through. It's quite impressive, actually. You can set the footage from the real Live Aid-show next to this one and you would be hard pressed to find dissimilarities. 

Yes, you can complain that they don't show the excess that happened, or that they mix several things that didn't happen during the setting of the film and so on, but it's not a documentary. It's a romanticised take on certain events and as a film about a band/singer, this works wonders. It's a really well put together film in every respect. The fact that it has great music is just the icing on the cake, but that will depend on your love for Queen. 

Anyway: I can heartily recommend this one, for both fans and non-fans. You'll be doing poses and shouting: "Ey-oh!" to an imaginary crowd for days on end.