Played 'Live Aid', then died

Rating: 4/10 (16 March 2019)

Musical biographies often make for pretty poor films, even when the musician themselves has happened to have lived an interesting life. The coincidence of personal drama and creativity is often a loose one; attempting to forge a narrative, a certain sort of movie almost always take refuge in a ludicrous cathartic scene where the protagonist writes their love song while hurting from a break-up etc. etc. etc. 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the story of Queen, struggles even more because as an authorized project, it attempts to give some credit to every band member, which dampens its attempts to show their squabbling. In addition, it chooses a positive narrative, focusing not on lead singer Freddie Mercury's tragically early death but rather on Queen's triumphant performance, when it might have been thought they were over the hill, at the legendary 'Live Aid' concert a few years earlier. Comedian Spike Milligan used to quip that his obituary would read "Wrote the Goon Show, then died". Whatever you think of Queen, the band had a long string of imaginative hits, but watching this film, you might feel you could sum up Mercury's life as "Played Live Aid, then died". While many have focused on Rami Malek's performance in bringing Mercury to life, I struggled to avoid being distracted by the frankly painful screenplay. The one redeeming feature here is Queen's music, used liberally throughout but welcome nonetheless.