Compassionate and Exhilirating

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2019)

Based on a true story: the life of Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) is portrayed beginning with his connection with the group that would later become Queen and ending with Queen's performance at the Live Aid concert in 1985.
Throughout, this US-UK co-production has many moments that are lively, energetic, and fun especially the early segments and various musical moments. The directing (by Bryan Singer, later replaced by Dexter Fletcher) also shifts easily to moods that match the stages of Mercury's later life including loneliness at the top, coming out as bisexual, and being diagnosed with AIDS. The film benefits greatly by having Malek in the lead role. He gives a fully rounded performance in all of the ups and downs of an extraordinary life and his simulation of the Live Aid performance is outstanding. He deserves all the awards and other recognition he has won.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" has special resonance for those of us who could remember Queen's rise to fame and beyond. This includes a very amusing scene that includes criticism of the length of the titular song and how this could never be accepted by radio stations. (As they say, the rest is history.) There is also the collective attitude of compassion that was behind the Live Aid concert.
Many criticize the 1980s as a decade of greed. While this was indeed the decade when the seed of greed was planted, the terrible results of that seed would later flourish in the 1990s and beyond. The 1980s was like a "between" decade. It had the greed already mentioned but it also had much of the residual heart left over from the 1960s and 1970s. This kinder attitude created Live Aid which received many charitable contributions. Such an event would be very unlikely today. This is not necessarily because the average person is greedy; it's mainly because the average person of today has much less disposable income than the average person in 1985. Here is yet another way that "Bohemian Rhapsody" creates such a yearning nostalgia.
While there is solid development in Freddie's character, this is much less so in the character of Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), Freddie's lover and manager during the early part of the group's prime. Paul is portrayed as a character who slithers his way into an already established group and then becomes a manipulative control freak. While it is easy to sympathize with Paul in the beginning (coming out as gay was much more difficult back then than it is today), he seems to suddenly become a jerk with no character arc.
But this flaw does not stop "Bohemian Rhapsody" from being one of the top films of 2018. It has many moments that make it compassionate as well as exhilarating. One of the highlights is a scene when Freddie announces his health condition to his fellow band members.
This film compares well to other great films about music performers - fictional as well as real. It has the energy and passion of "A Star is Born" also released in 2018. And it is also very much like the Édith Piaf biopic "La Vie en Rose" (2007); like the latter film, each portrayed brilliant, larger-than-life singers who died too soon in their forties. And all three films conclude with musical numbers that could make angels weep with joy. - dbamateurcritic
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS:
Directing by Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher
Acting by Rami Malek