A tale of self-destructive but uniquely creative showmanship...

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2018)

Time will tell whether Bryan Singer's "Bohemian Rhapsody" will proudly stand among the greatest biopics of its era... but it does help a lot when it's about one of the most gifted and talented artists of his generation and Freddie Mercury IS a legend, though slightly overshadowed by the pop icons of the 80's. Still; there's one thing they won't ever take from Mercury or Queen, and it stands in two words: "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Yes, one song. One single song is enough to justify their place among the musical Gods. I'll never forget the first time my brother made me listen to it, I knew Queen from "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and forgive me for that, the theme of "Highlander". When I first heard "Bo Rhap", I didn't know what to expect and that feeling went all through the listening: it was both magical and bizarre, whimsical and poignant. I knew I had to listen to that song again, and I did it over and over, to the point I became obsessed. Literally.
Like they say in the film: everyone finds its own story in the rhapsody, it doesn't need to have a meaning. Nothing really matters, like the song says. And the biopic depicts a group of four misfits that found each other, on the top of them an exotic looking effeminate man who invented his own fashion and acted like a drama queen, using more 'darlings' than Talullah Bankhead and Cruella DeVil put together; such colorful roles are wet dreams for actors looking for a breakthrough performance.
I had my reservations when I first saw a picture of Rami Malek but now I think he should be a lock-up for the Oscar nomination, not that it really matters (any way the wind blows as the song says again...) He's simply unrecognizable as the legendary singer and he never plays his mannerisms as a gimmick but as a deliberate carapace of awkwardness concealing deeper wounds. I guess a modern audience can probably respond to Mercury's antics more than his own generation did but Freddie has that edge over all the Madonnas and Lady Gagas, which is that we can't doubt his sincerity.
He was indeed a true and complete artist, with that element of self-doubt and insecurity that made him make the wrong choices and choose a path that would cross AIDS. And that was Mercury, a man who turned everything to his advantage, who was true to himself no matter what and sometimes turned his own blessings into curses. As he says, mistakes, he's made a few... but ultimately, he was the champion of the world. Now, the question is: is the film good because it's about a popular performer and entertainer, could a Queen biopic possibly fail?
To put it simply, while all the other characters are slightly meant as pawns in Mercury's life, there are two stars in the film: Rami Malek who gives a performance that does justice to the legacy of Mercury and there's the music, there's no moment in the film that doesn't feature one of them. And much to my surprise there was less lip synching than I thought and the concert performances emphasized the way Malek totally embodied the soul of Mercury, his aura, his body... minus the voice. He is that good.
The film treats the singer's origins through a few outbursts of racial slurs (he's called "Paki" while he's Farsi Indian born in Zanzibar) and scenes with his family that have the tact not to get too melodramatic. We also have the evolution of his feelings and the discovery of his longly repressed homosexuality, perhaps the second most important character is Mary (Lucy Boynton) who inspired the heart-breaking "Love of My Life". There's the dry spell, the decadent days and of course, the come-back during the iconic Live Aid concert, maybe the peak of his career and certainly one of the images most associated to the singer.
The film ventures in the usual realm of musical biographies, it doesn't reinvent the wheel but why should it anyway? Who needs fancy directing when the show is driven by an eccentric and tortured soul like Mercury. He's a show on his own and I don't envision more than two or three nominations for the film, but at least the so long anticipated biopic was released and maybe it's a star-making role for Malek who looks incredibly convincing. Speaking of that, I also failed to notice Mike Meyers (whose name popped up in the credits) but I'm glad, I'm really glad the film made a subtle nod to "Wayne's World" because a huge part of the song's legacy is due to its re-use in 1992. Till now, who can resist banging his head at the guitar solo moment?
At the end of the film, many viewers were singing a few Queen hits, I was whistling "Tonight" on the way back home, remembering that even my daughter who's just turned five, loved to listen to the 'mama' song but were scared of the Muppet version. I think there's something unique about Queen, the way they used Rock, opera, Pop and disco sounds, their symbiosis with the audience and the self-destructive yet so creative showmanship of their lead singer. My only regret is that they didn't feature one of my favorite Mercury's songs: "Living on my Own" (it was begging to be used in the break-up part).
The film is far from being perfect, there's something obvious and maybe too linear in its storytelling, even subtly manipulative but it transcend that crooked banality just like a tooth-condition that allowed the legend to reach so many high octaves. How the film succeeds by being so 'predictable', maybe it's because like Queen's music, it just can't be pigeonholed. It's not much a biopic, not much a music movie... it's just a film about Freddie Mercury.
And that's enough.