Nonsence

Rating: 1/10 (26 January 2019)

The 91st annual Oscar ceremony will be held soon, in the list of the main contenders for a number of awardsthere is Brian Singer film Bohemian Rhapsody. I deliberately endured a pause, waited until the first waves of delight and anger subside, carefully watched the movie in the original, all of more than two hours and now I would like to express my opinion on this biopic.
Remember the 1991 Oliver Stone film called Doors - there was still thin Val Kilmer playing Jim Morrison? After so many years, all the flaws of that picture become apparent. In the foreground, Jim himself, the other participants are registered superficially and as if passing by. Then, in 1991, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore were somewhat offended by the fact that in the film about the group of the group itself there could have been more about themselves.
And now the new biopic, now about the Queen group - one of my favorite and respected ones. I am 47 years old, and I found the period when the group still existed and released their later albums (1989 and 1991). Many of us watched the 1986 concert film Live in Budapest several times. We remember that real group, we saw Freddie on the screen and saw who he was. And those of us who started to study the team's biography thoughtfully understood that Queen is not only Freddie. This is Freddie, Brian, John and Roger. All four wrote songs and played on a variety of instruments. And when Mercury died, the group quickly turned into ... well, into a parody of itself. Arguably, one can argue, but all later releases with George Michael, Paul Rogers and now with Adam Lambert are, in essence, a quality hack. The Queen were from the same breed as the Beatles - remove at least one member, and everything will immediately collapse.
Then Ione can argue, but what about the enthusiastic reaction of May and Taylor on the film with Ramey Malek? The answer is very simple - another chance to bask in the glow of past glory. Name at least one thing from the post-Mercury-post-Deacon Queen and so on the same scale as the records of 1973-1991. Do even try to recall.
So. Singer film. What we got in the end? Enchanting nonsense for 120 minutes for the audience of the 21st century, having the most fragmented understanding of Freddie and the whole group. An objection can immediately be heard here - yes, but in 4 hours the whole history of the group cannot be shown. Well, and who prevented to focus on, say, two significant moments in the history of the group - the recording of the 1975 album A Night at the Opera and on the performance at the Live Aid concert in 1985? Instead, we saw a chaotic race through the long history of the team, with incredible jumps from 1973 to 75, from 1980 suddenly in 1977, and so on.
I have not yet spoken about the grossly factual errors. Among the most egregious are, for example, John Deacon on bass as part of Smile, or selling a van to get money to record a debut disc, or a completely wild moment learning a We Will Rock You song in the year of 1980, although the thing itself was written and recorded in 1977 or John Deacon, suddenly singing in studio recordings.
Well, okay, viewers in their mass don't give a damn about all these delights, probably. Well, maybe the actors were great then? Not so. Ramey Malek as Freddie is not even a joke, it is a pure farce brought to the point of absurdity. A slender young man with very noticeable artificial teeth mannerates and grimaces for two hours, trying to portray a singer who, even in the years of same-sex relationships, radiated masculinity and strength. Immediately, we see a certain vocalist, who had fallen into Smile from where (all Freddie's early musical projects were simply ignored) (and by the way, it was possible to spend more time on Tim Staffell,) just as quickly changing his relationship with a girl for romance with men, and then throwing up absurd parties ... and so on, swiftly and at the top, skipping important events and moments of biography.
For some reason, it reminded me of the hackneyed clichÃ© of a number of books and films about the path of a genius - lack of understanding of relatives, the way up, excesses, painful searches for themselves, psychological drama. And yes, all this is present in the "Rhapsody".
Well, but what about the other members of the group? Actually, can they save the movie? No, they do not save. May is shown as such a good-natured brat with no special character traits, Taylor is d epicted as that kind of cutie, worn off with one of his songs and suddenly fiercely quarreling with Freddie, and Deacon just looks like occasionally talking furniture. Oh yeah, he's showing the song on the bass. Next thing on him - silence.
The critics are absolutely right in one issue - Malek is trying very hard, but he overplays terribly, the beautiful picture does not carry any content with it. Instead of a truly interesting team history, we absorb a bright and mannered video clip with small pieces of facts. Clip feed for clip generation.
And one more thing - Live Aid was undoubtedly important for the band in terms of reviving interest in their music. But in general, they could even asa solo event gather 130,000 spectators, as was the case in 1988 in Brazil, for example.
What can be said in conclusion? Alas, the film was completely unsuccessful, in my opinion - a complete failure. I do not recommend watching at all, well, except for fun.
My rating is 1 out of 10 (I give a point for the music of the group that sounds in the film).