BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Review

It's not what you say, it's how you say it. It is this common expression that the rather simple and safe interpretation of the story of Queen that Bohemian Rhapsody tells might have benefited from remembering. In a nutshell, Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher's biopic covers the early years of Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor's (Ben Hardy) band just before it recruits lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) and becomes known as Queen up through their 1985 performance at Live Aid that is considered one of the greatest performances in rock history. This is all well and good and makes sense for the arc of the band during its peak time of popularity, but within this arc Anthony McCarten's (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour) screenplay never digs deep enough for audiences to really catch a glimpse of what actually defined Queen as a group or what made them, as a unit, so willing and trusting in one another to the extent they'd each be willing to bet everything on the titular song being a hit despite the fact a senior A&R exec with more experience than all of the members of Queen combined doesn't believe it to be. Of course, this is where one would retaliate with the, "fortune favors the bold," phrase that is also used in the movie and I'm not saying the members of Queen were wrong or stupid for doing this-obviously they weren't-or that the A&R exec was right-obviously he wasn't-but what I am saying is that Bohemian Rhapsody, the film, never gives the audience reason to trust in the word of Mercury, May, Taylor, and bassist John Deacon (Joe Mazzello) over this more experienced character outside of the fact it presumes the audience knows the story and music of Queen well enough to just go with it. And that's exactly what Bohemian Rhapsody does the majority of the time: it simply asks the audience to "go with it" as it rotates through the band's greatest hits and gives the expected beats of their meteoric rise, the inner tensions and turmoil that come with fame and notoriety, the distance that naturally grows between Mercury and the rest of his band mates, and their eventual reconciliation that leads to a triumphant return. It's all here, but the real disappointment with the story of Queen in particular is that it has so many unique variables and perspectives that this predictable pattern of the music biopic could have been used purely as a template while the actual style and substance of what was being communicated could have been fulfilled in more creative and effective ways. Instead, Bohemian Rhapsody is unapologetically "fine" and will largely be remembered for finding an excuse to play so many great songs on theater quality sound systems.

Official Trailer for BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Starring Rami Malek

The second and official trailer for the Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, has been released by 20th Century Fox ahead of its early November release date. The film, which has a hell of a development history seemed destined to have some production troubles as well and those came in the form of original director Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Susapects) being fired from the gig due to tensions with his star, Rami Malek, and his apparent lack of regard for punctuality. Eddie the Eagle director Dexter Fletcher was brought into complete the film, but now it has been finalized that Singer will in fact be the credited as the director on the picture though I can't imagine he's had any say in the final cut of the film. It's a weird road, no doubt, and as much as I would have loved to have seen the Freddie Mercury-centric film that Sacha Baron Cohen would have liked to have made this latest clip along with the first teaser trailer for the film have more than piqued my interest in Malek's performance. Malek certainly looks the part and if you've seen any of the behind the scenes video that puts on full display how well he's been able to mimic Mercury's movements during the Live AID performance, but while I'm all in on any kind of music biopic I have to wonder how much of this will indeed be focused on Mercury and how much of it will put equal stock in the remaining band members given they were seemingly given their way when Cohen stepped away from the project. The text cards during the trailer itself certainly seem to play up the fact this is ultimately Mercury's story and as Singer is an out and proud gay man I assume the film will find a respectful, but honest way to discuss Mercury's own sexuality as well as his fast descent into sex, drugs, and the rock and roll lifestyle that came to too quick an end in 1991 when Mercury died from AIDS. Regardless, what comes to pass-whether it be a masterpiece or a dumpster fire-will certainly hold a fair amount of intrigue up until its release and likely even through to some if not every aspect of the finished product. Bohemian Rhapsody also stars Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Lucy Boynton, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Aaron McCusker, and opens on November 2nd, 2018.