Who would have thought A Star is Born would have competition this year? Rock on with Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Grade: A-
Director: Bryan Singer ( X-Men, The Usual Suspects)
Screenplay: Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour)
Cast: Rami Malek (The Master), Lucy Boynton (Murder on the Orient Express)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hr 14 min
By: John DeSando
“Now we're four misfits who don't belong together, we're playing for the other misfits. They're the outcasts, right at the back of the room. We're pretty sure they don't belong either. We belong to them.” Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek)
This is a “Champion” musical biopic, a fine companion film this year to A Star is Born. The difference is more of Queen’s music and less of the private anguishes of Star. Queen never before looked this regal with Freddie’s gyrations and their music reminding us how much we loved the big songs, like those of ABBA, whose Mama Mia franchise made me hope also for a sequel to this stellar Queen musical.
Like the song Rhapsody, this film might have instilled doubts that it could have endured the long take (6 min for the song, over 2 hours for the film). Yet, Freddie stays vigorously, infusing each scene with the energy of memorably operatic rock. When Queen invites its rock-concert audience to sing along with We Will Rock You, there’s little the cinema audience can do other than raise its arms and sing.
A disappointment of this estimable musical is the little time it gives to the other three Queen members, who are usually relegated to reaction shots. But, of course, the film and memories of the rock band are dominated by Freddie, who, like Mick, knew instinctively how to please an audience while he remained the epicenter of the action.
The downward arc of this romantic tragedy begins when Freddie admits to his band that he has AIDS. Once that point has been reached, director Bryan Singer lets us linger on the possibilities without Freddie’s informing everyone. It’s not a maudlin time, but a celebration of the time Freddie haws left.
When the band reconvenes, after Freddie’s trying to go it alone, the Live Aid concert for Africa, 1985, proves a confirmation that, in the lineup of such greats as The Rolling Stones, Queen is every bit royalty. The re-creation of the concert is masterful.
Five years later Freddie is dead.
Without melancholy, and probably leaving many dark moments unaccounted for, Bohemian Rhapsody is a celebration of one of the great rock bands of the 20th century, and one of its gifted musical artists, Freddie Mercury.
This musical docudrama will rock you.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
