Review of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) by Keithdow — 15 Nov 2018

'Bohemian Rhapsody' is ... nice. Whenever I describe something as being "nice" it's done through clenched teeth. The truth is that I've never gotten over the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen was supposed to play Freddie Mercury while, in turn, providing a gritty and unambiguously honest re-telling of the history of the band--warts and all. Of course, the surviving members of Queen would have none of that, so Cohen abandoned ship and the glossy, paint-by-numbers result is what we now have to live with.

It isn't all bad. It isn't even mostly bad. Queen's music and the concert segments are enough to power this biopic through most of my criticisms. Furthermore, Rami Malek did a great job leading this project through to fruition (you can google how much of a disaster Bryan Singer was while directing the film, nearly de-railing it entirely).

To this point, Sheila O'Malley provides a great review via RogerEbert.com in which she summarizes her feelings thusly:

"Malek taps into Mercury's ferocious energy, particularly in the concert sequences, all of which give you the electric sense of what it might have been like to be there in person. The single star of this review is for Malek's performance.