Rate it: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

2/10.

On the craft of filmmaking, it's a mess. Extremely on-the-nose and trite in handling its story beats and flattens all of its characters to farcical degrees. Only Rami Malek seems really committed here and he is handicapped by a script so surface-level it renders him little more than a pretty good pantomime. Even the much ballyhooed Live Aid sequence is not especially stirring as far as the filmmaking goes (A Star is Born in the same year does a much better job with its performance sequences) and it feels to me like the effect is mostly just a consequence of hearing Queen, one of the greatest bands ever.

As a telling of Freddie Mercury's story, I think it's a disgusting bit of character assassination. So terribly disappointing how the other members of Queen, people who were friends with Freddie, not only allowed but encouraged this as a cynical attempt at brand extension (that unfortunately worked) to draw in new fans/revitalize old ones as they continue touring under the shadow of Mercury's passing. Fucking gross.

2

All of this. Not only is it abysmally crafted (although I do have to give props to John Ottman for at least putting together something approaching watchability given what he had to work with, though an Oscar win is a bridge too far), but conceptually it's rancid. It fellates the other members of Queen while making it seem like Mercury's AIDS and death was divine retribution for a hedonistic life. Fuck off with that.

Say what you will about Green Book, but this would've been a far worse Best Picture winner and I think this was second place that year.

3.5 - The kind of biopic that once it's over you actually know LESS about the person.

utterly forgettable and unmemorable. Expected way more for Rami here than I got. 5/10

4.5/10

3 / 10