I was curious about Bohemian Rhapsody, I thought at the very least the music was sure to be good, but a lot of the early reviews for the films were fairly middling. Subsequently everyone I knew who had actually seen it was pretty enthusiastic about it, so I went. Other then his music I knew very little about Freddie Mercury before the film came out, I knew he was gay, he died of AIDS, and really liked cats. I did not know that he had been (common law) married, I did not know his ethnic background nor that he was a Zoroastrian, this in interesting information.
The movie is kind of cookie cutter, it follows the 'tortured genius' tropes so common to musical biopics, because they are apparently so common to our 'musical geniuses'. However the stakes don't feel overstated, you go to a movie like this because you want to see the musician you like go through their redemptive journey and hear their music. Rami Malek gives a strong performance as Freddie, with logically the real Freddie being dubbed in for the singing. The supporting cast is good, including Malek's real life girlfriend Lucy Boynton (adorable) as Freddie's long time girlfriend and "love of his life" Mary Austin. There is even a cameo role for Mike Meyers as a skeptical record executive who doesn't think that "Bohemian Rhapsody" will ever be the kind of song people bang their heads to in the car.
What the film benefits most from is having a terrific and very logical ending point, Queens performance at Live Aid in 1985, meticulously recreated down to the placement of the Pepsi cups on Mercury's piano. That whole sequence, which must go on around 20 minutes, is what makes the movie worth seeing on a big screen. Bohemian Rhapsody is not innovative like the song from which it takes its name, but it is a satisfying film watching experience. ***
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