Review: Bohemian Rhapsody

Posted on 1 November, 2018

If you need a synopsis of this movie we can’t be friends! IMDb does have one though.

From the first, brief glimpse of footage on Facebook, I have been counting the days to the release of this film. Queen (and Freddie) are very, very important to me.

So I was thrilled to learn that the staff at Limelight Cinemas, Tuggeranong were just as excited as me! They’ve made two (two!) lip-synching clips (Bohemian Rhapsody and Don’t Stop Me Now), which are up online and screen in their cinemas. I have such respect for workers goodhearted enough for that sort of public exposure, who really seem to be enjoying themselves.

Limelight was so excited about Bohemian Rhapsody that they held a gala preview on Saturday night and I was lucky enough to attend. I was only disappointed that I didn’t think to wear a fake moustache for Freddie. Shout out to the girls that did though – a legendary look, ladies.

We walked a red carpet between twinkling party lights (Freddie would have approved) and once in the cinema, a real sense of celebration was created with coloured lights rippling over the walls and an in-cinema bar (stellar idea). Local band Special K got the party started with some great Queen tunes, which the audience sang along with very enthusiastically.

By the time staff handed out some prizes of tickets to next week’s We Will Rock You live show, we were all ready for the main event. The film is wonderful. I laughed, I cried and I got the sort of feeling in my chest that can only come from seeing my favourite band, and moments from their lives portrayed onscreen. Yes, to heighten the drama some events have been blended but it all works. It works so well that if there had been another session on immediately afterwards I would have gone to that as well.

Each member of the band is cast really well. Actually, I’m convinced that Gwilym Lee is Brian May – Doctor Who was filmed in Wales…Welsh name…astrophysicist. If anyone is going to time travel it will be Brian May.

However it is Freddie, or rather Rami Malek, who has to carry the film and luckily his shoulders are broad. He inhabits Freddie’s stage persona brilliantly but also lets us see the man behind that. Such an intuitive, emotional, flamboyant AND restrained performance – I have no words. Just give him an Oscar™.

The screenplay manages to get the essence of the Queen phenomenon across, encapsulating all the madness, the genius and the joy. Freddie’s lifestyle is touched on but not exploited. This is not a tabloid biopic, it is a sincere attempt to tell a story. Thank you, Anthony McCarten.

I know Bryan Singer directed the film but I did have to look at the credits to check that information. This film is deft, it is loving without being fawning and (dare I say it) each scene actually makes sense. This is the director of The Usual Suspects on form again.

In the end, it is not a film, it is an experience – joyful, funny, unbelievable, sad, loud and above all, rock and roll. By the end, I couldn’t tell if the tears were for joy or loss but I understood the frisson that shot through me when the crowd at Live Aid changed, in a heartbeat, from individuals to one organism clapping in time to Radio Gaga. I remember that day. I saw it on TV. They weren’t just a band, they were so much more.

Roslyn saw this film as a guest of Limelight Cinemas, Tuggeranong.