BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: A DECOROUS CONFLUENCE OF SEXUALITY, MAGIC, AND MYSTICISM 📽🎬🎸🧝🏽‍♀️

When fans of Queen or even of this movie read A.O. Scott’s review of this film in the New York Times, they probably needed resuscitation; but that doesn’t pardon his candid response to this movie; in all honesty, he makes critical points. But here is my take on this project. Let us cut to the chase, right now, and just focus on one thing: Rami Malek captured Freddie Mercury on all personal and professional levels of this giant artist! From the inception of the opening at Live Aid, to the charismatic moment where Freddie Mercury is announcing to his family about his new ‘friend’ he has acquired. From there, the movie, I will admit, scrambles a bit; but I think it corrects itself primarily because, despite its few mishaps, it manages, beautifully, to preserve the viewers’ attention, even during the dull moments. It is no small wonder that this accident, if one wishes to call it that, vents its gorgeous shadow of perfection to the misty audience; everyone is secretly waiting for Mercury to surprise them; as a result, I think, the film is a monstrous success! 

The film begins with Freddie Mercury making his way onto the stage of Live Aid, the biggest concert event of the 1980’s; this also put Queen back into the musical spotlight that they had been absent from as the film will make a reference to as it unwinds its course; from there, we see Mercury in his humble beginnings. With the band suddenly losing their lead singer, Freddie joins and the rest of the film ventures into their journey of being a band, how their egos, specifically Freddie’s grew tameless and bold, the extravagant love affairs he juggled, the struggle for sexual identity and the uncompromising ordeal of his development of an artist. All of this is disturbingly portrayed in a two-hour film; it is difficult to capture a person’s life in an extensive biography, let alone the silver screen. However, that is precisely what the producer and director attempted. At times, it comes off as simple and unfulfilling. We want to see more of Freddie Mercury, the man, but we want to see way more of The Artist! At times, this film may fall short on that, depending primarily on your own expectations. As the film progresses, it delves more into Freddie Mercury, the cynic. That plan follows well, to a point. It seems the heavy unbalance and portrayal of Freddie Mercury is a bit confounding, even among those who attempt at portraying him through acting, visual and writing; all of the elements in the film do not work all the time; however, it simply does not mean they couldn’t get it to work, they just possessed a slight problem with delivery; there simply is not enough of Freddie Mercury to go around. Rami Malek is compelled to deal with the ‘set-up’ circumstances of Freddie Mercury he is offered; he accepts the challenge and wins. 

Though his portrayal, much of Freddie Mercury’s life is private and not without struggle, it is genuinely authentic and glutinous. But something I think that is overlooked in most critical reviews of this film is this: Freddie Mercury possesses the unprecedented ability to keep the most important people around him to secure his career, satisfy his fans, please his loved ones and protect his destiny from failure. I think the film, therefore, encapsulates these critical points from falling into departure. From the charismatic acting performance by Malek, to the theatrically engineered directing by Dexter Fletcher and Bryan Singer. Remarkably, through some of the film’s flaw, Freddie does, indeed, merge as the brightest candle and becomes a best friend to all who are acquainted with his social and personal tactics; the film grabs a bit of authenticity when we see Mercury bring home his friend, near the end of the film, to his family’s home; it is here in this scene where Mercury is no longer a person of conjecture; he is now the artist of the era, albeit still somewhat of a recluseful one. 

While the film does struggle with bits and pieces of Freddie Mercury’s indurate charisma and flaunting ego, it does an impressive job tainting his perfection just for the sake of mischief and self-interest. There is no guessing who Freddie Mercury is. He is Queen the Lover, Freddie the Rockstar, and Farrokh the Rebel child who purposely displeases his parents. On a musical note, if you are a Queen fan, the music is equally colorful and invigorating to the ears; it is replete with thunderous ballads and clamorous vocals that are ear pleasing. 

This is a movie about a man who was uninterested in identifying with the times; Mercury took no interest in LGBT or Lesbian or Gay causes; on the contrary, up until the time of his death, his HIV status was closely under his guard. He did not announce that he had AIDS until his almost the very end. This, it seems, was a bit undecided on how to portray Mercury in such a sensitive light; consequently, it was a bit undermined by just his mere annunciation to the band that he had contacted and was aware of the disease. The rest is left to the fans. Freddie Mercury is to them what they wish. To Freddie Mercury, he was just a man defining himself.

© 2025, Mark Grago. All rights reserved.