Bryan Singer
Bohemian Rhapsody

Box office hit, stratospheric success, Academy Awards, chaos that never ended. I had the chance to see it at the cinema, and it didn't fully convince me. I was given the DVD as a birthday gift since, even though I don't consider myself a Queen fan, I can say I grew up with them, and I owe them in part my first timid musical approach to the vast musical universe. If during the first viewing I turned up my nose more than once, when I saw it on DVD, I promised myself never to touch it again for the rest of my life.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a failed movie, which in its mediocrity pretends to be more than what it is. Usually, I enjoy musical biopic films, as long as few of these I consider successful in their construction, and above all, in the character's fidelity. "Walk the Line" and "Jersey Boys" are some of these, moving on to films like "The Doors", which although had Oliver Stone's touch, Jim Morrison's character turned out overall to be a bit too cumbersome and uninteresting, even if Val Kilmer did his utmost for the role. This Freddie Mercury, played by a fresh Hollywood success Rami Malek, manages to be even worse. I'm not so much contesting Malek's interpretation itself, since he is an actor like any other in the end; I criticize the fact that the character was treated without personality, without a shred of love towards him. The depth of the film is simply based on a form composed of ugly, boring, and old stereotypes, which as a script feels like going back fifty years compared to modern times. The fact that the mcguffin of the entire movie revolves around the fact that Freddie was gay, and takes a reactionary turn where he becomes increasingly obnoxious and unpleasant in relationships with everyone... It's sadly already seen and rehashed. It seems one of those moralistic and forced American comedies from the nineties, built to work towards an audience to be sensitized by clichés, just like other reactionary films like "G.I. Jane," where they try to dodge criticisms of violence in the bodies of marines with a cunning justification towards feminism. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is this on a conceptual level, a film thirty years behind that has almost nothing memorable or rock.

Overlooking the fact that the film is historically fake, without listing all the dates or it would take me hours, Singer himself repudiated it and was kicked out due to discord problems, probably realizing where what he was shooting was heading. Dexter Fletcher finished the work, practically saving nothing and instead delivering the task in a bland and uninterested manner, except for cashi. The Live Aid finale, although it may have been recreated very well, turned out to be a completely useless choice. What’s the point of spending the last twenty minutes recreating a concert when you could just get the integral live DVD and watch the real Queen on stage instead of a group of actors? Couldn’t those twenty minutes have been better used, for example by mentioning interesting moments of the band on musical and discographic levels? Simply put, the solo careers of the other members at the same time as Freddie's aren't mentioned, nor the early albums, the soundtrack of "Flash Gordon", the encounter with David Bowie, or simply the cultural shift of '80s rock band music and fashion, which became dominated by productions led by drum machines and aggressive synths (something the Queen were among the first to do). Instead, we have to endure forty minutes with Freddie and his on-off relationship with the pesky producer, the girl who gets with another guy but is still interested in him, basically things that no one cares about unless they're audience exclusively interested in gossip, sleep-inducing plots, and clichés told with a soap opera's moralism. And since the majority of the masses are closed and firm on these values and ideals, the movie cleverly focuses on these aspects. This is because "Bohemian Rhapsody" is not a movie for the musicians. Musicians will not only hate it for how the Queen are mistreated, but they will find nothing intriguing or interesting; the only sequence where a small glimpse is noticed remains perhaps in the studio creation of "Seven Seas Of Rhye", where the seventies studio with glued tapes is relived. Otherwise, it's a film literally designed for average Queen fans, those convinced that Freddie Mercury is the greatest singer in history, and who should be angrier at the result than those who can't stand Queen. A film pretending to focus on being incorrect through the homosexuality theme, but which has nothing incorrect. There’s no drugs, no sex, no nastiness; everything is so glossy and pathetic it could make you sick, and goodness reigns sovereign throughout the film.

The cast of actors, though not too unnoticed (Brian May is identical), are reduced almost to a parody of themselves, starting with Malek himself. A Freddie written in such an over-the-top way that he seems like a Marvel superhero with the depth of a Fabio Volo novel: just think of the initial scene of the argument with his father, something not even the biopic dramas of Rai could match. Mike Myers takes on the cameo of a producer (among other things, purely fictional) who rejected "Bohemian Rhapsody", just to cite his role in the comedy "Wayne's World". Nothing memorable, but at least it elicits a few chuckles, thanks also to Pino Insegno's dubbing. From this hodgepodge of pretension and idiocy, I save for better or worse the soundtrack, primarily the opening with "Somebody to Love" which seemed to announce a good film, something that, in my opinion, did not turn out.

In conclusion, if you're a fan of Queen and their music, get the "Live Aid" DVD, or simply watch YouTube documentaries on Freddie's biography, time certainly better spent than watching this two-hour noisy and stupid toy of "Bohemian Rhapsody". And if you're looking for a real sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll film, one that knows authenticity and especially loyalty towards the characters and events, get "The Dirt" by Motley Crue. Not a completely successful film, but which from its side is certainly more credible and mature than "Bohemian Rhapsody", hoping that no one gets the idea to make a hypothetical sequel where Freddie comes to fight against Thanos and company.