Bohemian Rhapsody

**What is dead may never die.** We can in their public opinion, deny, who we are in an attempt to please, ego. Sadly, in that place between conformity and self-suffrage lies both the salvation and damnation of our character.

There are plenty of opinions as to how authentic this is, as a retrospective on the life of Freddie Mercury; but there can be no doubting that the pairing of Rami Malek and Queen's music makes this a captivating couple of hours of cinema. We are taken on the compelling and enthralling roller-coaster that was his life and the excesses of his lifestyle and behaviour are comprehensively conveyed without being at all graphic, or even particularly seedy. Malek is simply magnificent. Tom Hollander is also outstanding too. I bet it did wonders for sales of Queen music too - they created one hell of a repertoire.

**A good film about one of the great rock bands of the 20th century.** This is one of those films that was made with the fans of a personality in mind, more than the rest of the public. This, however, is not exactly a problem in my eyes, it is rather a characteristic of this film, common to other biographical films that are centered on very popular figures such as sportsmen, musicians or others. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film covers the journey of the notable rock band “Queen” and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who immortalized himself with memorable performances and a sense of stage and spectacle that only big stars possess. Mercury was also notable for being one of the first major superstars to openly embrace his homosexuality and die of AIDS. As a biography, it is a very acceptable film and, as far as I was able to understand, it respects the essential aspects of the lives and artistic path of those concerned. Of course, being a film about a rock band, we cannot ignore the soundtrack, where we have the band's most famous and recognizable songs, and we can see a reenactment of the famous live performance they did at “Live Aid” in 1985, a one of the most acclaimed live musical performances ever in rock history. Obviously, the film was fated to financial success and, without any major surprises, and after weeks of advertising investment, it found great support from the public and became one of the biggest box office successes of that year. Critics also had no major objections and the film arrived at the Oscars as one of the favorites: out of a total of five nominations, it won four statuettes (Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing) losing only for Best Film. In fact, in addition to the good songs and good script, the film offers us one of the best performances by Rami Malek, an actor who couldn't be better suited for the role of Freddie Mercury. In addition to all the physical similarities that he took advantage of to embody the character, he managed to interpret him in a dignified and respectful way, without transforming “his” Freddie into a kind of cheap imitation of the real person. However, as I watched the film, I couldn't help but feel that Malek was the only one in the scene who deserved the spotlight, and that the film lacked an equally good supporting cast that would give some charisma to the remaining band members, transformed into in extras in a story where only Mercury was taken into consideration.