I recently watched Bohemian Rhapsody, having put it off for quite a while. My interest in Queen has always been mostly academic. I understood their importance to music, yet precious few of their songs ever truly resonated with me. Even as a kid, I only liked certain Queen songs and albums, and to this day, I still cannot say I've ever been a fan... just more of a casual "enjoyer" of some of their music. When I was young, I was drawn to A Night at the Opera, which I owned and played endlessly, though my favourite songs were not the now-classics like Bohemian Rhapsody. No, instead, I was more impressed with tracks like '39 and You're My Best Friend.
The real Queen, with real teeth
And over all these decades, I've only accumulated a few of Queen's albums, their aforementioned Opera classic, Innuendo (from 1991, Mercury's last appearance), and a very solid greatest hits CD. Long ago, I had A Day at the Races, but it just didn't do it for me, Tie Your Mother Down being the only tune that grabbed me. I also tried out Queen II, but so many years after my prog-rock obsession that I couldn't properly appreciate what they were doing on that album. A miss for me.
Which brings me to the recent Hollywood biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. My feelings about the movie may be contrary to those of the majority of film-goers. I had a problem with it... no, I had problems - plural - with it. While the actor Rami Malek, who played Mercury, probably did a decent job, he simply did not look much like Freddie to me. Maybe when he covered his puffy eyes with sunglasses. But the guy fussed so much with his phony teeth that it was distracting; he was always doing weird things with his mouth that emphasized the fact that those chompers were uncomfortable - and un-real.
Also, as is often an issue with biopics, the departure from real events into fairy-tale can be aggravating. I don't know, maybe some people can easily suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the slightly trumped-up story, but I found myself watching Bohemian Rhapsody with a very critical eye. Probably because I grew up with Queen all around me in the 70's and 80's, whether I liked it or not... their music and stature grew and grew as I passed through my teen years into my 20's. So I had some knowledge of the band, some of their music, and their place in world and rock history. So the storybook approach to the movie put me off. Again, we see this a lot in music biopics... the fabrication of events as they never happened: the way Freddie and his bandmates, together or apart, magically popped out their song masterpieces on the spot. Hard to believe and hard not to roll the eyes. They also gloss over a lot of Mercury's relationships and later, his battle with AIDs. Not that I wanted to see his descent into the illness and eventual death. In fact, I thought the Wembley Stadium performance was a fitting and classy ending. But the movie lacked a solid storyline and was more a collage of episodes from Mercury's life.
My gripes aside, though, I thought the movie was okay.
Now on to some music biographic films that I did like a lot:
Amadeus - the nutty genius Mozart as perfectly portrayed by Tom Hulce; great all-around movie, both lustrous and dark, grim and joyous
The Doors - Val Kilmer killed it as self-destructive rock poet Morrison; a psychedelic cinematic trip of sound and imagery
Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story - not perfection, but a fun, loose telling of their rise from stooge actors to pop fame
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould - a challenging film, part documentary, part re-enacted episodes from the eccentric piano genius' colourful life
Walk the Line - my intro to "good" country music; actor Phoenix is riveting as the legendary outlaw musician Johnny Cash
Bird - Clint Eastwood's masterful telling of the story of jazz sax master Charlie Parker; star Whitaker plays the role with honesty and depth
The fake band that became real, then was portrayed by a fake
band in the biopic Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story
I've seen plenty more flicks about musicians, some very cool, some average, but here's a quick mention of some good ones I can remember:
It's All Gone Pete Tong
Straight Outta Compton
Ray
The Buddy Holly Story
The Pianist
Shine
... and a bunch I can barely remember now, it's been so long since I've seen them:
Sid and Nancy, Elvis (1979, directed by John Carpenter), La Bamba, Coal Miner's Daughter, Great Balls of Fire
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