Fast forward to about 5 or so years later and the beginnings of my Queen phase. I had posters, I had every album on cassette and vinyl, I had videos of their concerts. I was not cool. But then I was never destined to be. I’ve always embraced the things I loved, no matter how uncool they made me. I didn't know another teenager who's favourite band was Queen, and who's favourite TV show was Star Trek The Next Generation. But if I can’t be true to myself it doesn’t matter how much fake me fits in, she’s not the real me.
I know right now you’re probably thinking, jeez just get on with the review already. I’m prefacing the review with my earliest account of fandom because not only did loving Queen make up a very important part of what made me me at an early age, but it also probably indicates the expectations I had for this film. The first time that Freddie’s story had been told to the masses, and a lot of people will take this movie as gospel.
Those of us who have followed Queen for a long time however, those of us who’ve read up on the band, we know that this movie is not showing the full story. And in some instances has jumbled up some very important events in the Queen timeline.
If like me you’ve read any of the reviews for this movie you’ll know that amongst fans of the band, there have been a lot of less than favourable write ups. Even knowing this I still wanted to see the film and make up my own mind, as I quite often do. So that you don’t lose faith and stop reading, I will say now that I’m glad I did.
If you’re a fan of Queen there is still a lot here for you. Firstly the performances. Rami Malek really does put his heart and soul into becoming Freddie. It’s an impossible task but my god does he put everything into it. It doesn’t feel like he’s “doing” Freddie, it doesn’t feel like a caricature based on what we know of Freddie, it’s not a performance that’s all in the teeth. He’s not Freddie and he doesn’t quite have Freddie’s flamboyance, but he gives it his all and he’s believable.
Gwilym Lee and Joe Mazzello playing Brian and John respectably are incredible. They are so like them that it’s like you’re watching the real people. I was flabbergasted at how good they were and how true to Brian and John they were. Roger I never quite got. Ben Hardy was as good as the other guys performance wise, but I never fully believed him as Roger.
Lucy Boynton who first impressed in the fabulous Sing Street also does a believable and rather heartbreaking turn as Freddie’s longtime friend and lover Mary Austin. And as someone who is aware of the significant part that Mary played in Freddie’s life, I’m really happy to see that neither she nor Freddie’s bisexuality were erased in this movie.
The main problems I had with the film I already knew about going in, and as such I think I was probably the right level of prepared that they didn’t annoy me as much as if I’d not known about them going in. The first is how the film paints the remaining members of Queen as innocent little choir boys compared with bad influence Freddie. It also downplayed Freddie’s lifestyle too, which considering the story they are telling here seems kinda detrimental to the finished product? The second inaccuracy is that Freddie received his AIDS diagnosis prior to Live Aid.
This is my biggest bugbear for two reasons. 1) a whole new generation of Queen fans that this film will create will be massively misinformed. 2) It undermines not only one of Freddie’s best performances, but the live performance voted the best of all time, by anybody.
He didn’t give that performance because he knew he was going to die. He gave it because he was just that fucking good. To suggest otherwise just detracts from how fantastic that performance was.
However, those annoyances aside, I still found that I enjoyed the film overall. I felt giddy every time they came up with a new song that we already know and love, and the recreation of the Live Aid concert cannot fail to be enjoyed on a big screen. Hearing Freddie in surround sound certainly didn’t hurt. Some of the members of the audience that I was in were clapping along to Radio Ga Ga and that couldn't fail to warm my heart.
The dubbing isn’t always done that well, but the alternative of not having Freddie’s voice in the movie could only have been disastrous. Therefore my complaints here are minimal.
I’m not ashamed to say I blubbed like a baby at the end of the film, and upon hearing the opening strains of one of my favourite Queen songs in the credits I resolved to stay to the end, and give Freddie my utmost respects for being the artist who tells me when I’m feeling down, the show must go on.
8/10
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