Bohemian Rhapsody

A film built on a band and a singer. Farrokh handles baggage at an airport in London. The family came from Zanzibar and his father does not approve of what he does. One night he finds a band at a club that has lost its singer and offers himself. From there the film is a rise. A van, a studio, a record company and a tour. There is a recording section in the middle. The band makes a six-minute piece leaning on opera, and the record company refuses to release it as a single. Freddie's private life is the second line. His relationship with Mary, his understanding of his own sexuality, and the people around him using him. What the narrative is interested in is not music but belonging: the film shows Freddie alone both on stage and at home, and builds the band as a family. The last section is a benefit concert in 1985. It runs about twenty minutes and the running order matches the real performance exactly; it is the strongest thing in the film. The narrative alters the chronology. Freddie's diagnosis actually came after the concert; the film moves it earlier, which is its most criticised feature. The production was troubled. The director left toward the end of shooting and the remaining sections were completed with someone else; only the first name appears in the credits. Rami Malek won an Academy Award for the part; the film also won for editing, sound editing and sound mixing. Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy and Joseph Mazzello are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes music biographies and concert sequences. Who it is not for: anyone expecting fidelity; the narrative noticeably rearranges events and softens the hard parts.