Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Freddie Mercury	Rami Malek	½
Mary Austin	Lucy Boynton
Brian May	Gwilym Lee	½
Roger Taylor	Ben Hardy	½
John Deacon	Joe Mazzello
John Reid	Aidan Gillen
Paul Prenter	Allen Leech
Jim Beach	Tom Hollander
Ray Foster, EMI executive	Mike Myers
Jim Hutton	Aaron McCusker
Jer Bulsara	Meneka Das
Bomi Bulsara	Ace Bhatti

Review

The life and times of Freddie Mercury is beautifully brought to the screen with a main focus on what it was really all about for Freddie and his fans: the music. The highly talented Rami Malek slowly merges into the singer's characteristic persona with all his various facets, as that famous voice is recreated in a wonderful manner both technically and artistically. Bohemian Rhapsody never holds back nor ever forces the story upon us, but rather lets the music tell the story, culminating in a perfect ending with a near real-time rendition of Queen's Live Aid performance at Wembley in 1985. It is true that the script takes its share of artistic liberties along the way, usually to intensify some peaks and valleys, but you'd have to be a very pedantic Queen academic to let that ruin this experience. The other band members all come to life with their different quirks and idiosyncrasies, and Bohemian Rhapsody leaves no doubt that the everything they created was a joint effort, even if Freddie was the face. The fact that director Bryan Singer walked out on the film towards the end of shooting and was replaced by Dexter Fletcher has not hampered the end-product noteworthily. This film is a true but never glossy tribute to one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.