{"id":88927,"date":"2018-10-30T19:47:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T17:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/?p=88927\/"},"modified":"2018-10-30T19:47:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T17:47:18","slug":"bohemian-rhapsody-review-rami-malek-will-rock-you-by-peter-travers-rollingstone-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/en\/news-el\/diafora-en\/bohemian-rhapsody-review-rami-malek-will-rock-you-by-peter-travers-rollingstone-com\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 Review: Rami Malek Will Rock You – by Peter Travers Rollingstone.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Put\u00a0Rami Malek<\/a>\u00a0high on the last for best film performances of 2018. As\u00a0Freddie Mercury<\/a>, the lead singer of the British band\u00a0Queen<\/a>, the\u00a0Mr. Robot<\/em>\u00a0star performs miracles, catching the look, strut and soul of Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991. Sadly, the film itself shows signs of a difficult birth. Sacha Baron Cohen was set to play Mercury before he left over creative differences. And director Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects<\/em>) was fired for not showing up on set (an uncredited Dexter Fletcher replaced him).<\/p>\n

So, yeah,\u00a0Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em>\u00a0moves in fits and starts as we follow Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara of Parsi descent, from baggage handler at Heathrow Airport to co-founder of Queen with guitarist\/astrophysics scholar Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer\/dental student Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy). He auditioned for the musicians in a parking lot and, with incautious speed, is soon onstage as their frontman with John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) joining in on bass. \u00a0Shy offstage and struggling with his love for Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and his growing attraction to men, Mercury was secretive and conflicted. But when the singer plays \u201cLove of My Life\u201d on the piano to show his love,\u00a0the feeling comes through as genuine due to the raw emotion Malek and Boynton pour into their roles. It\u2019s significant that Mercury left Austin the bulk of his fortune in his will. No similar authenticity seeps into the scenes of Mercury\u2019s hedonistic gay lifestyle as a partygiver, participating in orgies that come off here as more mild than wild.<\/p>\n

In struggling to make a salable PG-13 movie out of an R-rated rock life,\u00a0Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em>\u00a0leaves you feeling that something essential and elemental is missing. Thankfully, there\u2019s the music that keeps filling the holes in the script by Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything<\/em>) with a virtuoso thrum that is never less than thrilling. And there is Malek, who digs so deep into the role that we can\u2019t believe we\u2019re not watching the real thing, starting from singer and actor sharing an immigrant experience (the actor\u2019s parents are from Egypt, Mercury\u2019s from Zanzibar). Mixing his voice with vocals from Queen and Mercury soundalike Marc Martel, the star is pow personified. On set, the actor sang out the throat-straining vocals in his own voice so that, take after take, the lip-synching would match up perfectly and erase any taint of bad karaoke. He also wore fake teeth to capture the four extra incisors in Mercury\u2019s upper jaw that the singer insisted gave him more power and range. And he nails the frontman\u2019s sexual bravado onstage, with his cropped hair and porn-star mustache, letting loose with \u201cWe Are the Champions,\u201d \u201cWe Will Rock You,\u201d \u201cRadio Ga Ga\u201d and the title song. The creation of \u201cBohemian Rhapsody,\u201d an unprecedented, six-minute mix of rock and opera that delighted Mercury even as critics decried it, allows for a comic bit with\u00a0Mike Myers<\/a>\u00a0as an EMI record exec who claims no one will ever play it. (Feel free to press play on a YouTube clip of him headbanging to the sing in\u00a0Wayne\u2019s World<\/em>\u00a0any time now.)<\/p>\n

Many of the major Queen hits are heard in the film\u2019s most daring conceit, a scrupulous recreation of the band\u2019s 20-minute appearance at the 1985 Live Aid concert from London\u2019s Wembley Stadium, which many called the greatest live performance in the history of rock. Hard to argue. Whatever special effects were used to show the band in front of this enormous crowd, the scene captures something crucial about Queen\u2019s connection to an audience as Mercury leads an elaborate call-and-response with his fans. The rousing life that Malek brings to this extraordinary recreation deserves all the cheers it gets. Screw the film\u2019s flaws \u2014 you don\u2019t want to miss his performance.<\/p>\n