Directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men: Apocalypse; X-Men: Days of Future Past; Jack the Giant Slayer; Valkyrie; X-Men; The Usual Suspects) and starring Rami Malek (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb; Oldboy; Ain't Them Bodies Saints; Battleship; The Master; Larry Crowne), Lucy Boynton (Miss Potter; Murder on the Orient Express; Sing Street), Gwilym Lee (Isle of Dogs; The Tourist; The Last Witness), Ben Hardy (Mary Shelley; X-Men: Apocalypse), Joseph Mazzello (G.I. Joe: Retaliation; The Social Network; Raising Helen; The Lost World: Jurassic Park; The River Wild).
Music Biopic; 134 mins; 12+
A celebration of the music of Queen and their music, with a strong focus on lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar. It traces the background of the band, then called "Smile" and the meeting of Freddie and his future band-mates Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello). It introduces the audience to many other characters in the music business around the band, including John Reid (Aidan Gillen), Paul Prenter (Allen Leech) and Jim Beach (Tom Hollander).
The biopic ran from the humble beginnings of the young musicians who had all studied different subjects at college, with brilliant depiction of their individual personalities and their character development. Their referred to their bond as a "family", with this the centre-point of their relationship. And it ended with what is described as many as one of the best performances of all time, with Queen performing at the Live Aid charity concert in Wembley in the summer of 1985.
The film really only went into depth into Freddie's personal life, and his relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) whom he described as his common-law wife - he proposed to her but they never actually married. They separated when he told her of his sexuality, which she had suspected for a while, but they remained close and even had adjoining houses in London. The film also charts the darker influences on Freddie's life, including some of those close to him in the music business out of greed, and others from the gay club scene who were not, after all, his friends. But it took him a long time to come to that realisation, and almost before it was too late.
First and foremost, what sets this film apart is the music. It is simply electric, particularly the concert scenes and the audience participation in the rock anthems that became Queen's signature. And the storylines behind the making of the music too, particularly the songs "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Love of my Life", the latter referring to Mary.
It is also about Freddie the performer, the entertainer who defied convention, both personally and through music, the latter through their vision of their album "A night at the opera" which was, simply, cross-genre, and with the single "Bohemian Rhapsody" at 6 minutes long which the record company thought would never be played on the radio. One of the scenes featured Freddie Mercury on air with the DJ Kenny Everett who was the first play it.
After a badly advised pursuit of a solo career, he reunites with his bandmates just in time for the Live Aid concert; it is while rehearsing that Freddie confides in his bandmates that he has Aids but he abhors any sign of sorrow or pity - he wants to put the rest of his life into music, alongside his friends.
The legacy of Freddie Mercury and of Queen lives on.
