Audiences are truly spoilt for choice these days in regards to music-fueled biopics about some of the greatest singers and songwriters of our generation. Be it Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born or the up-and-coming Rocketman, there sure is a lot for folks to enjoy at the moment.
With Bohemian Rhapsody in particular, Rami Malek absolutely disappears into the role of Freddie Mercury, Queen’s iconic frontman who redefined the parameters of pop music. And while the film itself has been earning fairly lukewarm reviews, everyone’s in agreement that Malek knocks it out of the park in the role.
That’s something which Queen drummer Brian May acknowledges as well, saying in a recent interview that he believes the actor deserves an Oscar nod for his work.
“He’s incredible… without doubt he’ll be on the nominations list for an Oscar and well deserved as well,” May told Press Association. “He inhabited Freddie to the point where we even started to think of him as Freddie. Really remarkable.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the musician was asked about those aforementioned reviews and said that they don’t bother him, as moviegoers seem to be embracing it regardless.
“We’ve lived with this project for nine years and it’s incredible to see it doing so well,” he beamed. “It came out to s***ty reviews, as some of our work has before, but the public has embraced it magnificently. Everybody gave 200%, from the actors and technicians to the production team and hair and make up, everyone. You don’t get any lukewarm responses. The guy who plays me should be getting awards all over.”
While Bohemian Rhapsody did ultimately fall short in doing Freddie’s story justice, there was still much to like about it and May is absolutely right when he says that Malek did a terrific job in the role. Still, it’s hard not to leave the theater with the feeling that there’s a better story just waiting to be told here and it’d be nice if someone could one day give us a film that was bold or smart enough to really understand what made the iconic musician tick.
Unfortunately, enjoyable it may be, Bohemian Rhapsody is not that film.
