The first reviews of the upcoming Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” – which is set for November 2 opening in North America – have surfaced online.
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In the conclusion of his review on Forbes, senior contributor Scott Mendelson wrote:
“The movie itself fails to break free from the biopic formula, specifically with detours into Mercury’s personal life that inexplicably reframes his life story as an Afterschool Special about the dangers of partying and gay sex.
“Yes, Freddie is absolutely presented as bisexual in this picture, but the film essentially argues that he would have been fine had he remained in a monogamous hetero relationship with Lucy Boynton’s Mary Austin.
“Whether it’s homophobic or old-school slut-shaming, it’s icky.”
The Guardian‘s Steve Rose gave the movie two stars, writing:
“Rami Malek’s impersonation adds a kind of magic to this Queen-produced rock slog with a troubling moralistic subtext. …
“Unforgivably, Bohemian Rhapsody casts Mercury’s wilderness years as a symptom of his gayness. We see the solo Mercury in Munich, drug-addled, shorn of his real friends and exploited by his new ones, who are mostly leather-clad, party-happy men.
“It reduces Mercury’s homosexuality to a tutting ‘he’s got in with the wrong crowd.'”
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Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman wrote:
“With a performance as commanding as Rami Malek’s at its center, why isn’t ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a better movie? …
“Despite its electrifying subject, is a conventional, middle-of-the-road, cut-and-dried, play-it-safe, rather fuddy-duddy old-school biopic, a movie that skitters through events instead of sinking into them.
“And it treats Freddie’s personal life – his sexual-romantic identity, his loneliness, his reckless adventures in gay leather clubs – with kid-gloves reticence.”
BBC‘s Nicholas Barber wrote:
“The film’s emphasis on this straight relationship has prompted much grumbling on social media. Similarly, there have been complaints about the decision to make it a mainstream crowd pleaser with a 12A / PG13 certificate, when in reality, its hero was so debauched that he could have given Casanova lessons.
“But these objections aren’t wholly fair. While it’s true that Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t put much on screen that would scare off family audiences, it does acknowledge that Mercury popped pills, visited fetish clubs, threw the wildest parties in town and, after some soul-searching, embraced life as a gay man. ‘Mamma Mia,’ it ain’t.”