Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

I finally saw this film and it wasn't as bad as some of the reviews nor was it anywhere near good enough to be the best dramatic film of the year.
Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) doesn't start out as Freddie Mercury, he's Farrokh Balsara, who works in baggage claims at Heathrow.
But he stumbles upon a band and they instantly become family, which is slightly odd. And their rise to fame is epicly quick, after they get funky creating a record after they sell their old, broken down van. They have one of the best producers in the business but he scoffs at the long song, the six minute Bohemian Rhapsody, but Freddie schmoozes all the radio stations, so the song becomes a hit nevertheless.
Then, the film, jumps ahead five years as Freddie's life is spent drinking and getting high and there are plenty of internal problems, such as Freddie being an asshole to basically everyone in his life and the manager, John Reid (Aiden Gillan) wants Freddie to break solo, which Freddie doesn't want to do, though later he changes his mind, thanks to the a slimy, undeveloped villain of Paul Prenter (a nearly uncognizable Downton Abbey's Allen Leech), he later tries to go solo anyway and is even more miserable than before. And he's getting sick.
It isn't until his former fiance, Mary (Lucy Boynton, from the great little film Sing Street) shows up and informs him about the concert event Live Aid, that Freddie realizes what a little slimy worm Paul is that Freddie kicks him to the curb and gets the band back together, and grovels for their forgiveness, which they give far too easily, that things finally click back in place for Freddie as he is finally making good music again, though he knows his time on Earth is limited as he is diagnosed with AIDS, which in the 1980s is a death sentence.
Yet, the performance at Live Aid is an epic one which should not be forgotten.
Now, while the film has large plot holes, Malek is brilliant, and is truly convincing as British, as most Americans playing Brits are less than stellar (see Anne Hathaway and Renee Zellweger) but Malek does very well. The fellow bandmates are also good though far less developed, Gwilyn Lee (Brian May), Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor) and Joe Mazzello (John Deacon), and of course, Tom Hollander is good in the small role of lawyer turned manager.
The set is also gorgeous along with all the music numbers. And Freddie is a huge cat lover (all each have their own room in his house) so it is hard not to like him, though he surrounds himself with some dreadful people.
So, I guess my takeaway from this film is that Freddie's life was too interesting to be crammed into a film and the other members needed equal screen time for a film to be about Queen, not just Freddie Mercury. That being said, it was still interesting and kept me engaged the whole time, so the film was still very good nevertheless. Grade: B