The Queen of Movies

I’m not a movie reviewer. But a Facebook friend of mine was recently gushing about “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and to be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, too.

For me, it was possibly nostalgia. I have several Queen albums in vinyl from my teen years—and I horrified a college newspaper crew recently by playing for them a song they had never heard from "Sheer Heart Attack,' still my favorite Queen album.

But one surprise to me is how many younger people with no memory of the heyday of Queen are also into the movie. The Facebook Friend is in her 30s, which means she was born back in the 1980s. The movie is a bit of a family affair for me, with my youngest daughter recently seeing it and saying she liked it, too. My wife and I saw it twice in the theater—a thing we rarely do (repeat a movie), and we took our youngest son the second time. He liked it.

I don’t think it’s a great movie. It’s a little manipulative, setting the stage for the Live Aid appearance of the band and perhaps overselling their impact there. But the story it tells was still well done, and I really enjoyed it.

Locally, the movie is playing at the Collins Road Theater. If you have not yet, you may want to check it out—with its sometimes-lush visuals and its rock and roll soundtrack, I think this is a good movie for the theater experience.



I don’t know much about music, but one aspect of the movie that I especially liked was the montage where the band was working on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The peek at the creative process was interesting. And it was also interesting too that, for a band that was so into tricks in the studio while recording, Queen was also oriented to live performance.

If you’re like me and you were a Queen fan back in the day, you’ll like this movie because it will make you feel briefly young again. And if you are too young to recall those days, apparently the movie still will rock you.