When I was young, I constantly listened to and bought music, but as I got older, I stopped needing music like breathing. If I heard something that I liked, I’d buy it and check out other music by that artist, but it wasn’t the same. My car had a cable that used to connect to my iPod and my iPhone, but when it broke, I was forced to listen to the radio, and it wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for Post Malone. When one of my favorites like Queen came on, I knew that it would be a good day. I could stop fiddling with my radio and just enjoy the song.
I can’t pinpoint the first time that I connected to Queen: movie soundtracks, sporting events, Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World, David Bowie or my mom, who used to have a huge record collection consisting of British rock. Any moment can be equally plausible, but I remember when I went to college, I immediately bought Queen’s Greatest and Classic Hits CDs then played them incessantly. Fortunately everyone was a fan so it was one of my less controversial music choices.
Bohemian Rhapsody is basically the cinematic equivalent of my switching radio stations. It is a familiar place to rest and enjoy, but not nearly as satisfying as enjoying the whole thing. As a disclaimer, I’m not a gay man. I don’t know anything about the band members except that Freddie Mercury was gay. I enjoy their music, but am not familiar with all their work, just the basics. I don’t consider myself an authority, and I fully acknowledge that everything that I am about to opine about could be completely wrong, but they are my impressions based on what little knowledge and first hand experience that I have. I am an authority on growing up fundamentalist and living in the 80s to 90s.
When I watched The Daily Show, and John Kasich pointed to Bohemian Rhapsody as a point of unity, I thought, “Huh?’ Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Kasich who instead of living in the dumpster just sits next to the fire and warms himself by it, but he is the member of the party that thought AIDS was judgment on gay men for existing. Even my conservative fundamentalist mom broke with the prevailing thought on that issue when she cared for AIDS patients without fear. So how could someone like Freddie Mercury appeal to someone like Kasich? I suddenly felt a sense of urgency and caution in seeing this movie.
On a superficial level, Bohemian Rhapsody has mass appeal. It is funny and approachable. Its idea of rockers acting crazy is to have makeovers and drink with sex implied, but mostly with women and the occasional fairly chaste kiss with men. The closest that a man gets to a bed is a couch in another room next to a big bed. The movie is a shallow biopic elevated disproportionately by our memories and associations with these men and their music. It follows the well worn trajectory of movies involving music: a band tries to make it big, they make it big, there is a disruptive force (ego, an Iago figure, drugs) that breaks them up then the broken rock star picks himself up, and the band gets back together for the music.
I thank God for seeing Tom of Finland because without it, I probably wouldn’t question my own conservative assumptions, which are prevalent in this movie, and may just reflexively tsk, tsk, tsk like the movie wants us to that if Freddie had just settled down earlier and not partied, he would still be here. Bohemian Rhapsody imposes a toxic heteronormative view of the world on one of the most iconic gay men in history. It is a new disguise for the old condemnation—he got AIDS because he was wrong. The minute that he comes out hesitantly as bi, Mary, the love of his life, corrects him, deems him gay and replies, “You’re going to have a difficult life.” For the love of his life, the movie uses her character to constantly deliver curses on Freddie, which are supposed to be cautionary warnings against danger, but because it starts with his tentative acknowledgment of gayness and not drugs or promiscuity, the movie’s message is clear. There is something inherently lonely and wrong about being gay, and if you hang out with too many gay people, you’ll lose your heterosexual friends and your moral compass. You’re allowed one gay guy, and he makes out with you on your couch then meets your parents—no gay friends.
I genuinely do not think that straight people get that gay people exist as people with lives independent outside of them with other gay people, and not to make your life better by filling it with music, decorating your house or revamping your wardrobe. They don’t live for you. The predominant gay friendship/relationship depicted in the movie is toxic and psychologically abusive. Gay men in groups are depicted as shallow and dangerous. The Iago figure is a gay man who keeps trying to gay up Freddie and separating him from all of the heterosexual people in his life, who are all good.
Bohemian Rhapsody is nothing but a Sid Davis cautionary education film warning kids about the dangers of homosexuality gussied up with an amazing soundtrack and performances. You can be gay, but not too gay. Gay enough to wear flashy clothes and sing music that we can enjoy, but not so gay that I have to think about sexual logistics of two men together. When you do find the perfect someone, you must jump immediately into boring no sex phase, none of that acceptable making out and getting interrupted like he did with Mary—fully clothed, above the covers.
Did Rami Malek do a good job? When there wasn’t a close up, yes. I may not have thought much about Freddie Mercury when he wasn’t performing, but I never, “God, look at those teeth,” and I’m someone whom people regularly used to think and say, “God, look at those teeth,” so I feel as if I earned the right to call out Bohemian Rhapsody for weighing Malek down with the godawful prosthetic teeth. I couldn’t stop thinking that he reminded me of Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, and those references are not compliments. If that is how the filmmakers envisioned Freddie Mercury, then I think that the way that they looked at him was completely rotten at the root. I just don’t see what they saw, and it almost spoiled the whole show because it was so damn distracting.
The best way to see Bohemian Rhapsody is in a theater with great sound quality so you can fully enjoy the tunes otherwise don’t bother at home. I do regret financially supporting a film that is so deeply rooted in homophobia whether or not it is conscious of it. If you must see it, buy and watch Tom of Finland first with the caveat that there is a lot of same sex depictions and nudity, which is as it should be because that was the reality of that person’s life.