Monthly Archives: December 2018

Biopics are tough. It’s almost impossible to please everyone, especially fans of the artist you’re making the movie about. If you do the birth to death approach the film can’t possibly get to the meat of the subject and just becomes a point to point of the artist’s biggest life moments. You can get experimental and just concentrate on a particular time period and this allows a lot more freedom. Bohemian Rhapsody is something in between but mostly the former and so you get highlights from Queen’s life as a band and also a look into Freddie Mercury’s struggle with sexual identity and handling fame and stardom. I have to admit I really enjoyed the film. It’s fun and fast and filled with the music of Queen which is fantastic. But it’s the performance of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury which ignites the action and elevates the film above the average.

The film is mostly about Freddie Mercury, following him from his first days with the band and revealing his complicated relationship with his family and ethnicity as well as the insecurity with his sexual identity through to Queen’s triumphant Live Aid performance. Freddie gets involved with a young woman, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), who he met at a clothing shop. She embraces his eccentricities and accepts him as is and they have a loving relationship for awhile until Freddie starts embracing his homosexuality and starting a relationship with the bands day to day manager, Paul Prenter (Alan Leech).

We get to see the band getting more and more popular, getting Elton John’s agent, John Reid (Aiden Gillen), US tours and fight with label bigwigs over their creative choices. Mike Myer’s is unrecognizeeable as fictional EMI executive Ron Foster, who refuses to release the six minute Bohemian Rhapsody as a single.

Mercury and Queen hit some rough times by the time the 80s come along. Mercury’s lifestyle becomes more outlandish and his partying becomes a distraction from the band’s music. He releases his own solo album and becomes estranged from his bandmates. It is also the time when the AIDS epidemic is in it’s early stages and all of these elements are strung together to bring Mercury to have an epiphany and want to make some changes.

The film does get a little schmaltzy towards the end when everything has to happen all at once becomes too cliched but by this point you’re just enjoying the music and Malek’s bravura performance. Is it historically accurate? No. Is it groundbreaking filmmaking? No. But it is an entertaining ride and if you like Rami Malek and love Queen then you will love the film!

I know what you’re thinking; this is just Driving Miss Daisy in reverse. It’s a feel good movie. It deals with racism in 1962 but not with the racism today. It’s pure Hollywood pap!

Well, all that may be true but I loved it! It is very entertaining, very funny and very well acted. Isn’t that what we want? We need feel good movies, especially in these days. I love films that are dark, complicated and challenging, in fact, most of my favorites films are but I also like Star Wars, Some Like It Hot and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Making a good movie is a tough thing to do period. You have tho appreciate them when they come along. By the way, Green Book is more than just a feel good movie, it’s a lesson in humanity and courage and the ability to change, to grow, to become a better person.

Green Book is based on the true story of African-American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and Italian-American bouncer Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) also known as ’Tony Lip” and the unlikely friendship that developed between them. Shirley hires Vallelonga to be his driver and bodyguard during a tour on the deep south. These two men couldn’t be more different. Shirley is dignified, well spoken, highly educated and well mannered while Tony is foul mouthed, crude, a slob and also quite racist. It’s the perfect set up for a Hollywood film! Two opposites who dislike each other then grown to become friends. It is predictable but it also happens to be the case with these two real life men. You can’t help but be moved by the story and the journey the men take.

The title was taken from The Negro Motorist Green Book which was a guidebook for African-American travelers that directed them to hotels and restaurants that would accept them. There were even towns that had curfews for Africans-Americans.

The film was written by director Peter Farrelly, Brian Hayes Currie and Vellelonga’s son, Nick based on interviews with his father and Don Shirley as well as letters his father wrote to his mother during their road trips. The film is elevated by the performances of Mortensen and Ali who have great chemistry and deliver great performances. Don’t let your preconceived biases keep you away. You may end up liking the film despite your protests.

An interesting side note, Vallelonga went on to act in film (Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco) and TV, most notably, as Carmine Lupertazzi in The Sopranos from 2001 through 2007. who knew!!