BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Rami Malek     Lucy Boynton     Joseph Mazello     Ben Hardy    Gwilym Lee    

John Deacon     Mike Myers     Aiden Gillen     Tom Hollander     Allen Leech

   Bohemian Rhapsody does everything a good music biopic should:  It gives multidimensional pictures of the main characters; includes large doses of the music; uses creative lighting, camera work, production design, and special effects to glamorize the action; and is engrossingly entertaining.  Freddie Mercury as a subject (expertly rendered by Malek) makes such tasks easier with his flamboyance, creativity, wit, and soulfulness. The filmmakers did an excellent job in showing his charm, complexities and idiosyncrasies in an endearing manner, just as I imagine the man actually appeared.
       It is also fascinating to get a look behind the scenes of deal making and intrigues that are part of the rock star world.  A scene that will be indelible is rejecting producer Meyers' face as he listens to Queen’s performance at the Live Aid Concert.  Priceless.  Just as with the main characters, the business people and aides to the band are presented as real humans with hopes, dreams, and failings in ways that makes them real to us.  Two of Freddie’s abrupt firings will be lasting impressions.  

     Malek is certainly a star who can play a star with ease and flair.  Hopefully, he will be remembered at award time, because this role is far and away different from, but just as good as, his highly successful “Mr. Robot” role.  The other actors playing members of the band (Mazello, Hardy, and Lee) are dynamic and have uncanny resemblances to the real people.  (Good casting!)  Freddie was unusual in his sincerity mixed with disdain.  Yet, most interestingly, the latter did not appear in his regard and concern for the love of his life, Mary (Boynton).  It is fascinating to see the real story in that they remained friends throughout their lives, with her having an understanding of his makeup and he realizing that he could not expect her to devote her life to him.  Seldom do we see such a relationship portrayed on screen, and Boynton captured the incandescence of Mary.

     Newton Thomas Sigel’s cinematography made the concerts and ongoing dramas come alive in color and action, and John Ottman overseeing the music gave us many treats, especially the extended concert at the end during the real Live Action Concert.  Queen fans will be very gratified by this indulgence.

If one is remotely interested in rock stars and their psychology, this is a highly rewarding portrait.

Grade:  A                                                            By Donna R. Copeland

THE LOVERS

Tracy Letts     Debra Winger     Aiden Gillen     Melora Walters

     Breaking up is hard to do, and it’s shown to be so in spades for the couple in The Lovers.  Michael and Mary’s marriage is clearly on the rocks—and according to their son has been so for years.  They’ve reached a state of dispassionate regard for one another, neither seeming to realize that their partner is also having an affair.  But even under these circumstances, there is a lot of dithering about whether to go through with a separation or not.  And thanks to good writing and directing by Azazel Jacobs, suspense is sustained until the very end. Azazel’s story is an accurate reflection of reality for many couples today, so the viewer has no trouble getting into it and empathizing with all four actors.  On top of this, the film is also funny; you chuckle sometimes even when watching their misery along with their foibles.

     Michael (Letts) appears to be a very unhappy man, hating his job, and not showing much of an interest in his college-age son, all of which shows up as lethargy, forgetfulness, and misspeaks.  Mary (Winger) always seems preoccupied, worried, and tense.  Each one, however, brightens up when they’re with their lovers, Michael with Lucy (Walters) and Mary with Robert (Gillen).  Both lovers are putting a lot of pressure on the spouses to talk to each other, but so much has been unspoken in their lives and there is enough of their initial attraction to one another, that this becomes a real stumbling block.

     Tracy Letts shows the range of his acting skills in the character of Michael.  I don’t remember his playing someone quite as bumbling and inarticulate in his other roles, which are usually very authoritative (e.g., The Big Short and Indignation).  Here, he is able to look completely at sea.  Debra Winger captures her role as well, showing all the nuances of her emotions on her face.  Their chemistry as actors in all kinds of emotional states is readily apparent.  In their supporting roles, Gillen and Walters help enhance the whole production.

     I was puzzled about the costume designs of Diaz, which seem downright ugly at times.  For instance, some of Mary’s work outfits clash and don’t appear to reflect her position at all.  Even the young couple visiting Michael and Mary are really toned down.

     This film will likely be of interest primarily to those who have experienced divorce and/or a troubling marriage.  It illustrates so well the importance of communication among people who live together in a family, including the children.

An honest (including humorous) portrait of contemporary marriage.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

SING STREET

Ferdia Walsh-Peelo   Aiden Gillen   Maria Doyle Kennedy   Jack Reynor   Lucy Boynton

          Sing Street will make you laugh and keep you entranced, but with melancholic shifts, bits of horror, and wincing at the nitty-gritty of long-term relationships.  Semi-autobiographical by the writer/director/producer John Carney (Once, Begin Again), it tells the story of a teenager trying to find his identity and make his way in life despite numerous obstacles.  His parents quarrel frequently, his mother is depressed, as is his older brother, and the father is going through hard times financially.  For that reason, he takes his younger son out of an expensive school and enrolls him in public school.  Conor (Walsh-Peelo) is bullied at his new school, not only by a punk, but also by the head of school, Brother Baxter. 

          Serendipitously, a friend with ambition appears, giving advice about how to deal with a bully, and when he finds out Conor likes music and sings, he has the idea that the two of them should form a band.  They recruit successfully, and give themselves the name Sing Street.  Conor’s bossy older brother Brendan (Reynor) coaches him by critiquing the band and giving helpful advice like developing their own sound and making videos.  He can be pompous at times, and revels in his pop-psychology pronouncements (He has a picture of Freud on his wall.), but Conor is oblivious to the bluster, and takes Brendan’s advice on his own terms.  We get it; music will be his salvation.

          Much of the charm of this delightful film is the apparent happenstance that occurs over and over again.  For instance, Conor gazes across the street one day and sees a beautiful brunette (Boynton) sitting on the front steps.  He develops an instant crush, goes to talk to her, and when he finds out she is a model, he asks her to be in his video.  She is one year older than he is—and much more experienced—but is charmed by his sincerity and creativity, and decides his name should be ‘Cosmo’, a more suitable name for someone in a band.  She agrees to be in the video, and when she arrives at the shoot, she is not only a hit visually, but knows something about staging and costumes, which the band needs.  (This is all the encouragement Conor needs to experiment with different “looks”, which he borrows liberally from the rock music LP covers that his brother lends him.)

          The rest of the story charts the ups and downs of the band, the romance between Cosmo and Raphina, the gradual dissolution of Conor’s family, and Brendan’s confessions of how he sees himself vis a vis his brother.  Sing Street has a victorious concert towards the end when Cosmo roasts Brother Baxter with:  “You wear a dress and tell me not to wear brown shoes.”  Carney is a master at writing script; there are sage pronouncements sprinkled throughout the movie.

          Carney was interested in casting unknown actors, so much of the cast is just that, except for Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones, Calvary), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Jupiter Ascending, 1,000 Times Goodnight, Downton Abbey), and Jack Reynor (Macbeth, Doll House).  But Walsh-Peelo especially shows a great deal of talent in acting and singing, and his buddies in the band (Ben Carolan, Mark McKenna, Percy Chamburuka, Conor Hamilton, Ian Kenny, and Karl Rice) are firm back-ups.  The 1980’s music is nostalgic (Duran Duran, The Cure, The Jam, Hall & Oates), and Carney composed eight numbers with Gary Clark that mesh nicely with the better-known works.

How the formation of a band solves numerous adolescent challenges.

Grade:  A                                  By Donna R. Copeland