Like many a British Gen X-er, I inhaled Queen almost from birth. “Killer Queen” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” were played on the radio all the time from my first two years of life onwards. Flash Gordon (1980) and Highlander (1986), two movies that are probably now best remembered as extended Queen music videos, rocked my childhood and early teens respectively. 

After the latter, my friends and I shared and memorized Queen’s entire back catalog. Losing myself in the sonic fantasy landscapes and angelic harmonies of albums like Queen II or Sheer Heart Attack or Night at the Opera in parentally unapproved, post-bedtime, big-headphone listening: this was my happy place. Even the band’s mid-career so-so album-filler tracks are still in heavy rotation in the DJ booth in my head. 

SEE ALSO: Critics love Rami Malek, but think ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is an underwhelming mess

All of which is to explain why there’s no way in hell I can write a neutral, objective cinematic review of Bohemian Rhapsody, the Rami Malek-led Queen biopic with a troubled production history, which releases nationwide Friday. Where this movie is concerned, I have no chill. 

Instead, this a review for my fellow Queen superfans — the people who will be irked by details like whether a song is introduced too soon or invented years too late in Queen chronology. Unfortunately, this is what happens at least three times in the film. (A future post will get into these and many more sloppy musical mistakes in the movie; for now I’ll leave them for you to spot.) 

As with those two Queen-scored movies of my childhood, it is best to treat Bohemian Rhapsody as an extended music video. Don’t expect much more and you’ll have a fine time. A lot of attention has been lavished on the sound. Make sure you watch it in a theater with the best possible bass-heavy speaker system. This is a movie to be felt as much as heard.

if you can’t handle the movie at its campy worst, you don’t deserve it at its transcendent best

And seen? Sure, seen as well. Most of the time. That is, if you don’t put too high a price on coherence and character depth and are not the type to wince at music biopic cliches or self-referential jokes by Mike Myers, whose attempt at a comedic turn as a music label executive really is the weakest link here. 

But hey, if you can’t handle the movie at its campy, shallow, detail-inventing worst, you don’t deserve it at its transcendent, tear-jerking, era-defining best — or as you’ll come to think of it, the last half hour.

Teeth and eyes

Let’s deal with the unusually incisor-filled elephant in the room. Rami Malek is a very plausible Freddie Mercury … in all music-related scenes. He’s too small and wiry, but he’s got the stage strut thing down. 

He’s pretty good at imitating Freddie’s speaking voice, too, and it actually helps that the film uses Freddie’s singing voice (in all but a few brief party-trick moments). It also makes one big meta reference early on to lip-syncing on the BBC’s famous fake-live music show Top of the Pops. 

The overall effect of Malek’s musical segments reminded me of the charming video for an awful late-era Queen single, The Miracle, in which an adorable kid pulls on the leotards from all Freddie’s fashion eras and lip-syncs his way through a hardworking homage. You just want to pat him on the head. 

As for the (mercifully brief) biographical scenes, it’s a mixed bag. Friends and colleagues who saw the film before me warned me of Malek’s prosthetic teeth, but on their own they actually seemed the most Mercurial thing about him. 

The bigger problem is Malek’s eyes, highly powerful acting tools that he uses so well in other contexts. Freddie’s peepers were small and piercing. Malek is intent on widening his to show the vulnerability in the lonely singer’s heart — or possibly his own fear at having to portray such a widely-loved larger-than-life character. 

An interesting choice, but mix the eyes and the teeth and the result often sidles right up to the line of unintentionally ridiculous. 

This is where a more checked-in director might have made a difference, but by all accounts Bryan Singer was not that; Dexter Fletcher took the uncredited role of cleaning up after Singer’s no-show and firing, and it seems he’s done the best he can short of a lengthy Ron Howard-style reshoot. 

The disjointed nature of the script doesn’t help. I won’t spoil any of it, but what’s odd from the superfan’s perspective is the drama it misses out. For example, you’d think from the film that the largely affable John Reid (played by Aiden Gillan, aka Littlefinger) was Queen’s first manager. In fact, he was their second. 

The band had knock-down, drag-out fights over money with their manager for their first three albums prior to Reid. This was the man about whom Freddie wrote the Night at the Opera opener “Death on Two Legs” — a “shark” and a “sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride.” Now that seems a role worthy of Littlefinger’s talents. 

Bohemian Rhapsody II: The Show Must Go On

The movie does not really whitewash Mercury’s gay partners or his AIDS diagnosis as some fans feared, though it doesn’t much linger on them either. And it’s not really a spoiler for the superfan (but just in case, spoiler alert!) to say that the movie ends with Live Aid in 1985. 

I wouldn’t want you to go in the theater expecting the actual end of the Queen story, the highs of Highlander and A Kind of Magic and the poignant decline of the Miracle and Innuendo era. 

When Freddie died of pneumonia from AIDS in 1991, it came as a profound shock to many, myself included. Even as we literally saw him dying while entertaining us, becoming more gaunt and wistful in every music video, many fans didn’t want to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Loyally we believed his statements that denied the tabloid stories, until the very end. 

Perhaps, should Bohemian Rhapsody do really well at the box office, there’s a slower, more focused, more entirely truthful sequel to be made. 

But still, it’s hard to fault the film for ending on Live Aid, because, well, Live Aid. This was the best and most important concert in my generation’s lifetime, as well as the best and most important 20 minutes of Queen’s life, and to see it so lovingly recreated was a nostalgia-fest unlike no other. 

I’m not ashamed to say I cried at the audience tracking shot during “Radio GaGa”. As I mentioned: absolutely no chill. 

In December of last year, two months after the Harvey Weinstein exposé, Matt Damon made the point that “one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole s—load of guys […] who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected.”

His comments were swiftly derided, because no one deserves a pat on the back simply for refraining from abusing someone.

Perhaps, though, in an odd sort of way, he did have a point. What about the guys “who don’t do this kind of thing” – all the well-meaning folks who are neither victim nor perpetrator? How are they part of this narrative? What role do they have to play?

SEE ALSO: The Louis C.K. apologists are missing the point

Those bystanders are the focus of Will & Grace‘s latest episode, titled “Grace’s Secret.” In it, Grace explains to her father that decades ago, when she was 15 years old, his best friend Harry – her boss at the time – sexually assaulted her one day at work. 

But this isn’t really a plot about the horrors inflicted on young women. Sickening as it is, that narrative is familiar enough by this point that Grace’s reveal is not shocking in itself.

Instead, it’s a story about Grace and Martin – the caring father who genuinely had no idea this had happened – and about all the responsibility of men like him in stories like these. 

When Grace finally tells Martin what happened, he’s visibly horrified. He reacts as if it physically pains him to hear what she’s saying, yelling “stop” at one point when he can bear it no more. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he pleads afterward.

Rather than accept “I didn’t know” as an excuse and move on, Grace asks, “Why didn’t you see?”

The question is sincere. Yet from the perspective of the viewer, it’s completely obvious why.

In the moments leading up to that reveal, we’ve seen Martin flirt shamelessly with the waitress, telling Grace that “they love it.” We’ve heard him scoff that people are “so sensitive nowadays,” and complain that “men can’t be men anymore” because of #MeToo.

He’s described Harry as a “flirty guy,” a “good guy,” and a product of “a different time.” He’s told Grace to “calm down” when she angrily points out that that doesn’t make it okay.

“How could I?” she responds to his question. “What if you didn’t believe me? What if no one believed me?”

Indeed, Martin has given no indication whatsoever that he’d believe his own daughter’s account over his own impression of a now-dead man. Even before she launched into her full account, Martin was already trying to discredit it – suggesting that she was “misremembering” events, and protesting that he didn’t want to talk about it. 

This, too, is nothing new. It’s Jason Batman leaping to defend Jeffrey Tambor’s abuse of Jessica Walter on Arrested Development. It’s Michael Ian Black wondering how much more poor Louis C.K. must suffer. It’s Roman Polanski’s supporters insisting that things were just different back then. 

But Will & Grace isn’t done interrogating Martin’s role in all of this. Rather than accept “I didn’t know” as an excuse and move on, Grace asks, “Why didn’t you see?” The show points out the red flags he missed, and the opportunities he had to dig deeper.

Instead, it seems, he assumed that Grace meant Harry was simply “flirty” when she described him as “creepy.” He took at face value Harry’s side of the story, that Grace’s employment with him ended when she stole money from his office. (She had, but only after the assault, in order to get a cab home.) He knew Grace disliked Harry, but until this moment, never got around to figuring out why.

Ultimately, Martin agrees with Grace that he should’ve seen what was going on, and apologizes. That is the point of this storyline – not the information that Grace was sexually assaulted as a teenager.

Too often, the burden of noticing and reporting predatory behavior is put on the victims. It falls on them to share their traumas, to offer up their unhappy experiences so other people can take them to heart or pick them apart. There’s power in sharing these stories, and they can be effective tools for change; look at what #MeToo and Time’s Up have been able to accomplish by encouraging women to come forward.

This is between all of us – including, yes, all those “good guys who don’t do this kind of thing.”

But “Grace’s Secret” shifts some of that responsibility onto all the bystanders in those scenarios, poking holes into the plausible deniability that so many of them – so many of us – hide behind.

How often have we seen people shrug, in response to allegations against a colleague, that they never saw that business going on, and surely would’ve stopped it if they had? How frequently do we hear people try to minimize or excuse allegations by saying that, gee, that doesn’t sound like the good guy they know, so it must all be some kind of misunderstanding? 

It’s never going to be the case that all of us are magically able to suss out misdeeds when they happen. No matter how observant we are, some nasty secrets will be better hidden than others, and we’ll be taken by surprise from time to time.

But it’s not too much to ask that all of us – but especially men who think of themselves as the “good guys who don’t do this kind of thing” – be a little bit more aware. It’s not too much to ask that a father listen to his daughter, rather than leap to his friend’s defense. Or that he ask what it means when a man is described as “creepy.”

It’s not too much to ask that we, in our day-to-day lives, be conscious of the message we’re sending when we make thoughtlessly inappropriate jokes, or complain that others are just being too “sensitive.” It’s worth considering that someone you love might be listening, and deciding silently that you are not to be trusted.

And it’s not too late to try and do better, even if we’ve failed others in the past. Near the end of the episode, Grace goes to the cemetery to visit her mother – the only person she’d told about the incident before. 

“So I told him, Mom, but you were wrong. He did okay,” she says. “You know, I always thought that I needed an apology from Harry. But it turned out I really needed one from Daddy. I feel better.” 

It’s not just the predators who need to take a good hard look at what they’ve been doing. It’s not just the victims who should be seeing and calling out unacceptable behavior. It’s not just women who need to be vigilant about men’s behavior toward women. 

This is between all of us – including, yes, all those “good guys who don’t do this kind of thing.”

Voting PSAs are meant to make you laugh, get excited about democracy, and above all, motivate you to cast a ballot on Election Day — a day that will influence the next 10 years of our lives. 

In an effort to combat historic patterns of underwhelming voter turnout during midterm elections, brands and advocacy organizations have released video campaigns designed to get out the vote. They’ve enlisted your favorite actors, like Black Panther‘s Chadwick Boseman and Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu, as well as President Barack Obama, to share one clear message: You need to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6. 

In recent years, only 40 percent of eligible voters took part in midterm elections. That needs to change this Election Day because reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, common-sense gun control, and other key issues are all at stake.  

SEE ALSO: Twitter puts its #BeAVoter campaign front and center in the final days before the midterms

You’ve probably seen plenty of voting PSAs in your feed, but these are 13 of the best campaigns released so far, in our humble opinion. Share them. Retweet them. Do what you need to spread the message to your friends, family, and anyone else in your inner circle who will listen. Given recent claims of voter suppression, it’s important that everyone who can participates in the democratic process. Now sit back, click play, and get pumped to vote. 

1. ACRONYM

If you’re a young voter watching this, prove those old white people wrong and vote. 

2. When We All Vote

This video (courtesy of Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote campaign) puts a catchy, modern twist on Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”   

3. March For Our Lives and We Stand United

Marvel fans, listen up. In this laugh-out-loud funny PSA, your favorite superheroes share stories about their first time … voting. 

4. Serve America

These female veterans are badass, to say to the least. The best way to thank them for their service is to hit the polls on Nov. 6. 

5. Do Something

Millennials and Gen Z get a bad rep, but this video proves that the youth are a powerful force. 

6. ATTN

Barack Obama brings back his iconic dad jokes to shut down seven excuses not to vote. Spoiler: There’s no excuse not to vote. 

7. Freeform and ATTN

If you’re a true fan of Beyoncé’s protégés Chloe and Halle Bailey, then you’ll follow their lead and vote. 

8. College Humor

This video is a must-watch for anyone who has lingering questions about the voting process. 

9. Independence USA

You’ll get chills hearing from Laverne Cox, Cher, and other influential women in entertainment. 

10. New Virginia Majority and We Stand United

Crazy Rich Asians stars Constance Wu and Jimmy O. Yang team up to encourage their fellow Asian Americans to make an impact this election season. 

11. Latinx Power

We always hear about the power of the Latinx vote. Now is the time to show its full potential. 

12. Working Families Party and We Stand United

Whether you speak English, Spanish, or Spanglish, you’ll have no problem understanding John Leguizamo’s hilarious skit. 

13. The American Civil Liberties Union

Common proves all the naysayers wrong and explains exactly how our votes can transform today’s discriminatory criminal justice system. 

Filmmaker Michael Moore has a pretty simple message to “angry white guys” across America: give up your power. 

Moore was a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he had a lot to say to white men like himself.  

“I’m really Trump’s demographic,” Moore told Meyers. “I’m an angry white guy over 50 with a high school education.”

Moore then delivered a speech straight to his fellow “angry, white, American guys.”

“Dudes, give it up! We’ve been running the show for 10,000 years,” Moore said. “Let the majority gender run the show. What are you scared of?”