For the past month, while we’ve managed to have our heads turned in other directions, Rami Malek has been out promoting Bohemian Rhapsody in Europe and various U.S. cities — a screening here, a Q&A there. The big UK premiere at Wembley last night made me realize we had missed out on all the fashion he’s been delivering, and so here we are remedying that.
I don’t know what to do with this movie. See, I love Queen. I was raised on Queen. I have been raising my kids on Queen. It was one of my dad’s favorite bands, and he liked to blast music while cooking dinner, so we’d hear the various hits — and admitted occasional misses — nearly every night and he and Queen are forever and inextricably linked in my heart. I can’t hear “Too Much Love Will Kill You” without wanting to cry, because even though Brian May wrote it about his marriage, they released a version with Freddie’s vocals after he died and his voice is everything and you just think of all the stories he could yet have told. So: I’m protective of that, and Bryan Singer directed this movie, and he is allegedly and by all accounts a CREEP and THE WORST and so much of what’s wrong with Hollywood. But, Bryan Singer also apparently disappeared toward the end of this shoot and they had to replace him, and… it’s the ultimate question, asked over and over again: When do you withhold your support to boycott a person’s continued financial gain (Singer is still credited on the film, and I’d heard a rumor that he was also giving notes on it), and when do you show up for the other people who aren’t jerks? Where do you draw the line, in sports and in art and in life? We’ve asked that question before, and it’s a tough one, because I think everyone’s answers will be different — and I think most people’s answers will be inconsistent, mine included, because I think the needle always jumps. Do you support your team even with one athlete you think might be awful? We were talking about this on Instagram the other day with regard to Johnny Depp and the Fantastic Beasts sequel, too. What if it was someone hinky in a more beloved franchise, like, say, Outlander, or the Marvel movies? Where do you draw your lines, and how hard it is to keep them firm?
