Hair and makeup on an actor playing an iconic real life person with whom we are very familiar is a risky prospect. It can be brilliant and seamless or it can be so embarrassing and distracting that it takes us right out of the movie. Fortunately, it looks like the filmmakers behind Bohemian Rhapsody really nailed the “wow, he looks just like him” challenge. Rami Malek’s hair, makeup and the prosthetic for the signature overbite conspire to make his likeness to Freddie Mercury pretty damn good.

I’m a big Queen fan, and the crafty trailer makes the movie look worthwhile, if not a bit formulaic in the decadent rock band biopic genre. At a glance, it seems to follow the familiar track of how-they-met-and-started / how-they-got-their-first-record-deal / how-they-got-their-first-hit / how-they-became-famous / how-their-egos-got-in-the-way / how-they-eventually-learned-that-the-music-was-all-that-ever-really-mattered / how-they-did-their-best-work-when-they-were-together… a story we’ve seen before. We’ll know for certain on November 2nd.

For now, the trailer is a really fun 90 second teaser for a long-awaited movie about one of the greatest bands in rock history.

2 Comments

  1. Lisa Kozlowski

    Great preview, can’t wait, I hope the movie does him justice. Thank you for posting this!

  2. This reminded me to ask you – how do you listen to music these days? I gave up on iTunes (not up for scheduling a Genius Bar visit to untangle my old songs copied from CD’s that live on various older iPhones in the drawer, or old MacBookPro, or figure out which device has what on the iCloud – pffft)
    Is the way forward to pay for Pandora or similar streaming and build my old playlist back? Music is important to me – I feel stifled. And not to mention – the joy of sharing music with friends feels similarly hamstrung.