Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Those were the questions swirling inside my mind when Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Bohemian Rhapsody.
I thought the film in itself was an exercise in mediocrity.
Unbelievably, it was operating on the same hackneyed tropes and clichéd structure of a musical biopic that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story so mercilessly mocked a decade prior.
Walk Hard was so scathing that it virtually wiped out the genre for a period. And Bohemian Rhapsody follows, almost beat by beat, the stereotypes the former film laid bare.
Watch the two films back-to-back; it’s uncanny. And it’s another example of Bohemian Rhapsody’s lack of originality and uninspired nature.
Several critics pointed out the film’s sanitised quality and the many factual inaccuracies. I, for one, am not bothered by those issues.
Ultimately, I want an engaging film; whether or not it is historically accurate.
And engaging Bohemian Rhapsody was not. It felt more akin to an excuse to shoehorn Queen’s greatest hits; which took precedence over having a strong screenplay.
The sole factor that rose above the quagmire was Rami Malek. He was good. But he was good by default; much like how a one-eyed man is crowned king in the kingdom of the blind.
His performance felt caricaturish; almost a pantomime. The prosthetic teeth, which were meant to add authenticity, had the contrary effect. It was evidently a hindrance for Malek.
Malek’s performance to me is a prominent example of the difference between ‘most acting’ and ‘best acting.’
Usually, Oscar campaigns for actors portraying historical characters are based on the lengths they had to go through to inhabit the part. Leonardo DiCaprio’s entire campaign was founded on two things:
- He’s long overdue.
- Filming The Revenant was an incredibly taxing effort. He ate raw bison liver for god’s sake! Give that man an Oscar!
And here was Rami Malek, lip-syncing. Honestly, I can’t begrudge that decision.
And I didn’t, until the very next year when Taron Edgerton sang with his voice in Rocketman; a film and a performance that is leagues above Rhapsody.
The film at least aspires to be original and Egerton’s performance works because instead of attempting to mimic Elton John, he creates a believable character.
Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were in the running along with Malek.
Cooper spent over a year training to come across as a believable musician and sang all of his songs for A Star is Born, along with directing and producing the movie.
Bale did his usual body-weight gymnastics for Vice.
If indeed ‘difficulty’ is a parameter for The Academy, then what gives? But it isn’t a parameter for me.
That Cooper and Bale did those things is not why I was affected by their performances.
Christian Bale isn’t a great actor because of his body fluctuations. That is just a tool he employs; he’s an exceptional actor because he consistently produces authentic, nuanced and believable performances.
But that year, it was Bradley Cooper that had everyone beat. His work in A Star is Born was raw, vulnerable and entirely convincing.
Honestly, Cooper does more in the ‘rehab’ scene than Malek does in the entirety of Bohemian Rhapsody.
And it’s because the film's script and Cooper's character’s emotional arc is inifinitely stronger than what Malek had to work with.
But The Academy’s undying infatuation with historical biopics is well established. And a historical biopic that makes north of $800 million? It must have seemed like the best of both worlds.
I think Rami Malek is a good actor, and he will give far better performances in his career than he did in Bohemian Rhapsody, but he’s unlikely to win many Oscars for them. Such is the nature of the beast.
It’s about timing and momentum, and Malek rode on the crest of Queen’s resurgent wave to Oscar glory.
That sense of timing worked against Egerton, whose fascinating work in Rocketman was never going to be legitimately considered because a similar performance had won just the year before.
But such is the life of an actor, strikes and gutters, ups and downs.
Carry on, carry on. As if nothing really matters.
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