MOONLIGHT Leads to Broadway

He is young, gifted and black.  He is one of the new talents to keep your eye on and support nowadays.  Tarell Alvin McCraney won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay to MOONLIGHT, Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2016.

He's taken his talents to Broadway with a drama that seems to be not only trailblazing but a new hit. CHOIR BOY by Tarell Alvin McCraney has been extended for a second time. It's now been extended through March 10.

There is music in the play. The music is a cappella and furthers the story. Here's the story that, I feel, is trailblazing and relevant and needed today: We follow the story of a student at a prep school that is historically for young black males. McCraney gives us the story of this student who is, in his words, "black and queer."  The young gay black student is bullied at the elite Christian school. From what I've read that the play touches on prejudice, faith and ethics in this tale of a young man trying to engage and enhance his community while finding his own voice.  He himself has a terrific singing voice but he's voted out of the school's gospel choir because he's gay. It's the music that gives him a spiritual freedom in his legacy school, a school renowned for producing strong black men.  It's a play that involves strong forces I'm familiar with -- hypermasculinity and homophobia in our black community. About CHOIR BOY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote that McCraney's play "makes a spectacular, necessary Broadway debut."  THE GUARDIAN gave it 4 out of 5 stars. The NEW YORK DAILY NEWS called it "stirring and stylishly told..."  THE NEW YORK TIMES found it "powerful."

Those are the kind of Broadway reviews for a show written by a young Oscar-winning dramatist and featuring a predominantly young cast that make Hollywood take notice.

I relocated to New York City for work in 1985.  Just a couple of years ago, I asked my friend Keith Price (a theatre correspondent and podcaster) about gay black male images on Broadway. Let's face it. A main purpose of Broadway plays with gay lead characters is to inspire audiences to embrace diversity and inclusion while telling a story about gay lives.  Ever since 1985, I noticed that all those plays asking for gay acceptance and equality had mostly white men in them. Rarely did I see a black character. When we did appear, it was never as an upright lead character. We were supporting players to white characters. And we didn't have upscale professions like lawyer, architect, theatre producer, classical musician and such. I noticed this is plays I saw.  LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! … white guys in a summer home. TORCH SONG TRILOGY -- black drag queen supporting player. THE LISBON TRAVIATA...MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS...FIFTH OF JULY...THE NORMAL HEART...white guys. ANGELS IN AMERICA -- black supporting player.  CHOIR BOY is different. We are up front and center in representation.

It's something original for Broadway. The gay black male is the lead character -- and he's not in a dress in a production from a white playwright. A gay African-American dramatist gave us this play.  Thank you, Tarell Alvin McCraney.  I pray I'm able to see it during its extended run.  For more information, go here:

ChoirBoyBroadway.com.

My Love for Julie Andrews

A few days ago, entertainment news outlets online reported that actress Anne Hathaway read a screenplay for THE PRINCESS DIARIES 3. She's eager to do it. Julie Andrews, her costar in the previous two installments, is also eager to do it. THE PRINCESS DIARIES 3 would get my money at the box office in a heartbeat. I love me some Julie Andrews. I have for most of my life. I feel that the Universe knew we needed the Broadway star's radiant light and talent on the big screen and when we needed it.  Her first film, and the film that brought her the Oscar for Best Actress, was Disney's colossal hit, MARY POPPINS.

Released in the summer of 1964, her performance as the mysterious nanny in that now classical musical fantasy centered on family love was exactly the tonic America needed to revive and restore us from our four days of shock, horror and national grief in November 1963. Those four days were from the bulletin the President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas to the President Kennedy's majestic and heartbreakingly unforgettable funeral. MARY POPPINS let us little kids and our parents know that it was alright to smile and laugh again in a world that had grown suddenly dark. In 1965, the healing and light continued. THE SOUND OF MUSIC was released. This family film, a musical, was an enormous box office hit, a hit that brought Julie Andrews her second Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She was definitely a Hollywood star.

She was still a star in the 1970s but Hollywood and society had changed.  Big screen musicals weren't as popular as they had been. Julie Andrews went to network television. She had a weekend one-hour prime time show on ABC called THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR. She had all sorts of guests on this music variety show -- while it lasted. You could feel that network executives were determined to bring her image out of Disney and the Austrian alps by showing she could get down with a funky beat.

Back in the early 70s, I saw a behind-the-scenes feature on Julie Andrews tirelessly toiling like a trouper to put that network show over. She was rehearsing a number she'd done in the deluxe Fox flop, 1968's STAR! One the whole, the biopic of famed Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence didn't work but her performance did. On her network show, she made a self-deprecating funny comment about the film's unfortunate box office appeal. During the rehearsal of the complicated song and dance number, she had to do it again. She was obviously exhausted. She said, "Either you want too much or I have too little." Then she got on with it.

I never forgot that comment of hers. As I grew up and got older, also working in the entertainment business and often rehearsing business for shows that wouldn't click with the public, I found myself repeating that Julie Andrews comment before I got on with it. I've said it quite frequently in the last ten years of job hunting:  "Either you want too much or I have too little."

To me, Dame Julie Andrews is a role model of perseverance.  Here's a sample of her trying to attract new viewers to ABC with a new beat on 1973's THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR.

The show was canceled. But things turned out just fine for Julie. She went on to show us her saucy screwball comedy skills in a gender bender story that brought her a third Oscar nomination for Best Actress -- Blake Edwards' 1982 hit, VICTOR/VICTORIA.

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Julie Andrews once in my career.  I was new to New York City and working of WPIX/Channel 11. There was a junket for the  1986 movie, THAT'S LIFE! All of us in place to interview Dame Julie were a bit nervous. We loved her, but we wondered if we had the proper Buckingham Palace-like manners for her. Before I entered the room for my few interview minutes, the film's publicist pulled me aside and said that I did not have to treat her like she was a prissy, pomp and circumstance lady.

So, with the publicist in the room with us and the cameras rolling, I began with "Miss Andrews, can you confirm or deny a rumor for me? Is it true that you slept with the director and writer of THAT'S LIFE while making the film?"

She let out a hearty belly laugh. The film was written and directed by her husband, Blake Edwards. For those few minutes, Julie Andrews was everything I'd ever hoped she would be. And more.  By the way, her answer to the rumor was "Yes, I did."

Crimes Against Director Debra Granik

If I was a member of the Motion Picture Academy and I could've nominated five people for Best Director (if Academy members can nominate five directors), one of them definitely would've been Debra Granik for 2018's LEAVE NO TRACE.

Hollywood has been handing out Academy Awards for about 90 years now. The first woman to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination was trailblazer Dorothy Arzner. Under her direction, Ruth Chatterton was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1930's SARAH AND SON costarring Fredric March. In all the years of the Oscars, only 5 females have been Oscar nominees for Best Director:

Lina Wertmüller for SEVEN BEAUTIES (1976)
Jane Campion for THE PIANO (1993)
Sofia Coppola for LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)
Kathryn Bigelow for THE HURT LOCKER (2009)
Greta Gerwig for LADY BIRD (2017).

Yes, there were acclaimed and influential male directors who never got an Oscar nomination -- such as directors Preston Sturges, Fritz Lang and James Whale. There's also the odd Hollywood fact that legendary director/actor Charles Chaplin never got an Oscar nomination for Best Director, but Mel Gibson got 2. But, in terms of gender equality, you do have to wonder when the playing field will become level in the minds of Academy members at Oscar nomination time.  Kathryn Bigelow was the first and, so far, only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director.. She won for THE HURT LOCKER and it also hooked the Best Picture Oscar. Some notable critics felt that her 2013 drama, ZERO DARK THIRTY, was even better than THE HURT LOCKER. Bigelow's ZERO DARK THIRTY, just like her THE HURT LOCKER, got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. But she didn't get a second nomination for Best Director. These 7 women also directed Oscar nominees for Best Picture:

Randa Haines, CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (1986)
Penny Marshall, AWAKENINGS (1990)
Barbra Streisand, THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991)
Lone Scherfig, AN EDUCATION (2009)
Lisa Cholodenko, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (2010)
Ava DuVernay, SELMA (2014)
Debra Granik, WINTER'S BONE, (2010).

None of those 7 women got an Oscar nomination for Best Director.  In WINTER'S BONE, Debra Granik directed Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes to Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.

I watched LEAVE NO TRACE. Wow. What a movie and what excellent direction. Just like in WINTER'S BONE, there's a Man/Woman in Nature, Man/Woman vs Nature tone and a strong parent/child relationship story. In this film, we go to Oregon to meet a father and daughter who live in the woods. They do not hate people and society. They just choose to be survivalists and live a gorgeous nature reserve. They do go into town and shop for groceries like everyday people do. Granik brings you into their lives to see why they live so mysteriously and how being given some traditional housing will change their lives. She lets you know their character by showing how they interact with each other and outsiders, if you will. The bearded, balding dad is loving and protective. So is his daughter. When authorities disrupt their lives, notice how he tells his daughter to come out and not cause any conflict. He doesn't cause any conflict. Some townsfolk may view them as strange because they been living in the woods. But, when the daughter returns to their temporary home from being in conversation with a townsperson, notice that she gently apologizes if she got back too late and tells her dad that, if she had a phone, he could keep in constant contact with her. How many parents in a big city would openly weep to hear that quality of politeness from a teenage child? When they have to leave a lodging suddenly, dad straightens the place up to leave it as he found it. These minor visual and dialogue details are big revelations of character.

Other people live off the grid in the nature reserve too. They're not hurting anyone. They're no social threat. But their lives are disrupted. Granik gives you a memorable visual of a corporate bulldozer having no regard for the American flag. The dad, by the way, is an Irag War veteran. He has PTSD. Here's a trailer. Ben Foster plays father. Thomasin McKenzie plays the daughter. Two very fine performances.

The Academy has finally discovered the indie talents of Sam Rockwell. The Best Actor Oscar nomination Matt Damon got for THE MARTIAN should've gone to Sam Rockwell for 2009's sci-fi thriller, MOON. Before that, Rockwell should've gotten one for 2002's CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND in which he played popular TV host Chuck Barris. And he should've been a Best Supporting Actor Oscar contender for playing the wrongfully convicted working class sibling in 2010's CONVICTION starring Hilary Swank as the devoted sister out to prove he didn't commit murder. She puts herself through law school to represent him.

Rockwell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI last year. He's nominated in that category again this year for playing George W. Bush in VICE. It's time for The Academy to discover Ben Foster. Director Debra Granik gets a performance from him that was worthy of an Oscar nomination just like the ones he gave in 2009's THE MESSENGER and 2016's HELL OR HIGH WATER. Yes, it's time for actor Ben Foster to finally get an Oscar nomination. He deserves one.

Debra Granik should be enjoying a Best Director Oscar nomination today -- and she should also be getting congratulations that LEAVE NO TRACE is a Best Picture Oscar nominee. I was listening to KNX News Radio out of L.A. the morning the Oscar nominations were announced. The news duo mentioned that one thing they, as movie-lovers, find frustrating is that there can be 10 Oscar nominees for Best Picture. But, ever since that increase from 5 to 10 nominees went into effect in 2009, we've never had 10 nominees.  I totally agree with the KNX Radio news team. This year is no different. We got 8 nominees. There was room for LEAVE NO TRACE but it's not in the running.

That fact that Debra Granik has yet to get an Oscar nomination for Best Director and the fact that LEAVE NO TRACE is not an Oscar nominee for Best Picture -- to me, those omissions are Hollywood crimes in the entertainment industry.

Ben Mankiewicz Liked It

Films, classic and new, have been one of my greatest loves ever since I was in grade school. So, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning the day the Oscar nominations are to be announced. I eagerly wait to hear entertainment reporters on network TV say who should be nominated shortly before the announcements begin. Afterwards, I eagerly wait to read the print articles from entertainment columnists telling us who should have been nominated, but they weren't. As a countdown to the Oscars telecast, TCM (cable's Turner Classic Movies) has "31 Days of Oscar." Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies are programmed. I got on Twitter and suggested "31 Days of Never Nominated."  I'm always stunned to discover who has done some fabulous, some famous work on the big screen, but has never been nominated.  TCM could show movies starring actors and actress who never got Oscar nominations. Performers like …Joel McCrea.

I remember watching Maureen Stapleton make a warm thank-you speech when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for REDS (1981). She thanked Joel McCrea for inspiring her to seek a career in acting. Joel McCrea was never nominated for an Oscar. Neither was...Myrna Loy.

Can you believe that? THE THIN MAN, LIBELED LADY, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Myrna Loy was never an Oscar nominee. Here are other actors and actresses in the never-nominated category that I included in my tweet -- plus a few extra:  Edward G. Robinson,  Randolph Scott, Ida Lupino, Ward Bond, Joseph Cotten, Dana Andrews, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Anton Walbrook, Giuletta Masina, Vera Miles, Ossie Davis. Andy Griffith, Donald Sutherland, Mia Farrow.  We felt Mia's paranoid terror in ROSEMARY'S BABY.

We saw her slam across some fabulous comic performances in films written and directed by Woody Allen such as RADIO DAYS, ALICE and BROADWAY DANNY ROSE.

Speaking of directors, during "31 Days of Never Nominated," there could be a day of directors who never got Oscar nominations for Best Director.  Directors such as Dorothy Arzner (CRAIG'S WIFE and DANCE, GIRL, DANCE), James Whale, Fritz Lang, Preston Sturges, Mitchell Leisen (1937's EASY LIVING, 1939's MIDNIGHT, REMEMBER THE NIGHT starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, HOLD BACK THE DAWN and ARISE, MY LOVE), Barbra Streisand (Best Picture Oscar nominee, 1991's THE PRINCE OF TIDES), Penny Marshall (Best Picture Oscar nominee, 1990's AWAKENINGS) and Vittorio De Sica (THE BICYCLE THIEF, UMBERTO D., TWO WOMEN, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS and YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren).

In the screenplay category, one of the wittiest line of self-loathing I've ever heard in a classic film is in Alfred Hitchcock's influential masterpiece, PSYCHO. The line, spoken by Norman Bates, is "I don't hate my mother. I hate what she's become." Joseph Stefano did not get an Oscar nomination for that dark, brilliant and internationally famous screenplay.

TCM host Ben Mankiewicz read my tweet -- and he liked my idea!  That does not mean TCM will be using my idea and acknowledging me on the air. It just means... groovy Ben Mankiewicz liked my idea! So, we'll see what happens.

I started my TV career on local TV in 1980. In 1982 I did some pretty good entertainment interviews that were featured on national TV. I got a week of national exposure when PM MAGAZINE, a syndicated show, aired celebrity interviews I'd done in its countdown to the Oscars. I'd interviewed Meryl Streep about SOPHIE'S CHOICE, Jessica Lange about TOOTSIE and FRANCES, actor Ben Kingsley and director Richard Attenborough about GANDHI. They all won Oscars the following week. In the late 80s, I had my own prime time talk show on VH1. I've worked steadily on TV, locally and nationally, for over 30 years.

I have never been nominated for either a local or a national Emmy. When I hear actors say, "It's an honor just to be nominated," I take that seriously.  I know exactly how they feel... because I would feel the very same way.

Octavia Spencer, Executive Producer of GREEN BOOK

She's a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner. She and Viola Davis are the two most Oscar-nominated Black actresses in Hollywood history.  Each has three Oscar nominations, so far, to her credit.  Octavia Spencer is one of the most talented actresses in modern movie business.

In addition to acting, Octavia Spencer is the Executive Producer of a hit movie -- GREEN BOOK. Octavia and GREEN BOOK Oscar nominee Mahershala Ali were co-stars in HIDDEN FIGURES. Today, GREEN BOOK scored an Oscar nomination for Best Picture -- but you didn't hear Octavia's name as one of its producers. I went back and looked at the movie again.

My guess is that the Academy now limits the number of producers who can be attached to a film if it gets a Best Picture Oscar nomination.  When GREEN BOOK ends, and the credits roll, you see the credits for director, the writers and then the producers. The first five producer names you see are the names in its Best Picture nomination. After their names, you see "Executive Producer, Octavia Spencer." However, when it came time to promote the film, director Peter Farrelly put Octavia right out there in front.  Look at this short video of her talking about the film.

Look at this short interview of Octavia at the Toronto International Film Festival.

When GREEN BOOK won a Best Picture award at the Golden Globes, there was Octavia onstage with Peter Farrelly for the acceptance speech. She was with Peter, Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen for interviews on E! afterwards and she was asked a question about being Executive Producer of the film.  For this month, January 2019, there was major article in Vanity Fair on "Green Book Director Peter Farrelly Defends Film Amid Criticism by Don Shirley's Family."  You can Google that and read the article.  In it. Farrelly stresses that he did not bring in Octavia Spencer to be his black friend and act as defense against criticism from black film critics and such. He talks about how important she was to the project.

After I saw GREEN BOOK, I was amazed at what I learned about Dr. Don Shirley, played very well by Mahershala Ali. The African-American musician knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Duke Ellington. He performed with NBC Symphony at Carnegie Hall in the 1950s. He appeared on network TV in the 1950s. He was a classical musician who was a child prodigy. When he was 19, he performed with the London Philharmonic. He experimented with jazz. In 1961, a year before the movie's action begins, Dr. Don Shirley had a jazz hit on the Billboard charts. On the charts for 14 weeks.

Don Shirley earned a doctorate degree in Music and in Psychology. He studied psychology at the University of Chicago and, when there was no employment in the classical music field for black people, he worked as a psychologist.

None of that do we learn about Dr. Don Shirley in GREEN BOOK the movie. That's why Dr. Shirley's surviving relatives, none of whom was contacted during the writing and production of the film, were upset reportedly. Black film critics were irked about that too.

I was hoping Octavia Spencer would be listed as a producer when the Best Picture Oscar nomination was announced. Five male producers were listed.  Not Octavia.  If she had been listed, I think that would've made her the most Oscar-nominated black woman in Hollywood history -- 3 Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and 1 as producer of a Best Picture Oscar nominee.

For as much as Octavia Spencer was used to promote the Peter Farrelly film as its Executive Producer, heck … what a disappointment she didn't make the producers cut for the Oscar nomination like the five guys did.  Just my opinion.

Women to Watch on Oscar Nomination Day

I want to mention a few films and female accomplishments before the Oscar nominations came out.  One of my Top 5 favorite films of all-time is George Cukor's 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN. A rare case in which the remake was just as good if not better than the original, it boasts a bravura musical drama performance by Judy Garland in a dazzling screen comeback role as Hollywood's new star. There's an excellent performance by James Mason in the lead role of alcoholic fading movie star, Norman Maine, the man who discovers and falls in love with the new star. The current remake of A STAR IS BORN is a box office champ with another dazzling female lead performance. This is one is delivered by Lady Gaga. Her leading man, Bradley Cooper, also directed the film.

Every actress who has starred in A STAR IS BORN went on to get an Oscar nomination for her work in the film.  Notice the word "work." For the 1937 original A STAR IS BORN, Janet Gaynor was a nominee for Best Actress.  For 1954's A STAR IS BORN remake, Judy Garland was a nominee for Best Actress. For the 1976 remake starring Barbra Streisand, she won the Oscar for co-writing the Best Song ("Evergreen").  Lady Gaga could be an Oscar nominee in both the Best Actress and Best Song categories.

Millions of us grew up with the Best Picture category having five nominees. In 2009, the Academy upped the number of possible nominees to ten.  In the 1930s through the mid 1940s, there were ten Oscar nominees for Best Picture. Ten. However, now that we can have ten Best Picture contenders again, we've never had ten nominees. We've had more than five but less than ten. That has been extremely frustrating to me.  If we can have ten Best Picture nominees, give us ten Best Picture nominees. Good strong critically-acclaimed films like Ryan Coogler's FRUITVALE STATION, F. Gary Gray's STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, Dee Rees' MUDBOUND and Patty Jenkins' WONDER WOMAN were not in the running. I hope Ryan Coogler's BLACK PANTHER will make the cut along with Spike Lee's BLACKkKLANSMAN and IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK from director/screenwriter Barry Jenkins.

And let's see if this African-American actress who has made Oscar nomination history will make history again in a different category.

Take 4 minutes to watch my video -- and tune in to see the Oscar nominations when they're announced live on GOOD MORNING AMERICA on ABC.

On BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

First of all, if you have not seen BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, a biopic about the late Freddie Mercury of Queen, and you heard rave reviews for the performance Rami Malek delivers as Mercury, the reviews were on point. Malek is fabulous as Freddie Mercury. He makes the movie worth watching.  Not that it's a bad movie. It's just that there are times when you think you're watching deleted scenes from THIS IS SPINAL TAP. But BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY does have one of my new favorite trash-with-flash lines from a modern movie. An angry Mercury in the back of a limo shouts at a member of his management team "Get out, you treacherous piss-flap!"  I'd give Malek an Oscar nomination just for keeping a straight face while delivering that line.

Malek is fitted with fake dental work to resemble Freddie Mercury's protruding front teeth. The poor dear did look like he could've eaten corn on the cob through a picket fence but that marvelous, unique singing voice, his handsome rock star charisma and his sex appeal made the teeth a minor point. Add to that his genius for blending strains of opera and black music into his innovative rock music mixes. Malek nails Mercury's carriage, especially when he's in performance onstage. He has the charisma. And the hair. The men's hairstyles are practically characters in themselves. One actor playing a Queen bandmate looks like he snatched a wig out of the men's dressing room on the set of THE FAVOURITE.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY has scenes that already seem familiar from previous theatrical and made-for-TV biopics. There's the outsider child of working class parents. Freddie is the son of immigrant parents -- a loving, passive mother in bland clothing and a disapproving, stern-faced father who made something of himself and wants his son to pursue a white collar job. There's the sweet young girlfriend who realizes the true artistry in the outsider son and the bickering but loyal bandmates. Freddie and his girlfriend have a good sex life.  A half hour into the film, we've seen the girlfriend and met the guys who will all form Queen.  However, I found myself saying "I thought Freddie Mercury was gay."  You don't really get a sense of that until over 40 minutes in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. He doesn't even give a lad a quick flirtatious glance. There's a scene at a roadside rest area while the band is on tour dates. Freddie uses a pay phone and a trucker gives him that "sly come-hither stare" as he heads to the men's room. Freddie looks back but doesn't register any lusty interest. Nothing happens. While composing new music in a room, he's kissed by a guy. But he doesn't really respond to that either. Keep in mind that, during these early scenes, he's calling his bandmates and management team guys "Darling" and he sings onstage in flashy outfits that Liza Minnelli would've killed to borrow.  But eventually, as he tours America while the sweet girlfriend is back in the U.K. and as Queen hits it big, he comes out of the closet and gets a new hairstyle.  Of course, with stardom comes conflict.  Also, when a movie character coughs into a handkerchief and sees drops blood, heartbreak will always ensue.

The gay elements are oddly tame for a period in rock music when hormones were shooting off like fireworks at Disneyland. The gay bar scenes look like shots from your standard Madonna videos in the late 80s on MTV and VH1. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY is rather timid in showing Mercury's life as a gay rock star. We've seen steamier man-to-man love scenes in episodes of HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER on ABC in prime time. My disappointment in a frank representation of a gay male rock star's life reminded me of the line Brian May says in the film: "It's America. They're Puritans in public, perverts in private."

One of the favorite parts of the movie shows the real-life 1975 experience when Freddie coaxed an equally flamboyant radio DJ to play "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song twice the length of the standard record cut that played on radio in those days. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is now a rock classic.  However, the film shows a montage of dreadful reviews it got from print rock music critics at the time.  They were of the "This is crap and you'll never be heard from again" variety.  When I finished watching the screener of the movie Saturday night, I turned on the TV. The NBC show, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT was on and it was a special championship edition. There was a young woman from Spain onstage wearing a cape. She whipped off the cape and launched into a Freddie Mercury medley that dazzled the crowd.

The music segments are good. The Rami Malek performance is excellent. The script is average. If only there had been more trash-with-flash lines like "Get out, you treacherous piss-flap!"