Bohemian Rhapsody earned five Oscar nominations Monday, but can the Queen biopic shock the Academy Awards like it did at the Golden Globes?
Bohemian Rhapsody will be trying for an awards show encore next month, as it earned multiple Oscar nominations on Monday—but can the film follow up its Golden Globes upset with Academy Awards glory?
The Queen biopic earned nominations in two major categories: Best Picture and Best Actor for leading man Rami Malek. It’s also up for trophies in three technical categories: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Film Editing.
At first glance, Bohemian Rhapsody would seem to have the odds stacked against it for any kind of Oscar contention. Five nominations sounds like a lot, but it’s lagging behind Academy favorites A Star Is Born (10 nods) and The Favourite (also 10), as well as BlacKkKlansman (six nominations) and Black Panther (seven).
Of the half-dozen or so films that have been making the awards show rounds, Rhapsody got the shorter end of the Oscars stick.
But it’s worth noting that the two big categories it’s nominated in are the same ones that the film just won at the Golden Globes earlier this month. It was a true surprise to see the movie snag the Best Picture award away from several of those others mentioned above—and there’s no reason that it can’t do it again.
Rami Malek should be a front-runner in the Best Actor category. While all of the nominated stars were great, Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury was transformative. He didn’t just do great work, and he didn’t just look like the lead singer of Queen; he completely embodied every single aspect that made Mercury a legend, including all of the intangibles.
It didn’t matter if you were a hardcore Queen fan or someone who’d only heard of their music in passing; he deepened your appreciation of Freddie Mercury. And he also showed off such amazing range; as some critics have noted, this role was the complete opposite of his current work playing clinically depressed Elliot Alderson on USA‘s Mr. Robot.
Malek soared doing something he’d never done before, and something that only a very rare actor could do—completely capture a legendary artist and even add to his legacy. He deserves to win an Oscar to go along with his Golden Globe.
Will Bohemian Rhapsody be able to reach the heights of its star, though? That’s a bit more up for debate. It’s not the usual Best Picture fare, and some critics have been dismissive of it; even after its Globe wins, the movie didn’t get the respect it deserved. Other nominees have far more praise and buzz around them.
But that’s also fitting for this picture, because it really isn’t the usual type of nominee, or a regular biopic. That’s what makes it so special. It upends expectations, and if it’s an underdog, well, so was Queen when they started out. It wouldn’t quite make sense if it was a favorite, if it didn’t have to fight for its success, because that’s what this movie is all about.
And the technical nominations are also positives—of course a film about one of the best bands of all time should have award-worthy sound! It demanded to be experienced in theaters; in fact it put the fun back into going to the movies. So everything is lining up as it should.
The last line of the song is for Bohemian Rhapsody to be an Oscar winner. It should take home at least one Oscar, hopefully more, and establish itself as a smash hit movie just like Queen had so many smash hit records. What could be more perfect?
The 91st Academy Awards take place Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. For full coverage of the 2019 Oscars, follow the Movies category at FanSided.