I got a free seven-day trial of HBO Max so I could watch Bohemian Rhapsody. It was interesting watching it after also just having watched Rocketman, although these were vastly different movies.

On the surface, both movies would seem to be similar: queer British rock stars who first hit big in the 70s. However, Rocketman was a jukebox musical, while Bohemian Rhapsody was a more straightforward biopic. Both took liberties with history and were produced by the musicians in question (Brian May in the case of BR). And both featured John Reed in an interesting bit of historical intersection.

Overall, I liked both, but the slight edge goes to Bohemian Rhapsody because I love Queen's music whereas I'm mostly 'meh' about Elton John.

I think Bohemian Rhapsody carried more emotional weight, not just because of Freddie Mercury's death, although that is a huge part of it. Still makes me sad that we lost him like that. With the climax of the movie featuring Queen at Live Aid, the movie carried the weight of history as well, and the "greatest live rock performance ever". And I can't say enough about how well that part was done. Amazing. This movie will stick with me for a while.

Also!! Cameo by Adam Lambert as an extremely tempting trucker!!!