The movie Bohemian Rhapsody has managed to encapsulate the downward spiral of Freddie Mercury while offering an introspective look on an iconic band’s destructive social dynamics. The film digs into what brought Queen to the top of the charts and portrays details on what made every band member tick.

The movie opens with shots of a fundraiser that Queen performed at in 1985 to raise money for a famine in Ethiopia, and then the viewer is transported back in time to 1970, the year Queen was formed.

The film humorously portrays how the band deals with family disappointment, societal pressures, and internal conflicts while also alluding to the darker side of Queen. Throughout the movie, bandmates claim how their music is for the outcasts, the people in the back of the room who feel like they shouldn’t be there, and to some watchers, that’s how the movie feels, too.

Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek, flaunts his flamboyantly eccentric behavior as he buys a house with a room for each of his cats, goes to gay bars in his spare time, and falls into drug and alcohol abuse.

The movie is also a milestone for LGBT+ related issues as it shows Freddie Mercury kissing both women and men as he pleases. At one point Mercury was married to a woman named Mary Austin, but they broke up when he came out as at bisexual.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Mercury said. “I think I’m bisexual.”

In the movie, Mary Austin responded abruptly after a moment’s silence.

“Freddie you’re gay,” Austin said in the film, shedding light on an issue that has been a matter of contention in the LGBT+ community: bi-erasure, which is falsifying information around bisexuality, and the most extreme form is believing the bisexuality doesn’t exist at all.

Though there aren’t many mind-blowing plot twists or an epic climax that makes the viewer gasp, there are many little moments in the film that has the audience sitting at the edges of their seats or holding their stomachs with laughter.

Bohemian Rhapsody makes the audience want to clap and sing along to the familiar anthems of the ‘80s. It brings a nostalgic feeling to anybody who knows the story of the band Queen or grew up listening to their music.