The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slay Culture Gap Fest, as in Her Royal Highness,

edition. It's Wednesday, February 20th, 2019. On today's show, Bohemian Rhapsody is the band

biopic of Queen. It's also the last in our Oscar Best Picture Roundup, eager to discuss it.

And then abducted in plain sight is a documentary on Netflix. It tells the wacktacular story.

I mean, nothing, there's no adjective to do justice to how spectacularly weird this documentary is about the Broberg family.

And the abduction in the early 1970s or mid-1970s are the young daughter, Jan, seemingly with their knowledge, possibly even their complicity.

We will discuss at length, I'm sure.

And finally, the nation turns its lonely eyes to a golf cart. After 14 years on Mars, the NASA rover opportunity has gone silent. Joining me today is Kay Austin Collins. You know him as Cam. Also, of course, the film critic at Vanity Fair. Cam, welcome back to the show. Hey, great to be here. This is becoming quite a habit, having you back on. It's fantastic. And of course,

Dana Stevens is the film critic for Slate. Hey, Dana. Hey, hey. All right. Let's dig right in. Bohemia

Rhapsody on the one hand is a straightforward band biopic of the great genre busting, hiding

in plain sight, genderqueer, rock and roll smorgasbord known as queen with Freddie Mercury

at front and center, maybe the greatest, among the greatest, the most gifted, certainly, most flamboyant frontman of all time. He of the multi-octive pipes and the Bugs Bunny chompers. Do I need to list the hits? Not at all. But on the other hand, this is not a straightforward project at all. To begin with Mercury's stories of, in real

life was totally complex, the coming to terms with his own sexuality, dying from complications

from AIDS. And then the story behind the movie itself, it was directed by Brian Singer, who is now

thanks to multiple, very credible stories of abuse and far worse, is a total Hollywood

persona on Grata, probably pariah from this point

out. And then, of course, it's just a huge box office, got a best picture Oscar nomination.

Everyone saw it. No one thought it was good. And then most oddly of all, we're doing a segment

on Queen without Julia Turner being here. Har-har. All right, a lot to unpack.

Let's listen to a clip.

I've been following you for a while, actually.

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