10 Biggest Movie Controversies Of 2018

8. Freddie Mercury's "Straight-Washing" - Bohemian Rhapsody

The release of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was met with much hand-wringing from the LGBT community, who felt that the film was "straight-washing" Freddie Mercury's (Rami Malek) story by aggressively downplaying his sexuality for the sake of a wider appeal.

Mercury's relationships and encounters with men are depicted in broad strokes in order to not offend the retirement crowd too much, while also ignoring the fact that Mercury was largely accepted to be bisexual, sleeping with both men and women throughout his hard-partying years.

That's to say nothing of the film's coy approach to Mercury's diagnosis with and eventual death from AIDS, nor the fact that this was (mostly) directed by possibly the worst advocate for gay rights imaginable, Bryan Singer.

Nobody's going to come away from Bohemian Rhapsody believing that Freddie Mercury was straight, and Malek certainly gives it his all, but the end result has been rightly criticised for feeling a bit embarrassed of Mercury's authentic sexuality, which is a shame given the film's enormous success.