I didn’t like Bohemian Rhapsody. I couldn’t tell you what was the particular moment that the movie stopped working for me, but it hit early on that this wasn’t my kind of movie. I tend to not go for biopics anyway, and this by-the-numbers telling of the story of Queen, and particularly lead singer Freddie Mercury (played by a struggling-to-speak Rami Malek), was full of all the tropes, speeches, and awe-inspiring (diagetically) moments that turn me off of the biopic in general.

But then. A few weeks ago, in peaceful (though deliciously catty) protest to the film’s unexpected success in the awards season, from its Golden Globes win for Best Motion Picture – Drama to its Academy Award nominations (including Best Editing), a tweet went viral showcasing (what the poster says) was an example of how poorly the film is edited: the scene in which Queen meets John Reid, their manager-to-be. The clip is edited jarringly, with cuts following every single line and quip throwing the audience around like they’re the victims of the coven from Suspiria. It’s hysterical, and I don’t know if it’s meant to be.

Reid asks Queen what makes them unique on the rock scene, and Mercury replies, “Now we’re four misfits who don’t belong together, we’re playing for the other misfits. They’re the outcasts, right at the back of the room. We’re pretty sure they don’t belong either. We belong to them.” And also, no two band members are alike and yet they can collaborate in perfect harmony. These descriptors aren’t very well earned, as nothing much indicated prior to this that they are misfits (other than that they have a couple clunky performances?). The claim that no two are alike is pretty hysterical coming from Roger Taylor, who (in the film, to be clear) is as bland and transparent as the other three non-Mercury band members. The three are not afforded distinguishable personalities, and really come together to be one united character as a “normal” foil to Mercury’s wild antics.

This particular scene is fun to pick apart, but the whole movie is full of goofy editing and preposterous dialogue. Another wacko moment comes when Mercury brings his then-girlfriend Mary and the band to his parents’ house. He’s at the other end of the room, fixing himself in the mirror, and announces he’s officially changing his name from Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury. “I’ve changed it legally,” he tells the others from across the room. Cut to a close-up of Mercury, apparently talking to himself himself in the mirror: “No going back.”

For me, Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t work as a real movie. It’s all over the place, there’s no real arcs to speak of, just scenes happening and taking place over time. It reminds me of Ryan Murphy works like American Horror Story at their worst: centered around a “strong” (bossy, arrogant) lead character, who knows all and senses the success lying ahead, surrounded by mindless buffoons who have nothing on the magnetic figure among them. It almost feels like a cartoon, or drag performance, or something else over-the-top in a different plane from the basic tenets of storytelling.

But it’s watching Bohemian Rhapsody through this lens that it works better. I don’t know if I can say it’s “so-bad-it’s-good” (because it’s still not good), but it’s like a master class in how filmmaking can go wrong, and lessons we all can learn as storytellers. There is absolutely a meaningful story to be told in here; Queen is one of the great musical artists of the 20th century, and they (and we) deserve much, much better. Though taking the film on its own terms, as a preposterous idol worship flick, with sloppy dialogue and an intolerable lead performance, it’s kind of fun to watch the disaster unfold.