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The best music biopics can have a cultural impact that goes far beyond devoted fans. Here are 30 must-sees.

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Technology may have impacted on the way we consume music in the 21st Century, but our love of the cinema remains undiminished. Indeed, as global smashes such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Judy, and Straight Outta Compton have shown, the best music biopics can account for some of the biggest draws in the movies. So grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and enjoy our list of the 30 best music biopics to grace screens both big and small. If we’ve missed any of your favorites, let us know in the comments section.

30: Jersey Boys

Directed by Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys is adapted from the Tony Award-winning stage musical of the same name, which first debuted in 2005. In both cases, the subject is the story of New Jersey rock and pop troupe The Four Seasons, with original members Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio serving as executive producers, and Gaudio composing the film’s music. The biopic was advertised as the story of four kids “from the wrong side of the tracks”, and thus drugs, excess, and The Four Seasons’ regular run-ins with mobsters are all part and parcel of one of 2014’s most memorable films.

29: Miles Ahead

First released in 2017, Miles Ahead was something of a labor of love for Don Cheadle, who co-wrote the script, and co-produced and made his directorial debut with the movie, not to mention while also playing the lead, the colossal jazz legend Miles Davis . Cheadle’s herculean efforts failed to win over some of the critics, but he did a great job capturing Davis’, attitude, drug-fuelled paranoia, and even his famous death-ray stare in this compelling and passionate biopic.

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28: Nowhere Boy

First released in the UK in 2009 and then granted a US cinema release to coincide with what should have been John Lennon ’s 70th birthday, on 9 October 2010, Nowhere Boy revisits the future Beatle’s early years in Liverpool, taking in the creation of his first band, The Quarrymen, and their gradual transition into The Beatles . Unlike Ian Hart in Backbeat , Aaron Taylor-Johnson bears little physical resemblance to the young Lennon, but he captures the wit of the adolescent future Beatle. There’s a strong supporting cast, too, with Anne Marie-Duff playing Lennon’s mother, Julia, and Kristin Scott-Thomas attempting to instill discipline as John’s stern yet dependable Aunt Mimi.

27: Get On Up

Tate Taylor’s James Brown biopic, Get On Up , is a rollercoaster ride for the viewer as the action jumps around from the 80s to the 60s and the 30s, connecting events through thematic links rather than chronology. If you can keep up, however, there’s plenty to savor here, not least because Chadwick Boseman puts in a superlative performance in the lead role, capturing Brown’s strutting, fireproof confidence in all its glory. Curiously, Get On Up struggled at the box office in 2014, but it’s a critical favorite (renowned US critic Robert Christgau wrote, “It’s great – better than The Help , which I quite admire, and Ray , which I love”) that’s well worth rediscovering.

26: Great Balls Of Fire!

Jerry Lee Lewis’ reputation as one of rock’n’roll’s greatest hellraisers will always precede him. However, Jim McBride’s 1989 biopic leans more towards the positive, concentrating on The Killer’s irresistible rise to rock’n’roll stardom, which may have seen him overtake Elvis Presley if it hadn’t been for his controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, whose biography the film is partially based upon. Great Balls Of Fire! has its critics, but Alec Baldwin plays Jerry Lee’s infamous pastor cousin, Jimmy Swaggart, with aplomb, and Dennis Quaid – whose performance was praised by Lewis himself – is superb in the lead role.

25: The Doors

The Doors should perhaps simply have been titled The Jim Morrison Movie , as director Oliver Stone ( Midnight Express , Wall Street , Natural Born Killers ) homes in almost exclusively on the life and times of the band’s iconic frontman, often pushing the contributions of his bandmates off into the sidelines in this big-budget biopic from 1991. However, while hardcore fans, and The Doors themselves, voiced their disapproval, the critics disagreed, with Rolling Stone awarding it four stars. In retrospect, it’s fair to say Stone took some hefty liberties with the real story, but for all that, Val Kilmer is hypnotic as Morrison, and if you can overlook the more hackneyed Hollywood clichés, The Doors is well worth searching out.

24: 24 Hour Party People

Director Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People follows the seismic – and sometimes surreal – career arc of Factory Records boss Tony Wilson through the decades. It takes in his work with Joy Division, including the memorable scene where Wilson (his dry-witted persona captured beautifully by Steve Coogan) inks their recording contract in his own blood, through to the opening of the iconic – if bank-breaking – Haçienda nightclub. Fiction sometimes makes a mockery of fact (though there is real-life footage of Sex Pistols ’ legendary gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall), but it’s still an enthusiastic and heartfelt tribute to both the late 80s Madchester era and one of the UK’s most singular independent record labels .

23: The Runaways

Based on lead singer Cherie Currie’s book, Neon Angel: A Memoir Of A Runaway , this self-explanatory 2010 biopic covers the rise and fall of groundbreaking all-girl 70s rock sensations The Runaways. Primarily centering around the relationship between the band’s two prime movers, Currie (played by Dakota Fanning) and Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart), but with Michael Shannon also doing a sterling job as their Svengali-esque manager/producer, Kim Fowley, The Runaways offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight. Jett herself told Interview magazine that the film perfectly captured “the glam and intensity” of Los Angeles in the mid-70s.

22: Love & Mercy

Director Bill Pohlad and writers Michael Alan Lerner and Oren Moverman cast The Beach Boys ’ Brian Wilson in an honest light in 2015’s Love & Mercy . The iconic singer-songwriter’s story is tailor-made for cinema, with Love & Mercy homing in on the pivotal mid-60s period during which the group created their masterpiece, Pet Sounds , and the struggles Wilson subsequently faced. Actors Paul Dano and John Cusack weigh in with astonishing dual performances as Wilson, in different stages of his career, and further kudos should be doled out for the film’s painstaking recreation of The Beach Boys’ recording methods.

You could argue that 8 Mile isn’t truly a biopic, as Eminem ’s Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith is a fictional character. However, you could just as easily feel it deserves a high ranking on any self-respecting list of the best music biopics for providing genuine insight into Detroit’s millennial hip-hop scene through the superstar rapper’s early career in the city. Further lifted by Eminem’s passionate and ultra-frank performance, 8 Mile significantly raised hip-hop’s global profile and, thanks to its Oscar-winning spin-off hit, “Lose Yourself,” it not only recouped its expensive budget ($40 million), but generated whopping box office receipts believed to have topped $240 million.

20: Backbeat

Director Iain Softley’s Backbeat (1994) delved into The Beatles’ pre-fame Hamburg era, when The Fab Four were The Fab Five with the ill-starred Stu Sutcliffe on bass. The Beatles’ songs were re-recorded for the film by an all-star alt.rock outfit including Dave Grohl , R.E.M. ’s Mike Mills, and Sonic Youth ’s Thurston Moore, while the script concentrated on the close friendship between Sutcliffe and John Lennon, played convincingly by Stephen Dorff and Ian Hart, respectively. Backbeat has since been praised by insiders including Julian Lennon and Pete Best, and it was adapted into a successful theatrical production in 2010.

1997’s Selena is the story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who transitions from precocious child talent to fast-rising pop star in both the US and her native Mexico, only to be murdered by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club, when she was just 23. In itself, it’s a sensational storyline, though the biopic’s appeal may have remained at cult level had Jennifer Lopez not been cast in the starring role. In fairness, J-Lo plays the part to perfection, earning earned widespread praise and a well-deserved Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of the singer. Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, Jr, meanwhile, served as producer and consultant to ensure the film avoided the worst Hollywood excesses.

18: Bound For Glory

Loosely adapted from his partly fictionalized 1943 autobiography of the same name, Bound For Glory is a beautifully framed portrait of the enigmatic Woody Guthrie. Luxuriously shot by director Hal Ashby, it features David Carradine in the lead role and follows the pioneering folk star on his Grapes Of Wrath -esque migration from his Dust Bowl Oklahoma home to the promised land of California during the height of the Great Depression. Carradine puts in a compelling performance as Guthrie, and may well have secured an Oscar had Bound For Glory not been up against the likes of All The President’s Men , Rocky, and Taxi Driver in 1976.

17: La Bamba

His tragic death alongside Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper in a plane crash on February 3, 1959 , inevitably overshadowed Richie Valens’ life prior to La Bamba . However, Luis Valdez’ heartfelt 1987 portrayal of the charismatic, Mexico-born rock’n’roll trailblazer helped redress the balance. Lou Diamond Phillips is electric in the lead role, but while the film is broadly chronological, it isn’t a straight depiction of Valens’ life, as it delves into how Valens’ professional success impacted on the lives of his half-brother, Bob Morales, his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of his family. The film did brisk business on both sides of the Atlantic, with Los Lobos’ version of the titular song topping the US and UK charts.

Produced and directed by Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood, Bird (1988) stars Forest Whitaker as the brilliant but mercurial jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker . The stuff of legend, Parker’s storied life struggles included battles with drug addiction, the death of his child, and a heart attack before his own premature death, aged 34, by which time he’d long since joined jazz’s pantheon of greats. Constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker’s life, Bird is riveting and it later yielded a Best Director Golden Globe for Eastwood and a Cannes Film Festival Best Actor gong for Whitaker.

15: Sid & Nancy

Sid & Nancy , Alex Cox’s retelling of punk icon Sid Vicious’ doomed love affair with Nancy Spungen, polarised opinion from the off. Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon later savaged it in his autobiography – and he has a point, because (as Malcolm McLaren did with The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle ) the script takes major liberties with the band’s real story. Despite this – and the fact it was a financial failure upon release, in 1986 – Sid & Nancy has since been reappraised. Respected US critic Roger Ebert dubbed the late duo “punk rock’s Romeo and Juliet”, and the film’s leads, Gary Oldman ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , Darkest Hour ) and Chloe Webb turn in passionate, poignant performances which have set Sid & Nancy ’s reputation as a cult classic in stone.

14: I’m Not There

The collective brainchild of Love & Mercy ’s Oren Moverman and Velvet Goldmine director Todd Haynes, the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There (2007) is often as enigmatic as its influential subject. On paper, the premise – on-screen stars Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and the much-missed Heath Ledger portray Dylan at different stages in his life – would seem ambitious to say the least, yet Haynes weaves the narrative together beautifully and the cast all play a blinder, ensuring that I’m Not There is a Bob Dylan biopic that even the casual fan should watch.

13: Behind The Candelabra

Directed by Steven Soderbergh ( Sex, Lies, And Videotape , Erin Brockovich ), the Liberace biopic Behind The Candelabra (2013) was in production for the best part of a decade and was originally a made-for-TV movie. After hitting the silver screen, however, the film won several Emmys and a Golden Globe. Based on Liberace’s latter-day lover Scott Thorson’s memoir of the same name, it details the flamboyant pianist’s final decade, with both Michael Douglas (Liberace) and Matt Damon (Thorson) turning in terrific performances. Moving and salacious, it’s an absorbing biopic that even the vaguely curious should check out.

Several directors have attempted to capture Elvis Presley ’s mercurial life since his premature death, in 1977, but John Carpenter’s made-for-TV Elvis (1979) remains the benchmark. The then little-known Kurt Russell received an Emmy nomination for his memorable portrayal of The King, capturing his brooding charisma without lapsing into parody. While Russell didn’t actually sing in the movie (he lip-synched to vocals recorded by country star Ronnie McDowell), he succeeded in channeling the raw power of Presley at his electrifying best onstage.

11: Control

Inevitably creating a myth and a lasting cult status, Joy Division singer Ian Curtis killed himself aged just 23, just as his Manchester-based band were on the cusp of mainstream success after two superb, critically-acclaimed albums. Anton Corbijn’s excellent 2007 biopic, Control , peels away much of the legend and hearsay to reveal Curtis the human being: a complex and flawed individual who ultimately can’t reconcile having an affair while being married with a young child. Both Sam Riley, as Curtis, and Samantha Morton, as his wife, Deborah, are highly compelling, and the director’s reliance on black-and-white footage vividly captures the starkness of the Mancunian landscape a decade before the city morphed into the epicenter of cool during the Madchester era.

10: What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Adapted from the book I, Tina , by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, this popular biopic was big news at the box office in 1993, grossing almost $40 million in the US alone. Directed by Brian Gibson, it deals with the tempestuous relationship between Ike and Tina Turner, whose string of remarkable, Phil Spector-produced hits are unable to mask the fact Tina is suffering at the hands of her abusive spouse. Post-divorce, Tina would become a global superstar in her own right, and she’s portrayed sympathetically here by the Golden Globe-winning Angela Bassett, while Laurence Fishburne is equally inspired as the cruel, volatile Ike.

9: La Vie En Rose

French actress Marion Cotillard had already begun to prove herself on the global stage during the early 00s with roles in mainstream films such as Ridley Scott’s A Good Year , in which she played opposite Russell Crowe. However, few would have expected her to shine as brightly as she did while playing chanteuse extraordinaire Edith Piaf in Olivier Dahon’s La Vie En Rose . Indeed, Cotillard does a remarkable job of capturing The Little Sparrow’s vulnerability and volatility as she rises from the gutter to staging performances in France’s grandest music halls in this memorable 2007 biopic. The actress rightly received an Academy Award for the role, marking the first time an Oscar was awarded for a French-language role.

8: The Buddy Holly Story

Released in 1978, director Steve Rash’s Buddy Holly biopic features Gary Busey turning in an admirable portrayal of the Lubbock-born singer-songwriter who influenced iconic future names including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones . Still eminently watchable, it charts Holly’s life from teen rocker in Texas to global stardom with The Crickets, and his latter-day solo career, involving a heavy touring schedule that would prematurely claim his life in an ill-fated plane crash in February 1959. Busey rightly received an Oscar nomination for his performance and The Buddy Holly Story remains a consistently acclaimed entry in the best music biopics of all time.

7: Coal Miner’s Daughter

Reputedly hand-picked by the artist herself, Sissy Spacek turned in an arguable career-best performance in her portrayal of troubled country star Loretta Lynn in this much-acclaimed 1980 biopic. Based upon Lynn’s autobiography, and also featuring Tommy Lee Jones and The Band ’s Levon Helm, Coal Miner’s Daughter follows the legendary singer’s life, from her desperately poor childhood to superstardom, with Spacek’s inspirational performance yielding her an Academy Award. It remains a biopic with across-the-board appeal, and its spin-off soundtrack album also sold half a million copies and went gold.

Lavishly shot with no expense spared, 1984’s Amadeus is One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest director Miloš Forman’s fictionalized biography of the groundbreaking 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with the plot homing in on the notorious rivalry between Mozart (played with ruthless intensity by Tom Hulce) and Italian composer Antonio Salieri (F Murray Abraham) at the court of Emperor Joseph II. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, it’s a grandiose epic in the best possible sense of the term and it went on to win a staggering eight Academy Awards, including an Oscar for Best Picture.

5: Lady Sings The Blues

One icon played another in 1972’s Lady Sings The Blues , with soul diva Diana Ross turning in a commanding performance as legendary jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday . Directed by Sidney J Furie of The Ipcress File fame, the film follows the jazz star from her traumatic youth through her rise to fame. While the storyline pulls few punches where Holiday’s personal demons are concerned, it ends on a high note, recreating her triumphant return to the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Lady Sings The Blues received five Academy Award nominations, and even notoriously sniffy US film critic Roger Ebert admitted Ross’ portrayal of Holiday was “one of the great performances of 1972.”

4: Walk The Line

One of 2005’s most successful films, director James Mangold’s much-anticipated Johnny Cash biopic didn’t disappoint. Based upon two separate autobiographies penned by the iconic singer-songwriter, Walk The Line featured electrifying performances by Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, and delves into the highs and lows of The Man In Black’s life, from his musical career and his romance with Carter through to his tussles with drugs and alcohol, and his legendary shows at America’s notorious Folsom Prison, in January 1968. Widely acclaimed, Walk The Line bagged five Oscar nominations, with Witherspoon taking home the Best Actress Award.

3: Straight Outta Compton

NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton (2015) was directed by F Gary Gray, but the influential hip-hop outfit’s surviving members were involved all the way down the line, with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre producing, and Ice Cube being played by his real-life son O’Shea Jackson, Jr. Consequently, this is a biopic which pulls few punches and strives to keep it real – at least from the group’s perspective. Highly absorbing throughout, Straight Outta Compton went on to scoop a truckload of industry awards, including an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and it also inspired Dr. Dre’s widely-acclaimed solo album Compton .

Written, directed, and produced by Taylor Hackford, Ray (2004) focuses on 30 years in the life of pioneering soul music/R&B icon Ray Charles , tracing the arc of his career from his early years in the clubs on North America’s chitlin’ circuit through his crossover success with Atlantic Records, his commercial decline during the 70s and his remarkable latter-day comeback, winning a Grammy for his Chaka Khan collaboration “I’ll Be Good To You.” Jamie Foxx oozes charisma in the lead role and his career-defining performance earned him five industry awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe.

1: Bohemian Rhapsody

One of the biggest releases of 2018, Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody blew away the competition in the commercial sense, with Billboard dubbing it the highest-grossing music biopic of all time at the end of the year. Critically, however, it was also a phenomenon, attracting multiple industry awards, including the coveted Best Actor for Rami Malek’s magnificent portrayal of Freddie Mercury . It completely changed all expectations of what the best music biopics can achieve.

June 4, 2021 at 4:36 am

Dirt – Motley Crue

June 5, 2021 at 1:52 am

‘…then little-known Kurt Russell’?

The Real Thang

September 14, 2023 at 7:06 am

Bohemian Rhapsody was hot garbage and an obvious Hollywood controlled retelling. THE TEMPTATIONS for whatever is not in this list and should be top 10.

Daniel A Ribel

March 27, 2024 at 4:13 pm

Not including Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS shows you have little attention span. It was nominated everywhere and Austin Butler made Kurt Russell look ridiculous. Butler was not only Oscar and SAG nominated, but won the Foreign Press Golden Globe,International Press Satellite,UK BAFTA Australia AACTA international,Irish IFTA International, Catalonia Spain Sant Jordi, South African Film Critics ect and actually made millions of new Elvis fans around the world

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30 Best Music Biopics of All Time

Many musicians secretly want to be actors — and most actors (not-so-secretly) want to be musicians. And for those thespians who don’t start their own bands with words like 30 Odd Foot of Grunts or Bacon Brothers in their names, the next best thing is to play a real-life musical genius in a movie. If the subject’s story happens to have a great rags-to-riches arc, or include a dive into drug-fueled, near-death depths with redemptive rise, phoenix-like, included in the third act, great; if such dramatic recreations attract the attention of Oscar voters, hey, all the better. But the chance to belt out a greatest-hits collection of songs from rock stars, hip-hop legends and country-and-western crooners is too tempting to pass up for most folks. You may never be Elvis — but you can play him on TV. (If you’re Eminem, however, you do get to play a barely fictionalized version of yourself. It’s complicated.)

Music biopics are a bona fide genre, and there’s no sign that their popularity is dimming in the slightest. Last year’s N.W.A origin story Straight Outta Compton was one of 2015’s biggest hits, and in the next month, we’re getting not one, not two, but three biopics on big-time musicians: the Ethan-Hawke-as-Chet-Baker opus Born to Be Blue ; the honky-tonkin,’ high-lonesome tale of Hank Williams I Saw the Light ; and Don Cheadle’s free-form look at several specific points in Miles Davis’ life, Miles Ahead.

So we’re counting down our choices for the best music biopics of all time. Some films weren’t considered due to technicalities (the great Gilbert and Sullivan movie Topsy-Turvy is a better backstage film than a music biopic; The Rose features a Janis Joplin-like singer, but you can’t say it’s a Joplin biopic), while others fall in a weird interzone that helped them make the cut (the main jazz player in Round Midnight hews close enough to both its inspirational subjects’ lives that it’s practically a dual portrait). But for us, these 30 titles are the ones that stay on tune as much as possible.

‘Selena’ (1997)

Arriving just two years after the murder of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, Selena is an elegant, deified portrait of the "Queen of Tejano." The biopic allowed Selena to posthumously cement the crossover success she tragically didn't live to experience, while also thrusting actress Jennifer Lopez — who earned a Golden Globe nomination in what was her first leading role — on her own path to superstardom. Although more of a warts-free tribute than a realistic depiction of the singer's life, Selena  served both as a worthy memorial her still-grieving fan base and a compelling introduction for those unaware of her massive impact. DK

‘Notorious’ (2009)

Directed by George Tillman Jr., this competent biopic chronicles the Notorious B.I.G.'s too-brief growth into one of the greatest rappers who ever lived, and his tragic 1997 murder at the age of 24. But it gets too many small details wrong, whether it's Angela Bassett's wavering Jamaican accent as Violetta Wallace; or the scenes of Biggie's "Big Poppa" peaking at Number One on the Billboard charts before the infamous November 30th, 1994, Quad Studios shooting of 2Pac, even though the reverse happened in real life. More importantly, rapper and first-time actor Jamal "Gravy" Woolard isn't quite good enough to carry an entire film, although he does a decent job of evoking Biggie's legendary charisma. Strong supporting performances aid Woolard, including a gregarious Derek Luke as Sean "Puffy" Combs, and Anthony Mackie as crazy ol' 2Pac. Naturi Naughton (formerly of Nineties R&B act 3LW) nearly steals the movie with her visceral depiction of Lil Kim. M.R.

‘The Runaways’ (2010)

Biopics live or die on their performances, and Floria Sigismondi's take on the early days of the pioneering all-female rock band has two dynamite ones in Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett and Michael Shannon's Kim Fowley. The Runaways walked a thin line between exploitation and empowerment; Fowley assembled the group and gleefully played up their jailbait appeal, but Jett and her bandmates used success to wrest control from their Svengali's hands. (The movie was released before the band's latter-day bassist, Jacqueline Fuchs — a.k.a. Jackie Fox — went public with allegations that Fowley had drugged and raped her; Fuchs is not a character in the film.) Dakota Fanning doesn't come close to Cherrie Currie's confident strut, but Stewart's Jett is pure badass, and Shannon manages to make Fowley both charismatic and repellent. SA

‘La Vie en Rose’ (2007)

If you'd have assembled a shortlist of actresses to play the chanteuse extraordinaire Edith Piaf in a movie, Marion Cotillard might have shown up somewhere between Mariah Carey and Martha Plimpton — the French actress had already proven she was much more than a pretty Gallic face, but there was little to suggest she'd be perfect to portray the Little Sparrow. Which makes her astounding take on Piaf that much more impressive, as Cotillard channels the vulnerability, volatility, and perpetual defensiveness of the woman who sang her guts out from the gutter to the grandest music halls. Neither Olivier Dahan's typical cradle-to-grave take nor the combo of fake teeth and frizzy can diminish her accomplishment — she may be lip-syncing, but the Oscar-winner is the reason the movie sings. DF

‘Liztomania’ (1975)

Short on fact and long ( really long) on phallic symbolism, Ken Russell's 1975 musical salute to 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is so unhinged that it makes his nutty take on the Who's Tommy seem measured and dignified. Roger Daltrey stars as Liszt, who was said to drive female fans wild with his passionate piano performances; his reputation as "the world's first rock star" is all the excuse Russell needs to conjure up dreams of having a ten-foot dick, a Scouse-accented Pope (played by Ringo Starr), and the composer from the dead to defeat the Nazis during World War II. Oh, and Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman appears as the Norse god Thor. Any questions? DE

‘Backbeat’ (1994)

If there's a worse idea than stuffing a movie full of Beatles imitations, it's re-recording their music as well. But what Backbeat 's soundtrack lacks in authenticity, its songs, performed by an alt-rock supergroup that included Thurston Moore, Dave Grohl, Mike Mills and Greg Dulli, make up in anarchic energy. (It helps that the movie focuses on the then–Fab Five's Hamburg days, back when they were still playing Little Richard covers.) Reprising his role from Christopher Münch's The Hours and Times , Ian Hart plays John Lennon with an eerie verisimilitude that goes beyond mimicry into channeling, but Iain Softley wisely throws the spotlight on the group's forgotten early members, especially doomed bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, played by Stephen Dorff. Like John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln , Backbeat is about icons before they were icons, just discovering the traits that would soon make them immortal. SA

‘Love & Mercy’ (2014)

Longtime producer Bill Pohlad stepped into the director's chair for this touching, challenging dual portrait of Brian Wilson, showing him as he prepares to make Pet Sounds (played by Paul Dano) and in the 1980s as he's struggling to pull himself out of depression (played by John Cusack). Love & Mercy jumps between time periods, forcing us to see the life of a genius not as a straight timeline but as a collection of events and impressions, the past and the present constantly in conversation with one another. Both Wilsons are superb in their own way — Dano is sweet and restrained, Cusack melancholy and haunted — but the best performance may belong to Elizabeth Banks, who plays Melinda Ledbetter, a onetime model who helped Wilson break free of the controlling therapist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) in the Eighties. It's through Banks' tough but compassionate turn that the troubled Beach Boys star finally finds his happy ending.  TG

‘The Doors’ (1991)

At the time of its release, film critic Roger Ebert complained of The Doors , "Watching the movie is like being stuck in a bar with an obnoxious drunk, when you're not drinking." Perhaps, but Oliver Stone's celebration of Jim Morrison is so kinetically, preposterously grandiose that it's magnificently bombed out on its own rock & roll excess. Val Kilmer gave the performance of his life as the Lizard King, not by deifying the singer (who died at 27) but by making him the embodiment of 1960s L.A. hedonism, doped up on hormones, liquor and smack. His Morrison is both heroic and ridiculous, full of shit but also full of poetry, and Stone refuses to judge, creating an orgy of psychedelic sound and images that would point the way for his later films JFK and Natural Born Killers . Few watching The Doors will want to emulate Morrison's arrogant self-destruction. But it's a hell of a ride. TG

‘CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story’ (2013)

While TLC would go on to become one of the decade's most successful and popular groups, the lives of the three members were marred by Behind the Music levels of drama. A decade after Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes' untimely death and the group's essential dissolution, 2013's VH1 film  Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story cast real-life musicians Keke Palmer (Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas), Drew Sidora (Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins) and Lil Mama (Left Eye), whose performances eschewed histrionics in favor of believable performances and striking resemblances. Perri "Pebbles" Reed, the group's former manager, is the closest the film gets to a villain, with Rolling Stone noting in 2013 that the film portrays her as "a parasitic thief who knowingly bilked millions from the naive group." Still, there's no shortage of crazy moments, music-industry scum and dubious characters that lend the film its requisite air of tabloid intrigue. JN

‘The Pianist’ (2002)

You don't have to know much about Wladyslaw Sziplman's acclaimed career as a concert pianist to be moved by this harrowing depiction of his survival in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. Directed by Roman Polanski and based on the late Jewish musician's autobiography, Adrien Brody embodies the Polish composer's struggle to maintain his artistry through years of horrifying scenes, from watching in despair as his family is sent to a labor camp; to using his gifts as a pianist to try to convince a Nazi officer to spare his life, even as he trembles from malnutrition and jaundice. Brody's haunted portrayal earned him the 2003 Oscar for Best Actor. The Pianist may not show much actual music, but it's still one of the best classical-music films ever made. MR

‘Get on Up’ (2014)

This James Brown biopic, which flopped at the box office in the summer of 2014, deserves a second look primarily for Chadwick Boseman's tremendous performance as Mr. Dynamite. Forget the actor's mastery of Brown's cadence — it's his capturing of the man's strutting, bulletproof confidence and otherworldly sexiness that electrifies every scene in Get on Up , even when the legendary artist isn't onstage. Directed by Tate Taylor, Get on Up jazzily reshuffles Brown's story, jumping around from the 1980s to the Sixties to the Thirties, connecting events through their thematic links rather than straight chronology. In the process, the movie makes the case that Brown was larger than any decade, greater than any single generation — the Hardest Working Man in Show Business who couldn't be contained by a single nickname. TG

‘La Bamba’ (1987)

Buoyed by stellar performances from Lou Diamond Phillips as Richie Valens and Esai Morales as the doomed rocker's troubled half-brother Bob, La Bamba richly details the last eight months of the 17-year-old Valens' life, from high school student to unlikely overnight sensation to victim of the tragic plane crash that forever reshaped the music world. La Bamba doesn't just offer a sanitized portrait of Valens as a gone-too-soon rocker; it also tackles the racial tensions that percolated in Los Angeles in the late Fifties as well as the day-to-day struggles of the Latino community. However, at its heart, the film remains a stunning reminder of Valens' lasting impact on pop music: Fittingly, La Bamba helped bring Los Lobos' cover of his signature song to Number One upon its release. DK

‘Last Days’ (2005)

Kurt Cobain died proclaiming it was "better to burn out than fade away," but the barely veiled Cobain doppelgänger at the center of Gus Van Sant's Last Days is so faded he's practically transparent. Shuffling around a large, empty house in the Washington woods, surrounded by hangers-on who take notice of him only when they want money or drugs, Michael Pitt's Blake seems less like a man about to take his own life than one who's already died and is waiting for his body to catch up. Like Elephant 's riff on the Columbine massacre, this fictionalized version of a rock star's path to suicide offers ambiguity in lieu of explanation, challenging the biopic's inherent promise of tidy explanations and comforting rationales. It's as cryptic and fragmented as Cobain's lyrics, but with none of the cathartic anger that for a time burned away the fog. SA

‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ (1993)

Director Brian Gibson's adaptation of Tina Turner's best-selling autobiography is unfortunately best remembered for its graphic and borderline salacious depictions of domestic violence. But that viewpoint overlooks the subtler early scenes between the excellent Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner and Angela Bassett as Tina — who rightly earned Best Actor and Actress Oscar nominations for their performances — which demonstrate how the artists' clear rapport with one another is ultimately betrayed by Ike's abuse. Throughout the film, Bassett ably embodies Tina Turner's purposefulness, whether strutting across the stage as she sings "Proud Mary," or learning to chant "Om" as a Buddhist convert. MR

‘Control’ (2007)

Anton Corbijn spent most of his life hanging out with rock stars, photographing everyone from U2 to Depeche Mode to Tom Waits. So it's little surprise that, for his directorial debut, he made a movie about a singer. In Control , Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) is a melancholy boy even before committing suicide at age 23, but what gives this stripped-down drama its pathos is its lack of illusions about the unhappiness that dogged him throughout his short life. In this way, Control eschews the typical rags-to-riches-to-rags biopic narrative: Riley doesn't play Curtis as a raging egotist but, rather, as a deeply troubled soul who turned his pain into beautiful music for as long as he could before the pain eventually consumed him. Just like Joy Division's albums, Control is gloriously, candidly bleak. TG

‘The Jacksons: An American Dream’ (1992)

Based largely on Katherine Jackson's 1990 autobiography My Family, this biopic on the brothers Jackson charts the rise of the chart-topping siblings from their early "ABC" days to the Victory tour — as well as the subsequent solo career of Michael as he tries to both retain a fleeting sense of normalcy amid superstardom. Tawdriness is inescapable when dissecting America's most famous musical family, and it's now impossible not to view the movie through the lens of the allegations that would haunt the Thriller hitmaker for the rest of his life. But real clips of the group interspersed with dramatic re-enactments still makes this a compelling portrait of pop's first family. JN

‘Behind the Candelabra’ (2013)

The first project after his "retirement" from making movies, Steven Soderbergh's HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra went further than a Hollywood feature would in detailing the full scope of Liberace's hermetic lifestyle. Michael Douglas' lead performance attracts and repels sympathy for the Vegas legend, showing him at worst as a vampiric narcissist who drained the life out of young and beautiful men and at best as a sensational performer who glittered in the spotlight. Liberace's relationship with Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), a lover he seduced and abandoned, brings him down to earth, but Douglas's charisma makes it impossible to push him away. Soderbergh paints him as a tragic figure, isolated by fame and fiction, living out his dreams while confined to gilded cage of his own creation. ST

‘Ray’ (2004)

Jamie Foxx's uncanny, Oscar-winning incarnation of the late Ray Charles dominates this chronicle of the beloved rhythm & blues pioneer's Fifties and Sixties heyday. He gets everything right about Charles, who died just before the box office hit was released in the fall of 2004, from the blind pianist's look and shuffling gait to his vocal intonations. The movie is filled with terrific acting, like future Scandal superstar Kerry Washington as Charles' wife, Bea, and Clifton Powell as Charles' long-suffering assistant, Jeff Brown; Regina King's portrayal of one of Charles' mistresses and backing singers, Margie Hendricks of the Raelettes, is a true revelation. She should have been nominated for an Oscar too. MR

‘Round Midnight’ (1986)

Dexter Gordon embodies his lead role of the aged, world-weary tenor saxophonist Dale Turner (based loosely on both Bud Powell and Lester Young) so well that the late musician had to remind people that Round Midnight is a work of fiction. His Oscar-nominated performance is complemented by Bertrand Tavernier's solid direction, which gives his flick the smoky, melancholic atmosphere of a slow blues. Watch for Gordon's sessions with fellow jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, as well as a cameo from Martin Scorsese as a New York club owner. MR

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (1980)

Sissy Spacek received a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of country queen Loretta Lynn in this straightforward approach to the singer’s story, from her impoverished beginnings in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to her eventual ascendance to country stardom. Completely believable whether portraying Lynn as a love-struck teen, harried working mother or the “Queen of Country Music,” Spacek also impresses with her singing; the film’s soundtrack, featuring her vocals instead of Lynn’s, would actually make it all the way to No. 2 on the country charts. Everyone from Tommy Lee Jones to Levon Helm and Beverly D’Angelo (as Patsy Cline) turn in strong performances — and Apted’s attention to visual detail really brings the late Fifties/early Sixties world of honky-tonks and C&W radio stations to dusty life. DE

‘Bound for Glory’ (1976)

Were it not up against one of the greatest Best Picture slates in Oscar history — All the President's Men , Network , Rocky  and Taxi Driver were the other four — Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory might have gotten the recognition it deserved. As it stands, this gorgeous Woody Guthrie biopic — which netted a second Oscar for the late cinematographer Haskell Wexler — speaks profoundly to the relationship between the artist and the ravaged land that inspired and absorbed his music. Set during the height of the Great Depression, the film follows Guthrie (David Carradine) on a westward migration from his home in Dust Bowl Oklahoma to the fertile promise of California. Typical of Seventies heroes, Carradine's Guthrie is a flawed, difficult, enigmatic figure, but a potent symbol of righteousness and relief for a country that ached for understanding. ST

‘Amadeus’ (1984)

Based on Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning play, this lavish period drama puffs up the supposed rivalry between 18th-century composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) into a fabulously entertaining drama about male competiveness and the mystery of genius. Told through flashbacks, the film finds an elderly Salieri recounting his sad life, lamenting that his legacy has been erased because of Mozart's brighter star, which sets the stage for a story of envy and revenge. "With MTV on the scene, we [had] a three-hour film about classical music, with long names and wigs and costumes," director Milos Forman later recalled about the risk of bringing Amadeus to the screen, but its success (eight Oscars, including Best Picture) speaks to the film's timeless themes — not least of which is our collective nervous suspicion that, like Salieri, we're merely the supporting player in someone else's grand narrative. TG

‘8 Mile’ (2002)

Loosely inspired by Marshall Mathers' life as a struggling rapper in Detroit, 8 Mile is a 21st-century Rocky , with the man who dubbed himself Eminem bobbing and weaving through his first starring role. But there's no point worrying over the biographical details: What matters is that Em's naturalistic performance as the scrappy, blue-collar Rabbit embodied the same raw vulnerability and edgy candor that powered his music. (The movie isn't as shockingly funny as The Marshall Mathers LP , but it shares with that album the scared bravado of a troubled young talent ready to break free.) Directed by L.A. Confidential filmmaker Curtis Hanson, 8 Mile was a word-of-mouth hit that didn't settle for Hollywood fantasy or pat happy endings. When Eminem's steely underdog finally wins the big rap showcase, the moment of triumph quickly gives way to him having to catch his next shift at the auto plant — an apt illustration of the lowered expectations of the movie's working-class heroes. TG

‘Walk the Line’ (2005)

There are two ways of looking at this Johnny Cash biopic: As a middle-of-the-road highlight reel of formative childhood events, eureka moments, and the rise-and-fall (and rise again) trajectory of a great musician, or as a genuine standard-bearer for the genre. James Mangold's biopic walks on the right side of the line, mainly because it puts Cash's creative and personal relationship to June Carter at the heart of the movie and casts both roles perfectly. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon would be an odd romantic pairing in any circumstance — he brooding and self-serious, she bright and energetic — but that opposites-attract chemistry makes sense of their playful duets onstage (where both acquit themselves beautifully) and their charged relationship off it. ST

‘Straight Outta Compton’ (2015)

Produced by the surviving members of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton is the authorized biography of the hip-hop trailblazers, and the worst thing that could be said about it is that Dr. Dre and Ice Cube have made a glossy monument to their own importance. But that's the best thing about it too: For inner-city black men forced to work with powerful white gatekeepers in the music industry — and getting ripped off most of the time — it's a triumph that they'd be the ones to print the legend nearly three decades later. The movie goes deep into the internecine squabbles, the Faustian bargains and the touring excesses that made N.W.A. such a volatile bunch, but the performance sequences are particularly electric. From Eazy-E finding his voice in the studio to the group getting arrested for singing "Fuck tha Police" in Detroit, the film rediscovers their lightning-in-a-bottle vitality. ST

‘The Buddy Holly Story’ (1978)

Big up Gary Busey, who sang Holly's songs live during the filming of Steve Rash's take on the late, great Texas rocker, and received a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for his efforts — he injected the film with a legitimate rock-and-roll energy of the sort rarely seen in Hollywood music films. Ultimately, the movie's lasting legacy is that it successfully re-introduced Holly's music to American listeners; at the height of the disco movement, the film's buzz helped propel the greatest hits collection Buddy Holly Lives to Number 55 on the Billboard album charts. DE

‘Sid and Nancy’ (1986)

Alex Cox's account of ex–Sex Pistol Sid Vicious' descent into drug addiction, culminating with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, and his fatal heroin overdose, now looks less like punk than prog: It's a movie of grand, orchestrated gestures rather than guttural immediacy. (See the slow-motion shot of Vicious and Spungen kissing against a dumpster while trash rains from the sky above them.) But Gary Oldman's incarnation of Vicious' self-abnegating charisma is so magnetic than even the Pistols' John Lydon, who told Cox after seeing the film that he ought to be shot, was moved to praise the performance. And Chloe Webb's glass-shattering Nancy is the perfect soul-sucking Bonnie to his malignant Clyde. SA

‘Elvis’ (1979)

Several Elvis Presley biopics have been made since the King's premature death in 1977, but this John Carpenter-directed made-for-TV movie is still the one to beat. Still chiefly known for starring in live-action Disney films as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,  Kurt Russell received an Emmy nomination for his memorable portrayal of the King, perfectly capturing the singer's brooding intensity without ever lapsing into parody. Russell didn't actually sing for the film — he lip-synced to vocals done by country artist Ronnie McDowell — but his performance sequences still tap deeply into the power and visceral excitement of Presely's stage presence. It doesn't soft-pedal the darker side of his personality, either; the scene in which Russell shoots up a hotel television may be as iconic as anything from any of Elvis' actual films. DE

‘Bird’ (1988)

Less of a straight-up biopic than a long, dreamlike series of impressionistic sequences, Clint Eastwood's atmospheric paean to jazz legend Charlie Parker focuses as much on the heroin addiction that shaped (and consumed) the man they called Bird's short life as on the development of his revolutionary sound. But Forest Whitaker delivers a monumental performance as the be-bop pioneer, fully radiating the joy, passion and torment of Parker's creative process. Eastwood doesn't dumb down the music or its milieu; part of the film's enduring appeal lies in its expertly staged nightclub scenes, which thrillingly transport the viewer back to the jazz demimonde of the Forties and Fifties. DE

‘I’m Not There’ (2007)

How do you possibly try to encapsulate the life of Bob Dylan — one of the rock era's greatest shape-shifters — in a single film? If you're Carol director Todd Haynes, by splitting that life into different eras and influences, casting everyone from Cate Blanchett to Richard Gere to Heath Ledger to Christian Bale to portray separate shards in Dylan's rich, confounding mosaic. I'm Not There is both thrilling and inquisitive, staying away from chronology and straight biography to grasp, in a larger sense, how Dylan remade the world while constantly reinventing himself over the years. On one level, the film is merely a joyride through cinematic styles — aping the look and feel of Godard, A Hard Day's Night , 8 1/2 and 1970s revisionist Westerns — but, more profoundly, it pays the singer-songwriter the highest compliment by crafting a fractured, often brilliant exploration that's as vibrant as the man it honors.  TG

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25 Musical Biopics That Actually Rock

From Joy Division to Mozart.

Moviegoers love to see movies based on true stories, which is part of the reason musical biopics are so popular. The other being, of course, that the musicians who are the subjects of such movies themselves are also incredibly popular. There's something exhilarating about watching a movie about a famous singer, seeing a behind-the-scenes look at the songs we know so well. These movies often show us what we don't get to see on stage: the struggles, the determination, the falls from grace. And there's definitely something appealing about watching actors perform as musicians—either lip-syncing along to famous tracks or tackling vocals themselves. While there are almost too many movies about musicians to count, here are the 25 best musical biopics ever made.

25. The Runaways

Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart star as Cherie Currie and Joan Jett, respectively, in this behind-the-scenes look at the early days of teen girl rock band The Runaways. Michael Shannon co-stars as infamous record producer Kim Fowley in this movie based on Currie's memoir.

24. The Doors

Oliver Stone lends his outrageous hand to this biopic of Jim Morrison, The Doors, and the wild sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the '60s counterculture. Meg Ryan and Kyle MacLachlan co-star as Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson and bandmate Ray Mazarek, respectively.

23. Nowhere Boy

Julia Baird's memoir of her brother John Lennon serves as the basis for this biopic about the musician's early life, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the young man who would become one of the most famous musicians in the world.

22. Love & Mercy

This biopic of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the musician. Love & Mercy alternates between Wilson in the 1960s, during the recording of the seminal album Pet Sounds , and the 1980s, depicting his struggles with mental illness and his psychotherapy program.

21. Get On Up

Years before Black Panther , Chadwick Boseman had a starring role as the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown, in this underrated biopic that co-stars Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Dan Aykroyd.

20. Bound for Glory

An early standout in the contemporary musical biopic genre, Bound for Glory stars David Carradine as legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie. Hal Ashby's gorgeous film earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and won the award for Best Cinematography.

19. The Buddy Holly Story

Gary Busey earned an Oscar nomination (you read that right) for his iconic performance as rock musician Buddy Holly. The 1978 film is another classic biopic that set the standard for the genre, charting Holly's successful but short career—and his lasting impact on American culture.

Ethan Hawke co-wrote and directed this biopic of the often-overlooked singer-songwriter Blaze Foley (Ben Dickey), who helped spawn the Texas outlaw movement that later made Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson major stars. The film follows Foley's unconventional life and career—both cut tragically short.

17. Lady Sings the Blues

Diana Ross made her film debut in this Motown-produced film about the turbulent life of jazz great Billie Holiday, adapted from her own autobiography. Co-starring Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor, the biopic follows Holiday from her humble roots, to stardom, to her subsequent heroin addiction and career comeback.

16. 24 Hour Party People

The Manchester music scene from the late '70s to the early '90s serves as the backdrop to Michael Winterbottom's cult classic, which stars Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson, the Factory Records head responsible for the success of Joy Division and New Order.

15. Control

Photographer Anton Corbijn's directorial debut tells the story of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (Sam Riley), one of the most compelling performers in the late-'70s post-punk scene. Based on the memoir of Curtis's wife, Deborah (played here by Samantha Morton), the film is shot in stark black and white—a stylistic choice that compliments Joy Division's dark and moody songs.

14. La Vie En Rose

Marion Cotillard's breakout performance as famed French singer Édith Piaf—whose life was marked with tragic events as she rose from an impoverished young street performer to international star—earned the actress an Oscar.

13. Velvet Goldmine

While it's not a true David Bowie biopic—Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays an androgynous musician named Brian Slade, modeled on Bowie, Jobriath, and Marc Bolan—he did threaten to sue writer-director Todd Haynes for his glam rock epic that co-stars Christian Bale as a music journalist and Ewan McGregor as a Iggy Pop-Lou Reed hybrid.

The short life and career of Tejano music star Selena is the subject of this movie, which stars Jennifer Lopez in her breakout film role. The film portrays Selena's rise as a singer who breaks out of the Latino music scene and becomes an international pop star before she was murdered by the president of her fan club.

Clint Eastwood directs Forest Whitaker in this Oscar-winning film about jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, who battles mental illness and drug addiction throughout much of his life—but whose signature style of performing changed the jazz world forever.

Eminem plays Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith in this slightly fictionalized film based on his own life as a young white rapper who breaks free from an abusive household in Detroit and becomes a rap superstar. (The rapper won an Oscar for Best Original Song for the film's famous track, "Lose Yourself.")

Jamie Foxx nabbed an Oscar for his realistic portrayal of R&B legend Ray Charles, who went from a blind child of sharecroppers in the South to one of the greatest American musicians of all time.

8. Straight Outta Compton

Hip-hop biopics are becoming a dime a dozen (you can skip the films about Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac), but Straight Outta Compton offers a powerful and emotional look behind the founding and early success of N.W.A. (and features O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his own father, Ice Cube).

7. Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon both won Oscars for their performances in this film about country musicians Johnny Cash and June Carter, following Cash's career as a solo artist and eventual musical and romantic partner to Carter.

6. Sid and Nancy

Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb give incredible—maybe even unbelievable—performances as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, whose love affair devolves into drug abuse, violence, and Nancy's murder—all set against the rise of the punk scene in late-'70s London.

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The 21 Best Movies About Musicians, Bands, and Singers

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Hollywood films love to inspire awe and encourage viewers to pursue their dreams—because, after all, anything is possible! Who knows which viewer might become the next Elvis or Madonna?

And Hollywood loves to do that by featuring successful musicians, bands, and singers as the protagonists of their movies. Sometimes they're based on real people. Sometimes they're made up.

From obsessed artists to inspirational biopics, here are our picks for the best movies about musicians, bands, and famous singers. (That doesn't mean these are all musicals, by the way!)

21. Rocketman (2019)

Directed by Dexter Fletcher

Starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 1m)

7.3 on IMDb — 89% on RT

We saw a flurry of musical film releases in 2018 and 2019, with a big trend in biopics. After the success of Bohemian Rhapsody , Hollywood took to telling another whimsical celebrity's story: Elton John.

Dexter Fetcher directs this glitzy, sequin-studded drama that stars Taron Egerton as the androgynous British pop star.

Rocketman opens with Elton's childhood and very quickly breaks out into flashy musical numbers. It follows Elton's rise into the glamorous world of fame, where the singer-songwriter's homosexuality is thrown into the limelight... all the while he battles alcoholism.

20. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Directed by Bryan Singer

Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 14m)

7.9 on IMDb — 60% on RT

Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody isn't without its flaws. That said, the huge box office hit is sure to get viewers nostalgically singing along—and what else could you ask for from a musical movie?

Rami Malek gives a sparkling performance as the late Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the iconic rock band Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody is an explosive celebration of Mercury's talent, who tragically died due to AIDS complications at just 45.

Malek's incredible performance is at the heart of this movie, taking us through Mercury's journey from a baggage handler still living with his parents to egotistical pop sensation.

Coming to terms with his sexuality and fatal illness, Mercury's experience of fame isn't always a positive one.

19. Get On Up (2014)

Directed by Tate Taylor

Starring Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 19m)

6.9 on IMDb — 80% on RT

The "Godfather of Soul" James Brown was originally a gospel singer in Georgia, who grew up in poverty with an abusive father. Fascinated by shout music and jazz, he joined Bobby Byrd's gospel group and slowly climbed the ranks.

He was known as the "hardest working man in show business"—despite his abuse of drugs and his brushes with the law—and worked towards Africanizing rhythm and blues.

Tate Taylor uses a nonlinear structure to tell Brown's life story, balancing funky numbers with tense drama. Chadwick Boseman stars as the "Soul Brother No. 1" alongside Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, and Viola Davis.

18. Respect (2021)

Directed by Liesl Tommy

Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 25m)

6.6 on IMDb — 68% on RT

In Respect , Jennifer Hudson is the powerful soul singer Aretha Franklin, known for her incredible vocals. Liesl Tommy's feature directorial debut touches base on all the major moments of this icons life—from the death of her mother to her first #1 single "Respect."

Hudson's on-screen presence and the souring musical score make Respect a classy and polished powerhouse movie.

Like many stars on this list, Aretha Franklin grappled with the pressures of her career by turning to drugs and alcohol, giving us a peek into the reality of being famous.

17. The Runaways (2010)

Directed by Floria Sigismondi

Starring Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon

Biography, Drama, Music (1h 46m)

6.5 on IMDb — 69% on RT

Who doesn't love a good all-girl rock band? The hardcore, leather-wearing 70s band The Runaways made a whole bunch of hits, with the lead singer Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning) having been inspired by David Bowie as a teenager.

Floria Sigismondi's punky drama mainly focuses on the formation of the band with an emphasis on Cherie, who suffered with addiction and mental health issues.

The girls originally met at a club in California, all dreaming of life as a rock star. Then: the dream came true.

The Runaways is based on Cherie's own accounts in Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway , balancing out its electric energy with that of desperation. Kristen Stewart and Michael Shannon also star.

16. Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Directed by F. Gary Gray

Starring O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell

Biography, Drama, History (2h 27m)

7.8 on IMDb — 88% on RT

Straight Outta Compton may not look like your usual Oscar-nominated movie by its poster, but it was one of the top movies of 2015.

A musical crime drama directed by F. Gary Gray, the film shows your typical rise-and-fall journey with a unique and memorable zeal.

O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr. and Aldis Hodge star as the members of gangsta rap band N.W.A, alongside Paul Giamatti as their controversial manager.

The Californian hip-hop group practically triggered a culture war, which Gray hones in on as an allegory for police brutality and gang violence.

15. The Doors (1991)

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 20m)

7.2 on IMDb — 56% on RT

We're not sure what planet Jim Morrison was on, but it wasn't Earth. The lead singer of The Doors was always elusive, spending most of his time on acid, flirting with death, and improvising nonsensical poetry.

It's a surprise he ever managed to produce six world-famous albums while hallucinating all day! In The Doors , Val Kilmer perfectly encapsulates Jim Morrison's edgy, rebellious, and unpredictable reputation as the ultimate bad boy.

Oliver Stone directs us through the formation of The Doors and the impact of Jim Morrison's hectic lifestyle with psychedelic flair—one that perfectly manages Morrison's personality.

14. Crazy Heart (2009)

Directed by Scott Cooper

Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell

Drama, Music, Romance (1h 52m)

7.2 on IMDb — 90% on RT

A faded country star who boozes in country pubs while singing sad country songs. It's a familiar character archetype that never fails to tug at our heartstrings and put us in a meditative state about our own lives, past, habits, and heartbreaks.

In Crazy Heart , Scott Cooper directs Jeff Bridges as the gruff-talking, beer-drinking cowboy singer Bad Blake who makes his living in dive bars across the American Southwest.

Bad Blake doesn't see the point in getting his life back together—until he meets the young, divorced journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Crazy Heart is an intimate and earnest portrait of a man who's lost in the desert but brought back by love. Bridges's performance is so good, you'll forget you've heard this story many times before!

13. Yesterday (2019)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino

Comedy, Fantasy, Music (1h 56m)

6.8 on IMDb — 63% on RT

There are few movies with a plot as bold and original as Yesterday . Auteur director Danny Boyle poses the question: What if there was no such thing as The Beatles?

The British rock band had one of the biggest impacts on the music industry, with Beatlemania sending shock waves throughout the UK and US during the 1960s. But what would happen if one day you woke up and, suddenly, they never existed?

Well, that's exactly what happens to wannabe musician Jack Malik, played by Himesh Patel. As the only person who remembers the legendary band, Jack decides to use their songs as a way of claiming their forgotten fame for himself.

Yesterday is a funny, heart-warming tale that showcases the spirit and influence of The Beatles on the world.

12. Wild Rose (2018)

Directed by Tom Harper

Starring Jessie Buckley, Matt Costello, Jane Patterson

Drama, Music (1h 41m)

7.1 on IMDb — 92% on RT

Wild Rose follows Rose-Lynn Harlan, a Scottish single mum who's fresh out of prison. Fed up with her demoralizing cleaning job, she decides to pursue her dream of becoming a country singer.

Jessie Buckley shines and inspires as the lead of Tom Harper's musical drama. Wild Rose is more grounded than some of our other showy Hollywood picks on this list, adopting a (much needed) female focus in a male-dominated industry.

11. Judy (2019)

Directed by Rupert Goold

Starring Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock

Biography, Drama, Music (1h 58m)

6.8 on IMDb — 82% on RT

It's public knowledge that Judy Garland—Hollywood's number one starlet of the Golden Age—had a less-than-easy life. A myriad conspiracy theories and YouTube documentaries have explored the dark underside to the production of The Wizard of Oz .

However, the extent of Judy Garland's trauma comes as a tragic surprise in Rupert Goold's biopic Judy . Renée Zellweger gives an unrecognizably stellar performance as the troubled singer, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Taking place near the end of her life at the young age of 47, Garland reminisces on her career through a series of heart-breaking flashbacks. Despite her immense talent, Garland struggles to keep performances going due to sheer exhaustion and alcoholism.

10. Love & Mercy (2014)

Directed by Bill Pohlad

Starring John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks

7.4 on IMDb — 90% on RT

John Cusack and Paul Dano both star as Brian Wilson, lead singer of the surfer-pop band The Beach Boys.

When young Wilson (Dano) begins to suffer early stages of schizophrenia, he's forced to put his passion project "Smile" on hold. Director Bill Pohlad jumps between timelines, where 20 years later Wilson (Cusack) is controlled by his therapist and legal guardian.

The main plot of Love & Mercy is centered around Wilson's battle with mental illness—worsened by his repeated use of LSD during the 1960s—and the manipulation he suffered as a result.

That said, Pohlad doesn't forget to pay tribute to the visionary artist who paved the way for new experimental sounds.

9. 8 Mile (2002)

Directed by Curtis Hanson

Starring Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Kim Basinger

Drama, Music (1h 50m)

7.2 on IMDb — 75% on RT

The best movies about musicians and bands often center on genres like rock, country, jazz, and blues. But how about some rap?

8 Mile is a semi-autobiographical exploration of world-famous rapper Eminem, who plays a fictionalized version of himself called B-Rabbit.

Although 8 Mile was controversial for its insinuation of reverse racism, it's still a hailed indie drama with a big cult following. It's a film that's grimy, violent, and covered in sweat, just like B-Rabbit himself as he belts out his lines to the now-famous "Lose Yourself" track.

Director Curtis Hanson shows us the two sides of 8 Mile Road, which is predominantly segregated by race—and is a road that B-Rabbit must dare to cross if he's to pursue his rapping career.

8. Walk the Line (2005)

Directed by James Mangold

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 16m)

7.8 on IMDb — 82% on RT

Another in a long list of music-related biopics (because who doesn't love a true story?), Walk the Line tells the surprisingly sad story of American country singer Johnny Cash.

The movie begins with the devastating death of Cash's brother during their childhood on a cotton farm, and his father furious that Satan "took the wrong son." From there, Cash enlists in the US Air Force, writing acoustic blues songs and eventually making a name for himself.

Joaquin Phoenix delivers a beautiful performance as the damaged and erratic singer, who became hooked on amphetamines and alcohol. Reese Witherspoon is equally wonderful as the bubbly June Carter, Cash's second wife.

James Mangold's drama is a searing portrait of the legendary 20th century musician, grappling with themes of faith and self-destruction.

7. Elvis (2022)

Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Starring Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 39m)

7.3 on IMDb — 77% on RT

Austin Butler might not have nabbed the Oscar for Best Actor when Elvis dropped in 2022, but he did take home a BAFTA for his stunning portrayal of the King of Rock, Elvis Presley.

A figure as glamorous as Elvis needs a movie that's equally glamorous to match, so director Baz Luhrmann was the perfect choice to lead this project. It's a fast-paced, in-your-face melodrama that's swamped in diamonds but one that never loses its Memphis roots.

Tom Hanks stars alongside Austin Butler as the rock legend's manipulative manager. Baz Luhrmann takes us on a whirlwind ride from Presley's poor childhood to his glittering, amphetamine-fueled career.

6. Control (2007)

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Starring Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 2m)

7.6 on IMDb — 88% on RT

Black-and-white indie flick Control follows the rise and fall of Ian Curtis—singer of New Wave band Joy Division—who tragically committed suicide at just 23. A pioneering icon of post-punk rock, Joy Division remains one of the most influential English rock bands to date.

Sam Riley gives a brooding performance as the enigmatic singer suffering with both depression and epilepsy.

Control doesn't harbor the sort of flamboyant screen spectacle that Hollywood biopics use. Instead, it offers a quietly desperate glimpse into the troubled mind of a musical legend.

5. A Star Is Born (2018)

Directed by Bradley Cooper

Starring Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott

Drama, Music, Romance (2h 16m)

7.6 on IMDb — 90% on RT

It's important to understand the context of A Star Is Born , which is the third edition in a cycle of remakes.

The original A Star Is Born from 1937 features Judy Garland. Then, Barbra Streisand stepped in for the 1976 version. This time around, it's Lady Gaga who comes in with incredible chemistry with co-star Bradley Cooper, who also directs the film.

Each installment reflects not only the music industry at the time, but greater society as a whole. It's become a sort of endearing Hollywood tradition to tell this story every 40 years or so.

The story follows wannabe artist Ally, who falls for alt-country star Jackson Maine and subsequently rockets to fame. However, Jackson's inner demons puts a strain on their relationship and her career.

4. Amadeus (1984)

Directed by Miloš Forman

Starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 40m)

8.4 on IMDb — 89% on RT

Miloš Forman is the director behind this beautiful period biopic, where grand costumes sweep through the opera house to hear Mozart play. Amadeus begins in the winter of 1823, when Italian composer Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Envious of the great Mozart—who he considers an immature buffoon—Salieri renounces God and vows to destroy his competition.

Okay... this story might not be completely true, but it does have its roots in history. Nominated for 50 awards (of which it won 40, including 8 Oscars), we simply had to include it!

3. School of Rock (2003)

Directed by Richard Linklater

Starring Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack

Comedy, Music (1h 49m)

7.2 on IMDb — 92% on RT

A family film that's just as much for adults as it is kids, School of Rock is now a cultural icon.

Jack Black gives an unforgettable performance as Dewey Finn, a failing rock artist who steals his best friend's identity. Kicked out of his band and unable to make rent, Dewey pretends to be a substitute teacher.

However, his plans to sit back and skive off soon turns into a unique opportunity to cash in: Dewey decides to secretly turn the class into one big rock band and enter them into Battle of the Bands. Of course, this is easier said than done.

School of Rock is a hilariously entertaining classic with a rocking soundtrack. You can tell how much fun the cast had making this movie!

2. Frank (2014)

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson

Starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Comedy, Drama, Music (1h 35m)

6.9 on IMDb — 92% on RT

Frank ranks so highly on our list because, well, there's really no other film like it. Lenny Abrahamson's indie musical tells the bizarre tale of an obscure pop group, whose lead singer wears a papier-mâché head.

Aspiring songwriter Jon joins the group and spends a month in an isolated cabin in Ireland, preparing an album. Though things start off well, tensions soon begin to buckle.

Frank is a black-comedy like no other. It's eccentric, it's fun, and it's surprisingly heartfelt—prepare to shed some tears. Domhnall Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal star, alongside (a mostly hidden yet still electrifying) Michael Fassbender.

1. Whiplash (2014)

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist

Drama, Music, Thriller (1h 46m)

8.5 on IMDb — 94% on RT

Academy Award-winning psychological drama Whiplash started life as a short film in 2013 that examined the dark side of musical obsession. Damien Chazelle then turned it into a full-length movie featuring knockout performances from Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons.

Young drummer Andrew enrolls in a New York music school, where he's tutored (or should we say, abused) into greatness by ruthless jazz conductor Terence Fletcher.

In Whiplash , the stage isn't a means of artistic self-expression—it's a battlefield for perfection, where student and teacher lock horns in a spectacular head-to-head finale.

25 best biopics about musicians, according to critics

A biopic is a biographical film made about great historical figures, actors, and musicians. They tell fascinating stories, and many are peppered with a mix of fact and fiction. These films focus on childhood, rise to fame, major life achievements, relationships, and even loss and death. They inform and entertain, providing life stories for some of the most entertaining people who have ever lived.

Musical biopics, a subgenre of the biopic, cover the lives of some of the greatest musicians. Whether it is the story of a Beach Boy who struggled under the control of an abusive therapist or a country music legend and the woman who helped him battle his addiction or the tragic tale of a rock star taken too soon, these films shine an entertaining light on lives we can only imagine, and often have.

To celebrate these remarkable stories, Stacker took a look at all the biographical movies on Metacritic and ranked the top 25 biopics about musicians. To qualify as a music biopic, the film had to feature actors portraying real musicians. Films were ranked by Metascore and ties were broken by their rank among all biography films on the list, a much larger list that includes documentaries and films on non-musician subjects of all kinds.

#25. 'La Bamba' (1987)

- Director: Luis Valdez - Metascore: 65 - Rank among all biographical films: #645

This popular 1980s film focuses on the brief but meaningful life of Ritchie Valens, who was 17 when he died in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. The title of the film is based on Valens' hit song, which was adapted from a traditional Mexican folk song often played at weddings. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips played the young rock star, and Esai Morales played his brother Bob Morales.

#24. 'La Vie en Rose' (2007)

- Director: Olivier Dahan - Metascore: 66 - Rank among all biographical films: #609

Édith Piaf becomes one of France's greatest singers despite the tragic circumstances surrounding her as she grows up the daughter of an alcoholic mother, who sang on the streets, and a circus performer father in "La Vie en Rose." Marion Cotillard stars as Piaf and Gérard Depardieu stars as Louis Leplée, the nightclub owner who discovered the singer and who would eventually be murdered .

#23. 'Jimi: All Is by My Side' (2013)

- Director: John Ridley - Metascore: 66 - Rank among all biographical films: #591

Rapper André 3000 was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his performance as rocker Jimi Hendrix. The film focuses on the making of Jimi Hendrix who started out in New York as James Hendrix, a guy who played the guitar and moved to London to establish his career. Hendrix would go on to become arguably one of the greatest guitar players of all time before his death at 27 from a drug overdose in 1970.

#22. 'Nowhere Boy' (2009)

- Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson - Metascore: 67 - Rank among all biographical films: #581

Chronicling John Lennon's boyhood and teen years, "Nowhere Boy" also examines the musician's relationship with two important women in his life—his absent mother, who eventually reappeared, and Mimi, the strict aunt who raised him. The film, based on the biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird, also explores how John started the band the Quarrymen, which eventually became The Beatles, and it also documents the first time he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Lennon, and Kristin Scott Thomas plays Aunt Mimi.

#21. 'Selena' (1997)

- Director: Gregory Nava - Metascore: 67 - Rank among all biographical films: #580

Before becoming "J.Lo," Jennifer Lopez played Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, who left her mark on fans and the world before her life ended at 23. The film touches on Selena's childhood, her relationship with her family, and her romance and marriage to Chris Pérez, and features her rise to fame as well as her tragic shooting death by Yolanda Saldívar, an obsessed fan and head of her fan club.

#20. 'The Sapphires' (2012)

- Director: Wayne Blair - Metascore: 67 - Rank among all biographical films: #575

All-girl group the Sapphires head to Vietnam to entertain the troops from their native Australia with the help of a talent scout played by Chris O'Dowd in this musical comedy. The film is based on a play by Tony Briggs, which is loosely based on the true story of Briggs' own mother and aunt. Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, and Miranda Tapsell play the Sapphires.

#19. 'Last Days' (2005)

- Director: Gus Van Sant - Metascore: 67 - Rank among all biographical films: #564

The film "Last Days" is loosely based on Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's final days. Michael Pitt plays the Cobainesque musician Blake who lives out his existence in a beautiful but rundown mansion. Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth appears in the movie, which also stars Asia Argento, the daughter of Italian filmmaker Dario Argento.

#18. 'Leto' (2018)

- Director: Kirill Serebrennikov - Metascore: 69 - Rank among all biographical films: #488

In the 1980s, the Soviet city of Leningrad had an underground rock world, and "Leto" takes its inspiration from that scene. Loosely based on the lives of Viktor Tsoi and Mike Naumenko, two well-known rockers at the time, the film throws them into a mentor/mentee situation and adds a love triangle that includes Mike's wife. Roman Bilyk plays Mike and Teo Yoo plays Viktor in this film that blurs fact and fiction.

#17. 'Green Book' (2018)

- Director: Peter Farrelly - Metascore: 69 - Rank among all biographical films: #480

The title of this biopic is based on " The Negro Motorist Green Book ," a driving guide that allowed African Americans to avoid segregation on America's roadways during the Jim Crow era. The Oscar-winning film was inspired by the true story of the friendship that developed between African American pianist Donald Shirley and Italian American bouncer Tony "Lip" Vallelonga as they drove from Manhattan through the Deep South in 1962 for Shirley's musical tour, with the "Green Book" as their guide. Mahershala Ali plays Shirley and Viggo Mortensen plays Vallelonga.

#16. 'Rocketman' (2019)

- Director: Dexter Fletcher - Metascore: 69 - Rank among all biographical films: #472

Taron Egerton plays singer Elton John in this fantastical biopic based on the eccentric artist's life. Egerton also sang all of John's songs in the film that focuses on the musician's early breakthrough years. "Rocketman" snagged an Oscar for best achievement in music written for motion pictures for the original song, "I'm Gonna Love Me Again."

#15. 'Bound for Glory' (1976)

- Director: Hal Ashby - Metascore: 70 - Rank among all biographical films: #441

David Carradine plays singer Woody Guthrie in this film based on Guthrie's autobiography of the same name, which was published in 1943. Guthrie left Texas during the Dust Bowl and traveled throughout the country stirring up morale for the migrant laborers and eventually wrote the nation's new anthem, "This Land is Your Land."

#14. 'Get on Up' (2014)

- Director: Tate Taylor - Metascore: 71 - Rank among all biographical films: #436

Chadwick Boseman plays Godfather of Soul James Brown in "Get on Up." The film covers Brown's rags-to-riches story from his poverty-stricken childhood to his many brushes with the law and his rise as a musician. The film also stars Dan Aykroyd, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis as Susie Brown, James' mother.

#13. 'Walk the Line' (2005)

- Director: James Mangold - Metascore: 72 - Rank among all biographical films: #394

Based on country singer Johnny Cash's life, "Walk the Line" featured Joaquin Phoenix as the "Man in Black" and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, a member of country music's first family, the Carter Family. The film covered the accident that killed Cash's brother in his boyhood, his days in the military, his failed first marriage, the drug addiction that nearly killed him, and his romance and eventual marriage to June, which lasted until her death in 2003, four months before Cash's own death. Witherspoon won an Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter Cash.

#12. 'Straight Outta Compton' (2015)

- Director: F. Gary Gray - Metascore: 72 - Rank among all biographical films: #360

"Straight Outta Compton" is the story of legendary rap group N.W.A.'s rise to fame from the streets of Compton and its contribution to West Coast rap. Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, MC Ren, and D.O.C. are portrayed by Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, and Marlon Yates Jr., respectively, while Paul Giamatti plays manager Jerry Heller. The film was nominated for an Oscar for best writing, original screenplay.

#11. 'Ray' (2004)

- Director: Taylor Hackford - Metascore: 73 - Rank among all biographical films: #348

Based on the life of musician Ray Charles, "Ray" stars Jamie Foxx in the titular role. The film focuses on Ray's life from his humble southern roots to glaucoma that left him blind at 7 to his rise to fame beginning in the 1950s. Regina King and Kerry Washington also star in this biopic that won two Oscars, including one for Foxx for best performance by an actor in a leading role.

#10. 'I'm Not There' (2007)

- Director: Todd Haynes - Metascore: 73 - Rank among all biographical films: #331

Six different iterations of Bob Dylan are presented in this film that the musician approved himself. Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Richard Gere, and Marcus Carl Franklin all offer their take on Dylan's work and life when they play Bob Dylan. Blanchett received an Oscar nod for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for her work in "I'm Not There."

#9. 'Blaze' (2018)

- Director: Ethan Hawke - Metascore: 75 - Rank among all biographical films: #249

Based on Sybil Rosen's memoir, "Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley," the film focuses on the life and times of the Texas singer and songwriter. Rosen was Blaze's muse, and the film focuses on their relationship as well as the musician's turbulent life and career and eventual murder at 39. Alia Shawkat plays Rosen, and Ben Dickey plays Foley.

#8. 'What's Love Got to Do With It' (1993)

- Director: Brian Gibson - Metascore: 76 - Rank among all biographical films: #224

Starring Angela Bassett as rock legend Tina Turner and Laurence Fishburne as her volatile and abusive husband Ike Turner, "What's Love Got to Do With It" focuses on Turner's life, and their music and tumultuous relationship. The biopic is based on Turner's book "I, Tina," which she wrote with music journalist Kurt Loder. Both Bassett and Fishburne earned Oscar nods for their performances in the film.

#7. 'Sid and Nancy' (1986)

- Director: Alex Cox - Metascore: 76 - Rank among all biographical films: #217

"Sid and Nancy" is the story of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen and their volatile relationship from start to finish . Chloe Webb plays Nancy and Gary Oldman plays Sid. Courtney Love also stars in the film, making her film debut.

#6. 'The Buddy Holly Story' (1978)

- Director: Steve Rash - Metascore: 78 - Rank among all biographical films: #187

The film covers the life of Buddy Holly, including his musical success with hits like "That'll Be The Day" and "Peggy Sue," his marriage, the breakup and makeup with his band the Crickets, and his tragic death at 22 in 1959 with fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Gary Busey received an Oscar nomination for best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of the rock star.

#5. 'Hilary and Jackie' (1998)

- Director: Anand Tucker - Metascore: 78 - Rank among all biographical films: #161

Flutist Hilary du Pré-Finzi tells the story of her sister, classic cellist Jacqueline du Pré, whose life was cut tragically short after a battle with multiple sclerosis. The film was based on du Pré-Finz's book, "A Genius in the Family." Both Emily Watson, who played Jackie, and Rachel Griffiths, who portrayed Hilary, received Oscar nominations.

#4. 'Love & Mercy' (2014)

- Director: Bill Pohlad - Metascore: 80 - Rank among all biographical films: #136

Brian Wilson, the frontman of the 1960s band The Beach Boys, is brought to life in this film that documents his struggles with mental illness, his relationship with an abusive therapist, and the woman who helped him break free and eventually became his wife, Melinda Ledbetter. Elizabeth Banks plays Ledbetter, and John Cusack and Paul Dano both play Wilson.

#3. 'Shine' (1996)

- Director: Scott Hicks - Metascore: 87 - Rank among all biographical films: #45

Geoffrey Rush plays pianist David Helfgott in this film that documents Helfgott's breakdown and eventual return to the piano. Rush won an Oscar for best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Helfgott and "Shine" received six additional Academy Award nominations.

#2. 'Coal Miner's Daughter' (1980)

- Director: Michael Apted - Metascore: 87 - Rank among all biographical films: #37

Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for best actress in a leading role for her portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn. The film is based on Lynn's 1976 bestselling memoir, "Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter," which tells of her years growing up in Butcher Holler, Kentucky; her marriage at a young age; and her rise to the top of country music. Spacek also sang all of Lynn's songs in the film.

#1. 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' (1942)

- Director: Michael Curtiz - Metascore: 89 - Rank among all biographical films: #30

American entertainer George M. Cohan, who during his childhood performed with his family as "The Four Cohans," a vaudeville act, went on to become an American treasure and the subject of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Cohan was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for his Broadway hits like "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "Give My Regards to Broadway," and the film itself was nominated for eight Oscars and won three, including best actor in a leading role for James Cagney, who played Cohan.

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The 41 best music biopics of all time, from 'rocketman' to '8 mile,' these are the best movies about musicians.

Look what we have here. Another debate surrounding music biopics. What can we say? Music biopics are a topic that really gets the people going. Oftentimes conversations surrounding what's considered to be the "best," relies heavily on box office numbers along with what's been rated the highest by the critics. While those factors can come to play, what often gets lost in the conversation are those excellent biopics that didn't receive the highest numbers, reviews, and stats, and if we're keeping it real, unfortunately a sizable percentage of those specific biopics were those that were based on artists of color. So today, we're going to do an all-inclusive list of the best music biopics of all time that are based solely on the art, artist, and the talented figures that portrayed them. From Hip Hop biopics like Straight Outta Compton which was about Ice Cube and the N.W.A gang, all the way to the heavily-debated upon Bohemian Rhapsody biopic based on Freddie Mercury and Queen , we consider these to be the best to date.

With plenty more on the way, we anticipate we'll be having to update this list sooner rather later. If in the meantime you are looking for a more general list of biopics, you can check that out here .

RELATED: The 21 Best Comedies of the 2000s, Ranked 

1. Straight Outta Compton (2015)

• About: N.W.A

We aren't going in any particular order, so we'll start with the two we just mentioned. Straight Outta Compton was released in 2015, and captured the life and times of one of Hip Hop's greatest acts ever created—N.W.A., which boasted the band members Ice Cube (who was portrayed by his son O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.) and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge). While the movie received plenty of great reviews at the time of its release, there still isn't enough credit given to its overall realism. Straight Outta Compton is probably one of the most raw, realistic, and gritty music biopics to date, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. portraying his dad only added to its realistic nature because it was almost like you were looking at late 1980s Ice Cube reincarnated.

If you haven't seen Straight Outta Compton yet, you absolutely have to. It's a must if you are a Hip Hop lover.

2. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

• About: Queen

Critics mostly called Bohemian Rhapsody a bad movie, and five years after its release I'm still struggling to understand why exactly. Everybody is of course entitled to their opinion, but I'm not seeing how you can watch Rami Malek practically become Freddie Mercury and still label this film as being bad. If you put the controversial elements that didn't really have much to do with the film itself aside, the critique was that Bohemian Rhapsody was a "superficial film." How? In the movie, Mercury marries a woman that he seemingly falls in love with at the time, but begins to realize he's actually gay leading to the end of their marriage. With that said, even with the demise of their marriage, Freddie's ex-wife still remains in his life because they care about each other if we're going by the movie. What's superficial in that? Freddie is also a perfectionist prick to his bandmates at times. What's superficial in that?

And if folks we're looking for a drawn out sad ending over Freddie being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, I think it's safe to say that's not what Freddie himself would have wanted considering he did not talk about his illness while he was alive, and spent his final years focusing on his art. I don't want to spoil too much (and maybe I already have), but I implore everybody who hasn't seen Bohemian Rhapsody yet to give the film a fair chance.

3. The New Edition Story (2017)

• About: New Edition

There's a reason why we didn't put "movies" in our headline. We aren't just sticking to feature films here, we're also exploring some overlooked mini-series. When it comes to music biopics as a whole, The New Edition Story is from a storytelling standpoint one of the most captivating biopics you're watch. In hindsight, you needed a little bit more than two to three to hours to tell the full story of New Edition, and it actually might be a good strategy in the future for artists/filmmakers/film companies to consider going down this route as well (even if there's already been a feature film) because it would allow more of the artist's story to be told. I think part of why some biopics get criticism is because there's only but so much you can tell in a couple of hours.

Back to the The New Edition Story , all of the New Edition members (Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, Ronnie DeVoe, and Johnny Gill) were producers on the film, and the biopic was based on the group's rise to the top along with their trials and tribulations. Babyface, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis also contributed to the biopic, which is yet another reason to give it a watch.

4. Selena (1997)

• About: Selena

It goes without saying that Jennifer Lopez was brilliant as Selena. Absolutely brilliant. I recently rewatched this movie, and Lopez had Selena's facial expressions, mannerisms, sexiness, and girlish charm down to a T. It was also obvious that Lopez spent a lot of time studying Selena's performances because as we ended up seeing later with Lopez's own music career, their performance styles, dancing, and overall music as a whole is just very different from one another. The fun dynamics of Selena's family and the relationship with her husband are two more reasons why you should give the film a watch/re-watch. Ultimately what should be appreciated the most is that you walk away with a celebration of life for Selena as opposed to being sad over her tragic ending, and that's what makes this film such a great biopic.

5. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

• About: Loretta Lynn

1980's Coal Miner's Daughter was a biopic about the great Loretta Lynn as she developed her country music career in her early twenties. Sissy Spacek had the honor of portraying Lynn in this heartfelt film which didn't just focus on the successful music career element of Lynn's life, but also the more tough/challenging elements such as Lynn growing up in poverty and being married at the tender age of thirteen. Coal Miner's Daughter is a must-watch—especially if you are a Loretta Lynn fan because it gives good insight into the ups and down of becoming a huge music star. You also have to give major props to Sissy Spacek for her performance—there's a reason why she won an Academy Award folks.

6. The Dirt (2019)

• About: Mötley Crüe

If you're heavily into Mötley Crüe, then you'll appreciate The Dirt as it chronicles the 1980s rise of one of the rock bands to ever do it. Machine Gun Kelley stars as Tommy Lee, Iwan Rheon does the honors of Mick Mars, Douglas Booth portrays Nikki Sixx, and Daniel Webb stars as Vince Neil to round it all out. There's been questions as to just how factual The Dirt is seeing as though it's based upon a book that Nikki Sixx says "could have been embellished", but the visuals and music are epic enough to excuse the potential inaccuracies. We'll probably need to spin the block on another Mötley Crüe biopic at some point though as a just in case.

7. La Bamba (1987)

• About: Ritchie Valens 

A lot of people are already familiar with the tragedy of Buddy Holly, but lost in that tragedy is the sad story of losing another budding entertainer who was also on that flight—Ritchie Valens, a rising Chicano Rock 'n' Roll star who captivated the world in the late 1950s. Lou Diamond Phillips starred as Valens in the 1987 film La Bamba , which covers Valens' short life and career as he became an overnight success in the music industry, while falling in love with a young woman whose parents did not approve of the relationship because he was Latino. If you want to learn more about Ritchie Valens, La Bamba is one of the best avenues to do so.

8. The Doors (1991)

• About: The Doors

You also can't forget this 1991 biopic about The Doors , which is about Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) and his bandmates joining together to become an influential and highly popular rock group. Most bands/groups have gone through their fair share of ups and downs, and The Doors are no different. The biopic kind of zeroes in on Morrison completely as he encounters certain struggles along the way that impact his both his relationship with his bandmates, and the relationships within his personal life. Val Kilmer really does an excellent capturing the entire of essence of Jim Morrison, and its worth nothing that the two kind of eerily resemble each other. The Doors is another mandatory watch for anybody who's fan of the group and/or Morrison.

9. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)

• About: Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston's story has admittedly been told in many different fashions in the decade-plus since her passing, and that also includes a biopic that came about ten years ago as well. As a result, I do think that was a big reason why I Wanna Dance with Somebody didn't perform that great at the box office—because there's been quite a bit of retellings in a relatively short time period in the grand scheme of things. Had I Wanna Dance with Somebody been the very first major Whitney remembrance project so to speak, I do think the film would have better received in that regard. In my opinion, Naomi Ackie did a good job as Whitney, capturing her New Jersey accent, mannerisms, and facial expressions.

The styling/fashion in the film was also done very nicely too, which is something to check out if you are into the 1980s decade as a whole (some parts of the film really did look like the 80s). Overall, I feel like this is a solid Whitney biopic to check out, and I think this is the kind of movie that will receive more appreciation as time goes on.

10. CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story (2013)

Looking back, I think CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story is a film that could have definitely had a theater premiere. Nonetheless, this film is among one of the best casted biopics to date. Drew Sidora was T-Boz, Keke Palmer was Chilli, and Lil Mama was about as Left Eye as you can possibly get—at times you actually believed she was really Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez. The visuals are always super important in a biopic because you have to be able to imagine/reimagine/recreate these epic moments that remind you of the actual artist who's the topic. They nailed that with The TLC Story in many different elements from TLC's early days/performances, right down to how futuristic and cool the "No Scrubs" recreation looked.

Perhaps one day TLC's will receive a biopic that premieres in theaters (they deserve it), but this was done beautifully.

11. 8 Mile (2002)

• About: Eminem

8 Mile is another biopic that was incredibly well done—especially when you look at the time period in which it came out. Biopics weren't nearly as popular in the year 2002 as what they are now, and yet this film opened No. 1 at the US box office. 8 Mile is basically a semi-retelling of Eminem's life and career up to that point, specifically focusing on the mid-1990s when he was just getting started as a battle rapper/MC in Detroit. The only real notable difference is that instead of the film using Eminem's real name, Marshall Mathers, they use the name Jimmy Smith Jr. (who goes by B-Rabbit). You also have to call out the rest of the cast (Brittany Murphy, Anthony Mackie, Mekhi Phifer, Kim Basinger, Taryn Manning, and more) as they all did a great job making it all come together.

8 Mile was and still is influential, and there's no denying that it set the tone for how future rap biopics would be approached.

12. Sid and Nancy (1986)

• About: The Sex Pistols

1986's Sid and Nancy starred Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols and Chloe Webb as the girlfriend of Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen, as the band set out and about on their first U.S. tour. To say Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen had a turbulent relationship is frankly an understatement, as their story is full of tragedy and mystery surrounding their respective demises (especially Nancy's). That said, Oldman and Webb played their characters to a T, and the movie is a very interesting one that will have you inevitably wanting to learn more about the two of them.

13. Get On Up (2014)

• About: James Brown

Chadwick Boseman (another great taken from us too soon) was the late, great, "Godfather of Soul" James Brown in 2014's Get On Up , which chronicled Brown's rise from being born into poverty in the early 1930s, to becoming a mesmerizing music legend who broke down doors and paved the way for others to follow in his footsteps. Boseman's portrayal of Brown will have you clapping in your seat at home as it's considered by many to have been one of his best roles. You'll also be more inclined to dive into the music and artistry of James Brown if you aren't already familiar.

14. The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992)

• About: The Jacksons

At some point there will probably be another biopic or mini-series done about The Jacksons, but The Jacksons American Dream is forever cemented as being the standard. Long before New Edition conquered the mini-series world, The Jacksons did so through An American Dream , a five hour miniseries that aired on ABC. Two things here—when we say An American Dream was brilliantly cast with everybody acting their arse off—this was brilliantly cast with everybody acting their arse off. Secondly, when we say Angela Bassett deserves her flowers—she deserves her flowers. To put it succinctly, Angela Bassett did the thing, and unless we somehow missed it, she didn't receive an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs. Katherine Jackson which is a shame.

We're saying all of this just to say The Jacksons American Dream is one of those biopics that you don't just watch one time and that's it.

15. La Vie En Rose (2007)

• About: Édith Piaf

Legendary French singer Édith Piaf has some of the most beautiful songs created, which is why a biopic on her life and career was important. Released in 2007, La Vie En Rose starred Marion Cotillard as the singer in a retelling about her rise to fame after being discovered at the age of 19 while singing on a street corner. With that rise to fame also came many trials and tribulations that made Piaf another figure that had tragic experiences as the cost of celebrity. Through it all, however, you come out of it with an appreciation for her work, artistry, and talent. Marion Cotillard also very much deserved the Best Actress award she was given at the Oscars a year later.

16. Jersey Boys (2014)

• About: The Four Season

Clint Eastwood is the director behind 2014's Jersey Boys , which explores the early career of The Four Seasons from singing in their neighborhood to becoming music stars. John Lloyd Young starred as Frankie Valli, Erich Bergen was Bob Gaudio, Michael Lomenda was Nick Massi, and Vincent Piazza starred as Tommy DeVito. The Four Seasons produced many notable songs including "My Mother's Eyes," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Sherry," and more, but like a lot of groups, they had their fare share of internal problems that. accompanied the fame. Clint Eastwood never disappoints in his storytelling, making Jersey Boys a movie that you should bookmark.

17. Love & Mercy (2014)

Also coming out in 2014 was Love & Mercy , a biopic based on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, who was the leader and co-founder of the group. Starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as Wilson in two different parts of his life and directed by Bill Pohlad, Love & Mercy is a honest look into what can happen in the music industry once you stop performing/touring, and ultimately a story of triumph as Wilson turns it around and takes his life down a different direction. Dano and Cusack each brought their own unique depth to their portrayals of Wilson, which was necessary to differentiate the different "Brian Wilson's" so to speak. Love & Mercy remains an awesome film, with awesome actors, and an awesome director.

18. Miles Ahead (2015)

• About: Miles Davis

A Don Cheadle performance should be enough of a selling point to want to watch this biopic but aside from that, Miles Davis is a musician that should also be given his flowers because he truly didn't get enough of it while he was here. Miles Ahead focuses specifically on the time period directly after Davis disappeared from the music industry for five years, which ultimately led to him working with a music reporter to recover session tapes that were stolen from him. Cheadle captures the essence of Davis in a rather genius manner that makes you forget that it's Don Cheadle you're watching, not Miles Davis, which is what makes it an incredible watch.

19. The Pianist (2002)

• About: Wladyslaw Szpilman

Adrien Brody stars as a talented Polish Jewish radio station pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman struggling to survive in Warsaw during the years 1939 - 1945. Szpilman has a tough life were things just seem to keep getting progressively worse from the start of World War II, to being forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, to being separated from his family and having to jump from ruin to ruin in order to survive. The Pianist is told beautifully from a filmmaking and acting standpoint (which is why it's critically acclaimed), but it's also a very heavy watch that makes you realize that sometimes a person's true potential is sadly never fully reached because of the circumstances in their lives that are out of their control.

20. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)

• About: Ian Dury

2010's Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll delves into the story of Ian Dury, a rock star who overcame the initial challenge of getting polio at a young age to becoming one of the founders of punk rock in the 1970s. Punk Rock music as we know it (both what it was in the past and what's evolved into over the years) wouldn't be the same without Ian Dury. So if you consider yourself a fan of the genre you should definitely give this a watch.

21. Bird (1988)

• About: Charlie Parker

We've got another Clint Eastwood biopic on the list, this time with 1988's Bird , which saw Forest Whitaker portraying bop saxophonist pioneer Charlie Parker. Bird moves back and forth Clint Eastwood style between different time periods of Parker's life, while also giving a clear of his artistry through scenes of Parker improving on stage and navigating through different venues. Bird is a movie that gets lost in the filmography of Whitaker at times, which is a shame because he was magical in it. Serious acting chops were needed to portray Parker, and Whitaker gave just that and then more.

22. Respect (2021)

• About: Aretha Franklin

It's been said that apparently Aretha Franklin herself wanted Jennifer Hudson to play her, and we can't think of anybody who would have been a better fit in terms of voice and acting chops (which Hudson proved much earlier on in her 2006 Dreamgirls role). Everything about Respect was perfect from the acting, to Aretha's music in the form of Jennifer Hudson's voice, to even the costumes and stage designs. Any and every lover of Aretha Franklin must see Respect . It's mandatory viewing.

23. The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

• About: Buddy Holly

At some point there will probably be another biopic of some sort told in regards to Buddy Holly, but like we've said before, The Buddy Holly Story will always be cemented as the original and the standard. Gary Busey portrayed the Rock 'n' Roll Star in the 1978 film, in what's considered to be one of his most dynamic roles. Of note: The Crickets (the band Buddy Holly was in before going solo) was the first White act to perform at the Apollo Theater. This scene in the movie is by far one of the best and most entertaining as it documents the band getting off to a shaky start with the audience (who originally thought they were a Black act because of their name) to eventually winning them over. The Buddy Holly Story remains one of the best biopics to date.

24. Elvis (2022)

• About: Elvis

Similar to Bohemian Rhapsody , there were some complaints from critics in regards to the film being "superficial," and how accurate it was from a retelling standpoint. Having seen Elvis three times, I think the strong spots were Austin Butler's portrayal of Elvis (his Academy Award nomination was much deserved), and Baz Luhrmann's infamous (or better yet famous) method of visual storytelling. If you know Baz Luhrmann, then you already knew that especially once the film got to the Vegas years it was going to be a stunning cinematic experience. That experience combined with Butler's performance is what really ropes you in for those three hours. And we must say, those three hours fly by fast.

25. Lisztomania (1975)

• About: Franz Liszt 

A mixture between being a musical and a comedy, Roger Daltrey stars as composer and pianist Franz Liszt, who desperately wants to come his hedonistic ways with women, but simply cannot. Lisztomania is a different take on the biopic approach as it doesn't go down the dramatic biography route, but instead targets one area of a person's life and puts a comedic spin on it. Depending on who you talk to, some love Lisztomania while others can leave it on the table. Personally, we think it deserves the watch simply because of how funny it is.

26. El Cantante (2007)

• About: Héctor Lavoe 

Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez starred as salsa singer Héctor Lavoe and his wife Puchi in the 2007 film El Cantante . Anthony doesn't get enough credit for being one of the greatest male voices and performers of the last thirty years or so, and that voice and showmanship is on full display in this film. Adding to that is the chemistry between Anthony and Lopez (who at the time were married), which only served to enhance the movie. In our opinion, El Cantante is a film that remains underrated.

27. Cadillac Records (2008)

• About: Etta James, Howlin Woff, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter

Cadillac Records kind of blurs the line between just being solely a musical and a musical biopic. Let us explain. Cadillac Records is not solely a story about Etta James and her life/career, rather she is a figure amongst many of her musical peers that are also documented. However, Etta's story is probably the most dynamic and remains the most talked about due to Beyoncé's awesome portrayal of her (which should have gotten her more nominations). In other words, we're kind of making an exception to our "pure music biopics" list, but we're also kind of not.

28. The Temptations (1998)

• About: The Temptations

Aint nobody comin' to see you Otis. The Temptations was another mini-series biopic that aired on NBC in 1998. Spanning four hours, the series starts from the beginning with the band's signing to Motown, goes into their years as platinum selling artists and one of the most popular on the Motown lineup, and then the not-so-great moments that happened afterwards. It's kind of funny because without the commercials these miniseries we've mentioned were around four hours or so, and when you factor in how a lot of films (not just biopics) nowadays are well surpassing the three hour mark, these miniseries can technically be classified as movies by 2020s standards.

29. Amadeus (1984)

• About: Mozart

Released in 1984, Amadeus starred Tom Hulce as the gifted Wolfgang Amadeus aka Mozart. The biopic zoned in Mozart and his rival Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) who are locked in fierce competition with another. Except Salieri is very jealous of Mozart, which ultimately results in him forming a plan to kill him. How that plays out? You'll have to watch the movie for that, but we will say that Amadeus was very successful, earning 53 Academy Award nominations (eight of which they won). The film has also since been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

30. I'm Not There (2007)

• About: Bob Dylan

I'm Not There is technically a biopic about Bob Dylan, but at the same time it can get a little confusing if you look at the film solely from a biopic lens because it's multiple actors portraying Dylan at different stages of his life. It doesn't have the full start to finish story with one maybe two actors portraying a notable figure that we're used to. As such, some may refuse to call this a biopic and we would understand that viewpoint. What can't be denied, however, is the fact that I'm Not There is very entertaining. So even if you don't classify this as an "official music biopic," you can still watch it and just wait for Timothée Chalamet to do his thing in a couple years or so.

31. Notorious (2009)

• About: Notorious B.I.G

Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G may not have been with us a long time, but he made his mark as being an all time rap legend who's place in music history will never be debated. Jamal Woolard took on the role of playing him in 2009's Notorious , which takes from it the beginning when he was trying to make it as a rapper, to becoming a superstar. The film also starred Naturi Naughton, Anthony Mackie, Angela Bassett, and Antonique Smith. To this day, Woolard's resemblance to Biggie throws us off. It's almost uncanny.

32. What's Love Got to do With It (1993)

• About: Tina Turner

Angela Bassett is on this list for a third time, which should tell you something. Everything you've heard about this film is true—Mrs. Bassett played the hell out of Tina Turner, and what makes her performance even more impressive is that she didn't look like Tina. In order for most biopics to be believable, the actor has to bare some sort of resemblance or look like they could be the subject they are portraying. In the case of Bassett playing Tina Turner, that wasn't even needed as Angela played her so well that it makes you forget that they don't anything alike. That, our friends, is what you call a great performance. One that with all due respect should have gotten Bassett an Oscar.

33. Beyond the Sea (2004)

• About: Bobby Darin

Kevin Spacey stars as Bobby Darin in 2004's Beyond the Sea that's about overcoming an early medical setback to become a successful musician as Darin contracts rheumatic fever as a boy which causes him to develop a weak heart as a result. Still determined to become a great musician with the time he has left, Darin makes a splash in the worlds of Pop and Jazz while still having to deal with the ups and downs of life and relationships. And yes, in case you were wondering, Kevin Spacey did actually sing in the film.

34. The Runaways (2010)

• About: Runaways 

If you want to learn more about The Runaways, the legendary group that helped pave the way for future female Rock groups, you can do so through The Runaways , which stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. The two teen prodigies hit it big and embark on a world of rock fame, but encounter some obstacles along the way as they have to deal with the negative effects of shooting to fame so quickly. Again, a great film to watch if you arre a lover of Rock 'n' Roll.

35. Ray (2004)

• About: Ray Charles

As a kid in the 2000s, Ray was the very first biopic I ever watched, and I was completely captivated by the performance of Jamie Foxx. Foxx didn't just portray Ray Charles, he became Ray Charles in every aspect from the way he sang and moved, to his gestures, the way he walked, the way he talked, etc.—Jamie Foxx was Ray Charles from top to bottom, making his Oscar one of the most deserved the the history in the Academy. Period, point blank, end of story.

36. Rocketman (2019)

• About: Elton John

Before Elton John became one of the most successful recording artists ever and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, among other accolades , he was a young piano prodigy living in London. Rocketman recounts the star’s struggles with addiction and coming to terms with his sexuality. The film also highlights the memorable music, energetic performances and theatrical costumes that secured John’s immutable greatness in pop rock history.

37. Walk the Line (2005)

• About: Johnny Cash

From humble beginnings on a cotton farm in Arkansas, Johnny Cash made an astonishing journey to become a country music icon. The 2005 film delves into many aspects of Cash’s life—his childhood trauma, Air Force service and troubling addictions—including his romance with June Carter, a role that won Reese Witherspoon an Academy Award.

38 Jimi: All is By My Side (2013)

• About: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix was an anomaly when it came to his uncanny ability to play the guitar. Andre 3000 of Outkast fame can also be considered a one of a kind artist whose music transcends conventional genre trappings.  Jimi: All Is By My Side  placed the lauded ATLien in its starring role and gave viewers an inside look at Jimi’s humble beginnings. Andre proved his acting chops were more than up to snuff as he portrayed Jimi to perfection and relived his earliest triumphs as a musician.

39. Nowhere Boy (2009)

• About: John Lennon

While Nowhere Boy doesn’t get into much of John Lennon’s most memorable years alongside The Beatles, it does offer a closer look at his teenage upbringing. This film follows Lennon’s fruitful (and sometimes stressful) relationships with his mother Julia Lennon and his aunt Mimi Smith. It also gives viewers a look at what led to Lennon’s infatuation with rock ‘n’ roll music in the first place and the earliest incarnation of The Beatles.

40. Roxanne Roxanne (2017)

Roxanne Shante became hip-hop royalty once she grabbed the mic and gave the world “Roxanne’s Revenge.” This groundbreaking moment is just one of the many instances that will keep your eyes glued to the screen during a viewing of Roxanne Roxanne . Watching Roxanne’s tough home life unfold is an eye-opening experience, as is her hip-hop ascension and early interactions with a future MC by the name of Nas.

41. The Bobby Brown Story (2018)

• About: Bobby Brown

BET made sure to offer fans of the last entry on this list a worthy follow-up. And this time, it focused on R&B’s undisputed bad boy Bobby Brown. The Bobby Brown Story picks up right after the young singer gets kicked off the road tour due to his problematic behavior as a member of New Edition. This miniseries then gives us a look at the rise, fall, and subsequent redemption arc of Bobby Brown. To see a man like Bobby experience so much physical and mental anguish and still come out on the end of it all with his life still intact is amazing.

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10 best music biopics of all time, ranked.

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10 Best Biopic Movies Of All Time

10 best movies about music, ranked, 10 cult classic movies from the '80s that have aged poorly.

Musical biopics have been a staple of the film industry for many years, as making a movie about a performer's life creates the opportunity to use their music within the context of the project. The success of past musicals and the best modern movie musicals is somewhat divisive, as musicals don't connect with all audiences. However, music biopics are grouped into a class of their own because they have a realistic narrative since they draw from a public figure's actual life. This also means that biopics have plenty of drama, as the music industry can be a tough business.

Music biopics are a delicate genre, as it's important to capture a person's life and legacy with respect and dedication to the truth.

Many exciting upcoming music biopics will likely expand the genre in new and unexpected ways. However, music biopics are a delicate genre, as it's important to capture a person's life and legacy with respect and dedication to the truth. Simultaneously, a film has a responsibility to its audience to dramatize and fictionalize certain events and situations to align with the cinematic experience. These pressures make it more difficult than one might realize to make the best possible biopic that satisfies expectations and is as truthful as possible. However, when done right, biopics can be unlike any other genre.

The biopic genre is one of the hardest to master, meaning that the greatest stand out above the rest for their detailed & skilled portrayals.

10 La Bamba (1987)

Directed by luis valdez.

Not available

He's portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips, who brings heart and life to the young musician and weathers the challenges Valens faces as well as the successes.

La Bamba follows the story of Ritchie Valens, the singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the late 1950s and passed away in a plane crash at the height of his career. He's portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips, who brings heart and life to the young musician and weathers the challenges Valens faces as well as the successes. The film takes its name from the iconic song, "La Bamba," that Valens popularized with his iteration that paid tribute to his Latino roots while incorporating his love of rock and roll and contemporary music.

The dichotomy between Valens's family life and his career as a musician is a large part of the film's conflict, as is the racial discrimination he faced in his private and public lives. However, La Bamba isn't just special because of its willingness to be in conversation with the social and political topics of the 1950s. La Bamba stands out as a music biopic because it uses Valens's music to its fullest potential, using it as a metaphor for Valens as a person. Additionally, the film doesn't lean into melodrama when depicting Valens's death, which is tactful.

9 Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Directed by bryan singer.

Bohemian Rhapsody

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Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of the band Queen and their iconic frontman Freddy Mercury (Rami Malek). A biographical musical drama, Bohemian Rhapsody follows the meteoric rise of Queen from their formation in 1970 and chronicles some of the creative and personal differences that the band was forced to overcome to achieve global success.

While the band Queen is central to the narrative in Bohemian Rhapsody , the story is focused on the life of the lead singer and frontman of the band, Freddy Mercury. The movie takes its name from one of the band's most famous songs, but it's hardly the most recognizable number in Bohemian Rhapsody . As time has progressed, Queen has retained its popularity, and the movie tracks this rise to stardom well. The audience witnesses Mercury at all phases of his life and sees him acclimate to fame while accepting his sexuality and pushing creative boundaries.

Rami Malek won Best Actor at the Academy Awards for playing Mercury, and this wasn't the only accolade the film achieved, as it was nominated for Best Picture and won for Sound Mixing and Editing. However, the real testament to Bohemian Rhapsody is how much it connects with audiences, as it was a massive box office success. Bohemian Rhapsody wasn't just popular because it contained so many famous and beloved songs but because it humanized an icon and openly discussed aspects of Mercury's life that weren't always touched upon during his life.

8 Elvis (2022)

Directed by baz luhrmann.

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis tells the story of the musician's meteoric rise to superstardom. Following Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) from his time as a young up-and-coming musician, Elvis chronicles how the titular artist met Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), his infamous agent and business partner. Elvis documents the King's rise to the top, his subsequent career slump, his triumphant return, and his tragic end.

Elvis was made to be as explosive and creatively experimental as the artist's career, with his music interwoven throughout the film.

Baz Luhrmann is known for directing smash-hit blockbusters, and his adaptation of the rock star Elvis's life was no exception. Austin Butler gave a career-defining performance as the king of rock and roll, and though there are campy aspects of the film that viewers and critics poked fun at, the sheer spectacle of the project can't be denied. With enormous set pieces and recreations of Elvis's biggest musical moments, Elvis is a modern epic that follows in the footsteps of the over-the-top style of the man himself.

Sofia Coppola's biopic about the life of Priscilla Presley sparked debate over whether Elvis or Priscilla was a better movie . However, the projects are so different it's difficult to compare them. Elvis was made to be as explosive and creatively experimental as the artist's career, with his music interwoven throughout the film. Conversely, Priscilla contrasts this evocative style in every way, allowing them to occupy different niches. Elvis should be praised for its production value, the Butler's dedication to the role, and the cohesive stylized approach that immerses the viewer.

7 Rocketman (2019)

Directed by dexter fletcher.

A biopic about legendary British rockstar Elton John, Rocketman is a somewhat romanticized chronicle of John's life, from his childhood and turbulent homelife to his first foray into music and how stardom effected him. The film is centered around John's journey to sobriety, with the narrative framed by John telling his life story in an AA meeting during his time in rehab. Taron Egerton stars as John, with a cast that includes Richard Madden, Jamie Bell, and Bryce Dallas Howard.  

Though Elton John is a well-known figure in music and film, Rocketman revealed a lot about his early career and struggles with addiction. Like most music biopics, Rocketman doesn't follow the beats of John's life with detailed accuracy but prioritizes the emotional plot points to tell a narratively tight story. As John, Taron Egerton showed a different side of himself, having previously gained fame from action films like Kingsman: The Secret Service . However, he proved himself to be more than worthy of taking on the role of John, as the movie tackles some of the most fraught moments of the singer's life.

Rocketman has been praised for the way it discusses John's addiction and openly accepts John's sexuality and relationships with men throughout his life. Aesthetically, Rocketman is just as playful and bombastic as John, and the way the movie seamlessly incorporates the musical numbers is likely part of the reason it was such a hit with audiences. Additionally, the sheer popularity and notoriety of John's music lent itself to the film's success. Though Rocketman came out during the late 2010s boom of music biopics, it's one of the most notable from this period.

6 Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Directed by f. gary gray.

Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton chronicles the rise of the hip hop group NWA from Compton, California. The film tells the story of the formation of the band, the controversy surrounding gangsta rap, police brutality, and the tragic death of Eazy-E. Straight Outta Compton stars Ice Cube's son O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his father, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, Neil Brown Jr. as DJ Yella, and Aldis Hodge as MC Ren.

While Straight Outta Compton was a hit when it was released, its storytelling and how it skillfully tracks the lives of all the men ensures that the film will be a classic of the genre for years to come.

There are aspects of Straight Outta Compton that are true and that are fictionalized , but the entirety of the film added up to a memorable and popular project. The film follows the story of the rap group N.W.A., which included Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Easy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. Straight Outta Compton is an incredible ensemble piece, as the actors who took on the roles of the revolutionary musicians O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., and Aldis Hodge all disappear into their roles and capture the nuances of the group's dynamic.

Since Straight Outta Compton deals with such recent history, its story and conflicts are still relevant today, especially when it comes to the racial prejudice and police brutality discussed in the movie. While Straight Outta Compton was a hit when it was released, its storytelling and how it skillfully tracks the lives of all the men ensures that the film will be a classic of the genre for years to come. The film also pays tribute to the setting, fully rooting itself in Southern Los Angeles. It acknowledges the personal experiences instrumental in creating their innovative style of rap.

5 Amadeus (1984)

Directed by miloš forman.

Telling the fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life, Amadeus is adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 stage play of the same name. Set in 18th Century Vienna, Austria, the biopic follows the legendary composer from when he left Salzburg, through his disastrous rivalriy with Antonio Salieri.

Amadeus is one of the least historically accurate music biopics, as it invents much of the central conflict between Mozart and Salieri for dramatic effect. However, the result is an incredibly entertaining film about the devastating quest for perfection that can destroy an artist. The film is as much about Salieri's jealousy of Mozart's genius as it is about how Mozart recklessly wielded his power. F. Murray Abraham plays Salieri, and Tom Hulce is Mozart, and both actors were praised for their work in the film. Though their characters couldn't be more different, the two men maintain a brilliant dynamic.

Classical music is not as popular today as it once was, but Mozart's legacy has sustained itself over the centuries, and movies like Amadeus are a reminder of how the myths and truths of his life have been intermingled. Winning Best Picture, Best Actor for Abraham, and Best Director at the Academy Awards, the response to Amadeus is undeniable and is an example of a biopic that shines because of its inaccuracies, not in spite of them. Amadeus is as fantastical and imaginative as the music that inspired it.

4 La Vie En Rose (2007)

Directed by olivier dahan.

La Vie en Rose cast Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf, and by the end of the film, it's clear that no one but Cotillard could have captured each phase of Piaf's life with so much dignity and sadness. Beginning with her childhood and following her entire life leading up to the moment of her passing, La Vie en Rose bounces between different points in time, showing Piaf at her height of popularity, juxtaposing this with her slow decline in health. Cotillard won the award for Best Actress at the Oscars as well as the César Awards.

The recurring motif of one of her most iconic songs, "Non, je ne regrette rien," is a moving throughline.

It remains one of the most successful French films on an international scale and is part of the reason why Cotillard broke into film roles in Hollywood. However, outside the critical performance by Cotillard, there is still much to recommend La Vie en Rose . The story takes Piaf and the audience all over the world, from Paris to New York and California, giving insight into the glamour and pain of fame and artistry in the mid-twentieth century. The recurring motif of one of her most iconic songs, "Non, je ne regrette rien," is a moving throughline.

3 Funny Girl (1968)

Directed by william wyler.

Funny Girl (1968)

Barbra Streisand shines in her debut film role as Fanny Brice, a talented but insecure New York City singer who rises to fame while struggling with her relationship with the gambler Nicky Arnstein.

Barbra Streisand wouldn't be the icon of the stage and screen she is today without her film debut in Funny Girl , in which she reprised her role of Fanny Brice from the theatrical musical. Though Streisand would go on to star in many amazing movies and play several recognizable characters, she will always be linked to Brice and Funny Girl because of how it transcends the musical genre and is simply a fantastic work of cinema. The original music from the stage version perfectly lends itself to the cinematic adaptations that make the numbers even more sweeping in scale.

Brice's unique position as a Vaudeville star and female comic makes her the perfect subject for a musical biopic like Funny Girl , and even though her life has now become synonymous with Streisand's rise to fame, Brice's legacy is well-remembered. The movie captures the era and humor of the early 20th century and provides insight into the fraught relationship between Brice and her husband, Nicky Arnstien, played by an equally compelling Omar Sharif. Widely considered one of the best movie musicals of all time, Funny Girl will never fade from the cultural memory.

2 I’m Not There (2007)

Directed by todd haynes.

I'm Not There

An innovative biographical film that reimagines the life of Bob Dylan through six distinct characters, each symbolizing a different phase of his career and personality. Portrayed by a diverse cast including Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger, these characters navigate through the various transformations of Dylan's life—from his early days as a folk singer to his electric phase and beyond.

Most notably, Cate Blanchett plays the Jude Quinn archetype, who grapples with being the face of folk music while being accused of being a false messiah and sellout.

There are many exciting things about Timothée Chalamet's upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown . However, the film already starts at a disadvantage when compared to the first film to tackle Dylan's legacy. The experimental I'm Not There , directed by Todd Haynes, features several actors portraying figures that represent the many facets of Dylan at different points in his career. Most notably, Cate Blanchett plays the Jude Quinn archetype, who grapples with being the face of folk music while being accused of being a false messiah and sellout.

I'm Not There is in conversation with art in general and the experience of a musician who reaches the fame and notoriety of Dylan. The expectations of who he is versus who he should be are central throughlines in the conflict and vignettes of the piece. Touching upon the events and changes of the latter half of the twentieth century, especially the folk scene and rise of the Beat generation, I'm Not There looks at the elements that came together to create the elusive figure of Dylan.

From heartwarming stories of fictional bands to real-life legends in musical biopics, the best movies about music have enthralled audiences.

1 Walk The Line (2005)

Directed by james mangold.

Walk The Line (2005)

Walk the Line is a biographical drama film that tells the story of Johnny Cash, a legendary musician, and his tumultuous relationship with June Carter, a country singer. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as Carter, and explores their romance, as well as Cash's struggles with addiction and fame.

Johnny Cash and the popularization of country music in America go hand in hand, and Walk The Line depicts a man struggling amid a groundbreaking career. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon both give career-best performances as Cash and his wife, June Carter, during the period of Cash's life when he faced the realities of fame and grappled with addiction. Witherspoon won the award for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her turn as June, and both actors contributed to making Walk The Line an empathetic and touching tribute to the couple.

Few genres of music or musicians are as synonymous with the U.S. as country or Cash. This indicates why the movie was such a hit with critics and audiences alike. Musical biopics rely heavily on the use of the artist's work, but Phoenix manages to put his own spin on the performances while maintaining a clear connection to Cash. Phoenix emulates the nuance of Cash's life and star power, but he doesn't try to imitate the one-of-a-kind figure perfectly.

50 music biopics to see before you die

From rap renegades to popstar sensations

Words by Mark Beaumont

’24 Hour Party People’

With Steve Coogan playing the missing link between Alan Partridge and Tony Wilson, Michael Winterbottom’s retelling of the Factory Records story (misadventure? Farrago?) was a ferocious rock ’n’ roll farce of a biopic shot through with tragedy, rebirth, vision, extravagance, blood-inked record contracts and some of the worst business decisions this side of Elon Twitter.

Where to watch: Prime Video

‘8 Mile’

Ostensibly fictional, Eminem ’s gritty cinematic debut as struggling Detroit battle rapper B-Rabbit was a semi-autobiographical outing more thinly veiled than Matt Hancock’s contempt for the public. Add in an award-winning original soundtrack and this de facto Marshall Mathers: The Movie began looking like rap’s own Rocky.

Where to watch: Netflix

‘Amadeus’

Deciding not to let the inconvenient facts of history get in the way of a good yarn, Peter Shaffer and Milos Forman concocted a fictional clash of the classical titans as the young, flighty and alcoholic Mozart – renowned pop star of the powdered wig – becomes embroiled in a deadly rivalry with court composer Antonio Salieri.

Where to watch: Rent it on Rakuten TV

‘Backbeat’

Recommended.

With anything beyond Beatlemania presumably considered too over-documented – or simply sanctified ground – filmmakers have leant towards The Beatles ’ lesser-known early years. And the tragic romance of original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and his fiancée Astrid Kirchherr, and his troubled relationship with John Lennon , was a fascinating, little-told story that helped illuminate the near-mythological Hamburg era, recreated for the soundtrack by a supergroup of Dave Grohl , Greg Dulli, Thurston Moore and Mike Mills.

Where to watch: Blu-ray available on Amazon

‘Behind The Candelabra’

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon won plaudits aplenty for their portrayals of one-man Vegas show Liberace and the “assistant” and lover he tried to mould into a younger version of himself, right down to actual plastic surgery. A case study in how loneliness, obsession and addiction can sometimes come emerald-studded.

‘Bird’

Forest Whitaker’s breakthrough performance was as revered jazz saxophonist Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker in Clint Eastwood’s time-hopping, impressionistic biopic, delving into his collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie at the dawn of bebop and his ultimately fatal descent into hard drugs. The jazz club scenes, though, offer full ’40s immersion.

Where to watch: Rent on Prime Video, YouTube and others

‘Blaze’

The stories of lesser-known figures meeting early ends before their genius is fully appreciated tend to add a heart-wrenching twist to the genre of tragic music biopics. Ethan Hawke’s evocative and music-filled tribute to country singer Blaze Foley who, after a string of misfortunes which saw all three of his studio album recordings confiscated, lost or stolen, was shot dead at 39.

Where to watch: Rent on Amazon Prime, Google Play and others

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

For all its powerful recreations of musical landmarks like the Live Aid set, it was Rami Malek’s Herculean achievement in bringing Freddie Mercury to life in all his stage-stealing glory that made the Queen biopic unmissable, and a bar-setter for the big name biopics to come.

Where to watch: Netflix and Disney+

‘Born To Be Blue’

The drug-drenched days of classic jazz proved rich territory for the music biopic in the wake of 1988’s Charlie Parker flick Bird . Robert Budreau’s semi-fictional portrait of Chet Baker, played by Ethan Hawke, was more cavalier with the facts than most, taking Baker’s biography as a launch point for its own engrossing interpretation of the master.

Where to watch: Freevee

‘Bound For Glory’

Loosely adapted from an already semi-fictional autobiography, Hal Ashby’s film about Woody Guthrie hitch-hiking and box-car jumping his way to Los Angeles to find work during the Great Depression, there to become a musical voice for downtrodden casual workers and one of radio’s first protest singers, was distant cousins to the truth by the time it reached the screen. But a beautiful evocation of Guthrie’s formative Americana and its marriage to the nation’s landscapes and principles nonetheless.

Where to watch: DVD available on Amazon

‘Cadillac Records’

Revolving around the colourful stories of Chuck Berry , Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Etta James and Howlin’ Wolf – played by a starry cast list including Mos Def and Beyonce – Cadillac Records was to Chicago of the 1940s-60s what 24 Hour Party People was to the Manchester of the 1970s-90s. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess of the legendary Chess Records, and even Keith Richards makes an appearance, albeit played by Marc Bonan.

Where to watch: Rent it on Apple TV, CHILI and more

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

Sissy Spacek perfectly captured Loretta Lynn through the ages, from troubled teens through honky-tonk hardships and the Grand Ole Opry to her years of celebrated – and equally troubled – 1960s successes. Recording the soundtrack herself, Spacek won an Oscar for her portrayal of the First Lady Of Country Music.

Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video, Google Play and more

‘Control’

One-time NME photography legend and video director for U2 and Depeche Mode , Anton Corbijn was ideally placed to tell the cinematic story of Joy Division , based on Deborah Curtis’ book Touching From A Distance . His moody, monochrome visual aesthetic carried the film all the way to the Oscars.

Where to watch: Sky and Now Cinema

‘Creation Stories’

If Factory deserved a biopic, Creation was undoubtedly next of the rock ’n’ roll independent labels in line. Alan McGee ’s life has been lived as on-the-edge as many of the bands he signed (besides maybe Primal Scream ) and – in a film co-written by  Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh – Ewen Bremner captured his brash, wild-at-heart vivacity and vision, and the drug-fuelled chaos of the label itself, in this indie cinephile’s fantasia. Oasis , the Mary Chain, the Scream and My Bloody Valentine all feature and the soundtrack is virtually a Best Of of ‘80s and ‘90s indie rock.

Where to watch: NOW

‘Elvis’

Baz Luhrmann brought every ounce of his Moulin Rouge energy and pizazz to The King’s full biographical span, spotlighting his turbulent and exploitative relationship with Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). Austin Butler’s Elvis , meanwhile, challenged Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury for the most convincing on-screen rendition of a seemingly unplayable icon.

Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video, Apple TV and more

‘Funny Girl’

With Barbra Streisand reprising her Broadway role in her first cinema outing, several stars were reborn with Funny Girl : Streisand as an acclaimed screen actress – she won an Oscar for a performance that Roger Ebert described as “more fun to watch than anyone since the young Katharine Hepburn” – and Fanny Brice, the singer, actress and comedienne from the 1920s whose life story, and stormy relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein, was plucked from the annals of entertainment history, Hollywood-ed up a bit and transformed into one of the finest cinema musicals ever made.

‘Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life’

From his childhood in occupied France during WWII to his affairs with the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg’s rise to fame might have been more charmed than heroic. But Joann Sfar’s biopic injected surrealist notes into an already mysterious life story – Gainsbourg’s animated alter-ego The Mug, for instance, guides him down dark paths at pivotal moments – making for a fantasy-meets-reality movie as enigmatic as Gauloises cigarette smoke.

Where to watch: Prime Video/Studio Canal

‘Get On Up’

From the pen of Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, James Brown ’s biopic was an unconventional, non-linear, stream-of consciousness affair, all the better to portray one of funk’s most conflicted characters: Godfather Of Soul, abusive husband, civil rights activist, gun-toting drug maniac and more. With this much drama, and Chadwick Boseman strutting and leaping like the sex machine in overdrive, who needs a fourth wall?

Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video, Apple TV+ and more

‘Greetings From Tim Buckley’

Delivering two folk heroes for the price of one, Daniel Algrant’s Buckley dynasty biopic centres more around the younger Jeff than the elder Tim as he wrestles with the legacy of a father he’d only met once, as well as his own burgeoning talent. Sensitive and touching, it highlights the inter-generational power of music; a bloodline when all else is staunched.

Where to watch: Rent it on Google Play and YouTube

‘I’m Not There’

By his own calculation, Bob Dylan contains multitudes. In trying to capture him on celluloid, then, director Todd Haynes clearly decided one actor would never be enough. Instead, he cast six separate actors, including Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett, to play separate fictionalised facets of Dylan’s persona, interlocking into a bizarre but brilliant impression of both myth and man.

Where to watch: ITVX

‘Jimi: All Is By My Side’

The simple idea of Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix – surely the most no-brainer casting in music biopic history – made Jimi… a must-watch. And, for all its faults (not least the factual ones, with Hendrix’s lover Kathy Etchingham proclaiming the depiction of her relationship with the guitar god “absolute nonsense”) ‘Dre’s charisma carried the film so convincingly you’d barely notice they couldn’t clear any of Hendrix’s songs.

Where to watch: Prime Video/Curzon

‘Judy’

Renée Zellweger earned herself an Oscar by taking on the life and songs of the iconic Judy Garland, revisiting her childhood and tortured Oz years in flashback from the struggles of her final year on the London stage. Zellweger’s barnstorming and heartbreaking renditions of Garland classics power the movie along; no Johnny One Note, she.

Where to watch: Disney+

‘La Bamba’

Overshadowed for several decades for the misfortune of having died in the same 1959 plane crash as Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens finally had his story told in La Bamba , a rags-to-far-too-brief-riches tale packed with drama, exuberance and sentimentality, which made stars of both Lou Diamond Phillips (as Valens) and soundtrack mainstays Los Lobos .

Where to watch: To rent on Amazon Prime, CHILI and more

‘Lady Sings The Blues’

Noting, perhaps, the awards heaped upon Streisand’s turn in Funny Girl , Diana Ross made the screen that bit more silver in the role of Billie Holiday , a part which was all diva but precious little glamour. Pulling no punches in portraying the drug and alcohol abuse which saw Lady Day dead at 44, this was Ross as downtrodden as we’ve ever seen her and Holiday as the very embodiment of the blues.

Where to watch: Roku

‘Last Days’

Gus Van Sant’s depiction of the final hours of Blake – a fictionalised Kurt Cobain (yes, it counts as a biopic) – was a solemn, mundane watch, encapsulating the thin façade of fame and the everyday nature of mental collapse. Michael Pitt’s blankness, whether entertaining Yellow Pages reps, dead-eyed in a rock club or simply wandering the house waiting for the right time to die, spoke volumes.

Where to watch: CHILI

‘La Vie En Rose’

The story arc of a legendary torch singer surviving a gritty childhood to rise to fame through the clubs, then descend into hard drugs and romantic trauma and die at 47 – particularly when told in non-linear flashback from backstage at their final show – has become something of a biopic cliché. But Olivier Dahan’s Edith Piaf movie transcended the genre largely thanks to Marion Cotillard’s Oscar winning (albeit lip-synced) performance.

Where to watch: Prime Video, Disney+ and more

‘Love & Mercy’

Flitting between the psychological tumult surrounding the recording of ‘Pet Sounds’ in 1966 and his mistreatment at the hands of Dr Eugene Landy in the 1980s, The Beach Boys ’ tortured keystone Brian Wilson received a sensitive and touching portrayal in Love & Mercy . Atticus Ross’ hallucinogenic soundtrack, melting Beach Boys harmonies into kaleidoscopic soundscapes, made it all the more relevant.

‘Lisztomania’

With Roger Daltrey playing Franz Liszt, Ringo Starr as the Pope and Rick Wakeman as Thor, Ken Russell’s surrealist fantasy vision of the world’s first pop star played merry hell with the facts – although, to be fair, history doesn’t record whether Liszt could maintain a 10-feet erection or cheated death to fly back to earth from heaven in a spaceship to destroy a vampire Wagner, who had transformed into a Frankenstein Hitler with a machine gun guitar. But everyone involved, including the modern viewer, has a blast.

Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video, Apple TV+ and CHILI

‘Miles Ahead’

More time-hopping around the life of a drug-troubled jazzster, this time focusing on Miles Davis ’ reclusive late-‘70s period. Don Cheadle is convincing as the numbed-out Davis and Ewan McGregor brings the (fictionalised) drama as a music writer who convinces him to get his career back on track by chasing down lost recordings of recent work. As free-form as jazz itself, Miles Ahead was an impressionistic triumph.

Where to watch: Prime Video/Freevee

‘Notorious’

The first cinematic retelling of the East Coast-West Coast feud between Biggie Smalls and Tupac had all the trappings of a blockbuster – drugs, guns, sex, money, assassinations – but made for a more insightful, human experience by probing the man behind the hip-hop bravado. Naturi Naughton’s Lil’ Kim is a scene-stealer too.

‘Nowhere Boy’

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s directorial debut took Julia Baird’s biography of her half-brother John Lennon ’s early life as the basis for a dramatic dissection of Lennon’s tangled teenage years. With the formation of The Quarrymen with Paul McCartney and George Harrison acting as a backdrop, Lennon’s dislocated relationship with his mother Julia, and its tragic end, help root Lennon’s artistic fire in the ultimate roc k’n’ roll origin story.

‘Ray’

Among all of the jazz, blues and R&B legends with a hardship tale fit for the big screen, Ray Charles had one of the toughest – poverty, abuse, blindness, family loss, heroin, affairs, arrests, rehab, Charles survived it all. Jamie Foxx brought all this to vivid life, and plenty of stunning performance scenes to boot.

‘Respect’

It was a tough ask for Jennifer Hudson to live up to the Queen Of Soul’s formidable vocals, but the sheer drama of Aretha Franklin ’s life is gripping enough on its own. Alcoholism, domestic abuse, tragedy and assault, though somewhat glossed over here, fuel Franklin’s powerhouse songs, which still bulge the screen.

‘Rocketman’

Having scored a major hit with Bohemian Rhapsody, director Dexter Fletcher turned his lens to another flamboyant superstar of the era; Taron Egerton slipped into Elton John’s devil-falcon jumpsuit with the requisite vivacity, and charted his descent into hedonistic addiction, depression and isolation with convincing pathos. Happily, unlike so many biopic’d singers, Elton emerges, well, still standing.

Where to watch: Rent it on Apple TV+, Prime Video and more

‘Selena’

Jennifer Lopez came into her own as a screen darling with her portrayal of Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla Pérez, murdered at 23 by the embezzling president of her thriving fan club. Released just two years after Selena’s death, the film was more of a fact-setting exercise than a deep dive into Pérez’s character, but Lopez tackled it with relish.

Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video, YouTube and more

‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’

Having become the king of motion capture by playing a virtual Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings franchise as well as King Kong, Andy Serkis turned his physical skills to the more subtler cause of depicting polio-stricken new wave icon Ian Dury, carrying Mat Whitecross’s tribute with appropriate cockiness.

‘Shine’

Having restarted the piano lessons he gave up at 14, Geoffrey Rush picked up an Oscar for his portrayal of disturbed Australian pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hicks’ celebrated Shine . The film followed the troubled home life of this piano prodigy up to his breakdown while becoming obsessed with perfecting Rachmaninov’s highly challenging ‘Concerto No. 3’, named after the number of hands you need to play the damn thing.

Where to watch: DVD for sale on Amazon

‘Sid And Nancy’

The least romantic Romeo & Juliet in rock ’n’ roll history, the fatal love affair between heroin addicts Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen is viscerally delivered in Alex Cox’s fittingly punk portrait of the doomed duo. Gary Oldman’s Sid gained most plaudits, but you can also spot Iggy Pop , Nico , Courtney Love and a pre-fame Slash in there.

Where to watch: Rent it on Apple TV+, Prime Video and BFI Player

‘Straight Outta Compton’

Riots, FBI raids, internal fights and electric gigs; Straight Outta Compton’s official depiction of the rise, split and resurrection of N.W.A. is amongst the most vital music biopics of all time. And if you’re after casting authenticity, having Ice Cube’s own son play him was a stroke of genius.

Where to watch: Sky and NOW

‘Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story’

Years before Team America: World Police , Todd Haynes made this short college biopic of Karen Carpenter largely using modified Barbie and Ken dolls to play the characters on scaled-down sets, and featuring a completely unlicensed soundtrack. One copyright infringement lawsuit from Richard Carpenter later the withdrawn film became a cult classic, although we may never know why Barbie Karen was being spanked so much throughout.

Where to watch: You’ll have to seek this one out yourself…

‘Telstar: The Joe Meek Story’

Adapted from Nick Moran and James Hicks’ play, Telstar… set about detailing the madcap sonic inspirations and strange obsessions (poltergeists, aliens, Phil Spector bugging his phone) of schizophrenic 1960s producer Joe Meek, right up to the mysterious circumstances of his death, shooting his landlady and then himself. Con O’Neill is a live-wire tour de force; nice cameo from The Libertines ‘ Carl Barat as Gene Vincent too.

Where to watch: Prime Video, Rakuten TV and Pluto TV

‘The Buddy Holly Story’

As riveting as any disaster movie, Holly’s legendary end on February 2, 1959 – The Day The Music Died – looms as large as Titanic ’s iceberg over The Buddy Holly Story , a film akin to the opening chapter of a regular biopic that’s cut horrifically and meaninglessly short. Gary Busey’s Holly – setting the bar for actors playing and singing the songs in music films – injects the whole thing with a fitting rock ’n’ roll fervour and, in cinema history, tragedy has rarely struck at such a high.

Where to watch: Rent it on Apple TV+

‘The Doors’

Hazy and hallucinogenic – the “kiss the snake” acid trip in the desert sequence is so iconic in drug cinema circles that The Simpsons spoofed it – Oliver Stone’s Doors movie captured the mythology of Jim Morrison to sensual and whiskey-sodden perfection. Val Kilmer plays the Lizard King as a beautiful/doomed rock poet caught halfway between Sunset Strip and the seventh dimension, pure self-destructive hedonism in human form.

‘The Pianist’

That Roman Polanski’s WWII drama concerned the real-life Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman, a popular Polish radio artist and composer, was almost secondary to the film’s importance as a record of the inhumanities of the Holocaust. Still, with music a lifeline helping Adrien Brody’s Szpilman survive the atrocities of the Warsaw Ghetto, it remains one of the most powerful music films to date.

‘The United States Vs. Billie Holiday’

A bit of a muddle of a movie – and some jazz experts even question the premise that the FBI targeted Holiday with drug charges to stop her singing civil rights ballad “Strange Fruit” – but Andra Day inhabits Holiday with a hypnotic intensity and vulnerability in Lee Daniels’ spotlight on her tempestuous 1950s.

‘Velvet Goldmine’

Transposing Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Berlin era onto the fictional Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), adding elements of Bryan Ferry and Marc Bolan – and with Ewan McGregor as an amalgam of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed – Todd Haynes mashed the ‘70s rock world into a colourful and surreal blast of glam pop culture, and a love affair between British and American music (we’re counting it).

‘Walk The Line’

The rags-to-riches-to-drugs-to-breakdown story is the blueprint for most music biopics. But James Mangold’s exploration of the life and many hardships of Johnny Cash stands apart for its ability to channel the pain of the man into the impact of his music, largely thanks to Joaquin Phoenix’s glowering presence as Cash and Reese Witherspoon’s charming June.

Where to watch: Disney+, Prime Video

‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’

Proudly proclaiming that no actual research into accordion pop spoofster Al Yankovic ’s real life was conducted for the film, Weird… is a canny pastiche of the rock biopic, covering Al’s ‘childhood’ being told to give up on his dreams by his parents to his rebellion teenage polka parties, a spoof-pop revelation over a packet of bologna and the LSD trip that inspires him to write ‘Eat It’ before Michael Jackson . An affair with Madonna ? Brushes with the Pablo Escobar cartel? Dan Radcliffe goes along with it, so you do too.

‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’

Angela Bassett – a future music biopic regular – got her breakthrough as Tina Turner in Brian Gibson’s unflinching portrayal of the singer’s abusive marriage to singing partner Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne) and her subsequent ascendence to solo superstardom.

‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’

One of the earliest examples of the form saw James Cagney take on the role of Broadway showman, producer and composer George M Cohan, writer of ‘Yankee Doodle Boy’ and ‘Give My Regards To Broadway’. Three Oscars later, it cemented the music biopic as an award-winning concern.

• Related Topics
• Chuck Berry
• Depeche Mode
• John Lennon
• Joy Division
• Keith Richards
• The Beatles
• Thurston Moore
• Woody Guthrie

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The best music biopics: great films about musical icons

Stories of the great, the good, and the ugly.

With Elvis' biopic a hit, proving that there is a lot of life yet underused genre, we thought it time to run down the best music biopics.

Considering that they’re the world’s two premier art forms, it’s surprising how rarely movies have attempted to tell the stories of famous musicians.

Perhaps the replication of live performances, and the difficulty of portraying musical icons produces a barrier; there’s no doubt that to truly pull off a memorable biopic, an extraordinary lead performance is required.

Luckily, on at least 20 occasions, this has been achieved: we present our list of the must-see musical biopics in movie history.

The best music biopics

1 . Elvis (2022)

For those looking for a more grounded biopic of Elvis, then head to John Carpenter's fantastic TV movie (starring Kurt Russell). If you want want one that's bombastic, full of pomp and ceremony and frames the Elvis story around his devious manager Colonel Tom Parker (a cartoon-like Tom Hanks), then this is for you. It's filled and fuelled by the exuberance you have come to expect from director Baz Luhrmann but it's the central performance by Austin Butler that is standout here.

2 . Walk The Line (2005)

Telling the full, legendary story of the man in black was always going to be a difficult task and Walk The Line decided to focus mainly on the early years of the Johnny Cash story. Despite apparently believing that there were at least ten other actors better suited to the role, Joaquin Phoenix turned in a towering performance as the country legend, with Reese Witherspoon matching him as the great June Carter - both also producing fantastic vocal performances which did justice to the talents of their subjects. The story didn’t skirt around Johnny’s many issues with drug addiction and was, at times, a harrowing watch. While it would be great to see another biopic explore the fascinating latter stages of his life, Walk The Line will do very nicely for now.

3 . ​Straight Outta Compton​ (2015)

Straight Outta Compton may be an official biopic (it was sanctioned by the remaining members of NWA) but there's still a brilliant menace to the whole thing. It's a powerful film filled with fantastic performances (O'Shea Jackson Jr is brilliant as his dad Ice Cube and Corey Hawkins nails Dr Dre) and a soundtrack that brought Dre himself out of retirement to produce.

4 . Ray (2004)

A movie that took director Taylor 15 years to make, it was well worth the wait, as Jamie Foxx’s stunning performance as Ray Charles won him an Oscar and kick-started his acting career. In addition, the movie was a box office hit, grossing over $120m. The only negative about the entire project was Charles himself sadly dying months before the premiere: we’re sure he would have approved of the finished film.

5 . Rocketman (2019)

Bohemian Rhapsody may have gotten all of the accolades when it was released around the same time, but Rocketman is a much more assured, honest biopic. Taron Egerton steps into the specs of Elton John and makes the role his own, with flamboyance and frailty. It's a film about excess and all the trappings that come with that - even though it is produced by Elton, there are moments that will surprise. Directed by Rhapsody's Dexter Fletcher , here he offers up a more surreal, kaleidoscopic vision of his subject matter and the movie is all the more better for it.

6 . The Doors (1991)

A film full of faults but for the central performance of Val Kilmer alone, this movie needs to be on the list. Kilmer is Doors' frontman Jim Morrison, all leather, posturing and psychedelia. The movie has the tics of every Oliver Stone movie (politics, surrealism, the 60s) but still manages to be a coherent look at one of the most influential bands of all time.

7 . Love & Mercy (2014)

Criminally under seen, Love & Mercy is a superb biopic focusing on the life of Brian Wilson. Set in two timelines, Wilson is played by two fantastic actors: Paul Dano in his younger years and John Cusack in his latter. Layered with pathos for the troubled genius behind the band, the focus of the film is on both the making of Pet Sounds and Wilson in an extreme type of therapy in the '80s. Don't come expecting a linear movie, but do expect a fantastic watch.

8 . Great Balls of Fire (1989)

A fascinating look at one of the more controversial characters in rock and roll history, Great Balls Of Fire told the story of Jerry Lee Lewis. An astonishing piano player, and musical visionary, he was predicted to usurp Elvis as the king of rock and roll until a scandal erupted when he married his 13-year-old cousin. Dennis Quaid shone, playing Lewis, who also had to battle with alcoholism throughout his career. For the record, Lewis himself disliked the movie, but praised Quaid, saying, “he really pulled it off”. Goodness gracious: that’s a compliment.

9 . Amadeus (1984)

Milos Forman's Amadeus is one of the grandest music biopics around. While it's based around fictionalised events, it follows an idea that has been around for centuries - that Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri were at war with each other. Here we see that feud take place in the most grandiose manner. This tale of jealousy and genius and the toll is takes on mental health is dazzling.

10 . 24 Hour Party People (2002)

A total riot of a film, this purported to tell the story of Manchester TV and Music impresario Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan, who was seemingly born for the role), but as the legendary figure admitted during the course of the picture, “I’m a minor character in my own story”. Really, this film was an excuse to chart and champion the music of the golden period of Manchester music, featuring a host of huge and cult names: Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, Vini Reilly, Quando Qunago and many more besides, many guided by the genius/lunatic producer Martin Hannett. As if this wasn’t enough, it told the story of the rise of the acid house scene. How truthful was all of it though? As Wilson was fond of saying, “If it’s a choice between the truth and the legend, print the legend.”

11 . What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993)

A huge hit, but also a controversial one, with a host of scenes and storylines disputed by the parties involved. However, what was not disputed was that it was a gripping film, which captured the essence of Tina Turner’s fighting spirit and inner strength, as well as her incredible talent and pure star-quality. Whitney Houston was originally offered the role of Tina, but had to decline after becoming pregnant; no matter, as Angela Bassett turned in a powerhouse performance, matched by Laurence Fishburne as the domineering Ike.

12 . Control (2007)

The first feature film directed by legendary photographer Anton Corbijn and boy, did it show. This was a visually stunning film but, of course, it would have been nothing without the, in turns, inspiring and heartbreaking story of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis being told in a sensitive and compelling fashion. Thankfully, for Joy Division fans everywhere, this was achieved with aplomb - not least due to Sam Riley’s stirring performance as Curtis - incredibly his first appearance in a movie.

13 . La Vie en Rose (2007)

La Vie En Rose features a powerhouse performance by Marion Cotillard as French singer Édith Piaf who had one hell of a life. Rising from poverty - she was brought up by her grandmother in the Paris slums - to the superstar singer she became, this movie has a scattershot approach to telling Piaf's tale. It lingers longer than it should but you can't help be enthralled by the brilliant Cotillard.

14 . The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Yes, Gary Busey is 10 years too old to play the twenty-something Buddy Holiday but that doesn't matter when he puts in such a blistering performance. For the most part you will forget you are watching Busey as he it perfect in a film that plays a little with historical accuracy but is a great, straight-laced music biopic about a genius who was taken far too soon.

15 . Nowhere Boy (2009)

A UK-produced film which received widespread acclaim, Nowhere Boy told the story of John Lennon’s teenage years between 1955-1960, eschewing the more famous era of his life and thus becoming arguably more intriguing. This biopic had many parallels with Control - a director principally famous for photography in Sam Taylor-Wood, and Matt Greenhalgh writing the screenplay, as he did for the Ian Curtis film. A young Aaron Johnson starred as Lennon, receiving widespread plaudits, and even ended up marrying Taylor-Wood. Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono both gave their blessing to the film - so if it can unite those two, it must have been good - and it was.

16 . Last Days (2005)

In may ways a simple film, Last Days is almost hypnotic in how normal the movie is. Showcasing the last days of Kurt Cobain (framed around a musician called Blake, played by Michael Pitt), there's no big incident to latch on to - and not much music per se - as we watch the musician steep further into their mental decline. It will be seen as boring for some, but there is something poetic and unsettling about Last Days that kept us gripped.

17 . Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)

Forget Gollum, the best performance Andy Serkis has done so far in his impressive career is that of Ian Dury. This music biopic about the punk who was stricken by polio early in his life is a brilliant look at the singer. This is one of the more experimental biopics on this list.

18 . Sid And Nancy (1986)

Appropriately, given the subject matter, Sid & Nancy was a controversial film, with John Lydon strongly criticising the whole thing (bar Gary Oldham’s performance as Sid) as being far removed from the reality of events - stating that “this movie is the lowest form of life”. However, critics disagreed as well as audiences - eventually; it was a box office flop, but has since established itself as a cult classic. Whatever people’s opinions, it was an essential look at one of the most fascinating characters in music history, made all the more intriguing by the fact that no-one really knows what the true story of the eponymous characters’ ending was. In addition, it created a couple of trivia classics: a pre-Hole and Kurt Cobain Courtney Love starred in a minor role after auditioning for Nancy and all five original members of Guns ‘n’ Roses were hired independently as extras for a club scene.

19 . I’m Not There (2007)

Trying to tell the life story of Bob Dylan was always going to be a herculean task, so I’m Not There took a cleverly alternative approach instead. Strictly speaking, a biographical musical film rather than a straight biopic - indeed, the only time Dylan’s name appears in the film is in a caption at the start - it used six different actors to depict different elements of the ever-changing Dylan’s life. It was a successful way to tackle a compelling and chameleonic life, and was also notable for being one of the last movies to feature Heath Ledger.

20 . Notorious (2009)

The story of Biggie Smalls is a real rags to riches tale, following his journey from drug dealing hustler to world famous rap star, but sadly there was no happy ending, as the East Coast-West Coast rivalry span out of control, taking the lives of both Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Not a perfect film by any means, but a fascinating look at a hip hop icon - and, of course, the soundtrack is impeccable.

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The Best Music Biopics Of All Time

Over 900 music fans have voted to shape these rankings of the best music biopics of all time. With its unique blend of documentary and drama, a great music biopic can transport you into the world of your favorite artist - their struggles, successes, and everything in between.

From the Ray Charles's  Ray  to Johnny Cash's Walk The Line , some of cinema's most memorable films have been based on real-life musicians. It takes real skill for filmmakers to capture an artist’s essence while keeping them grounded in reality, but when they succeed it results in cinematic magic - moments that stay with us long after the credits roll.

For those who want a more accurate portrait than fiction can provide, there are plenty of documentaries about famous musicians available too. Whether it's Queen or Elton John that you're interested in learning more about, this list has something for everyone. So why not take a look at our ranking and see which music biopics come out on top? Then be sure to vote up your favorites so they rise even higher.

Walk the Line

Johnny Cash and June Carter

• Released : 2005
• Directed by : James Mangold

Ray Charles

• Released : 2004
• Directed by : Taylor Hackford

Bohemian Rhapsody

Freddie Mercury and Queen

• Released : 2018
• Directed by : Bryan Singer

Coal Miner's Daughter

Loretta Lynn

• Released : 1980
• Directed by : Michael Apted

Ritchie Valens

• Released : 1987
• Directed by : Luis Valdez

What's Love Got to Do with It

Tina Turner

• Released : 1993
• Directed by : Brian Gibson

The Best Musical Biopics, Ranked

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Biographies about musicians and artists are becoming more popular in the modern age of film. Curiosity for knowledge and gossip still exists, but seeing history play out on the screen is more engaging to audiences nowadays versus reading material out of a book for the same information. The musical biopic genre is adaptable, and can combine darker and lighter tones to tell the story of the artist. Over the past 50 years, there have been a number of musical biopics that have set the standard for the genre. While not all of these particular films utilize music in traditional ways, it is still an integral piece of the artist’s story.

She truly was the talk of the town. The 2019 biopic Judy pulled the curtain behind the life of the legendary performer Judy Garland. Renee Zellweger’s Oscar-winning performance shows the world what is truly over the rainbow. In the case of Judy Garland, her life was all but magical. The film shows the darker side of Garland’s career and mismanagement, but it also uses music and songs from Garland to give new and young audience members a taste of why she was so magical to us. Garland is given life again through Zellweger’s incredible performance which included singing live on set.

11 Get On Up

The late Chadwick Boseman stars as the legendary musical icon James Brown in the 2014 musical biopic Get On Up . The film uses unique fourth wall breaks and rhythmic sequences of soul to chronicle the life of the musician. The story goes from Brown’s early impoverished days to superstardom. The film is directed by Tate Taylor, whose acclaimed credits include the Oscar-nominated film The Help.

It is commonly heard by classical music lovers that “music isn’t quite the same today.” An Oscar winner for Best Picture, Amadeus showcases on a grandiose scale the beauty of classical music, as told from the biographical perspective of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In addition to that Oscar, the film also garnered seven more, including Best Director, Actor, Writing, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, and Make-Up. The film is as beautiful and classical as one can get in the modern age of art and technology.

Related: How Marlon Brando Changed Acting and His Career's Legacy

While not a traditional musical, the movie's soundtrack won a Grammy Award and sold over six and a half million copies, and is an integral aspect of telling the musician's life. Director Milos Forman also helmed the famous Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey, who entered a new level of method acting to portray comedian Andy Kaufman in yet another biographical masterpiece .

9 Walk the Line

The 2005 classic biopic Walk the Line tells the story of Johnny Cash, one of the most influential musicians of all time. Cash was portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix who received an Oscar nomination alongside Reese Witherspoon who took home the trophy for her work in this film. Phoenix, who had already made a name for himself with films like Gladiator and Signs a few years prior, talked on Conan while promoting the film about meeting Johnny Cash in the flesh.

“Well, I was invited over to dinner at [Cash’s] friend’s house and went over and it was an amazing experience. [...] I had to leave, and John stopped me as I was walking out. And he was a real fan of this movie I did, Gladiator. And he said [...] ‘My favorite part is when you said, ‘Your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross and your wife moaned like a horse. They ravaged her again and again and again.’ I love that part.’ [...] I mean the most sadistic dialogue ever committed to celluloid.”

8 Bohemian Rhapsody

We know the voice, we know the songs, but the film Bohemian Rhapsody gives audiences a side to the legendary Freddie Mercury that we have never seen before. Rami Malek’s Oscar-winning performance captures the energy, theatrics, and at times lonesomeness in Mercury’s personal life. Not only is this film perfectly cast where each member of Queen looks like their real life counterparts, it is also beautifully shot by Bryan Singer. The LiveAid sequence captures the massive scale of the Queen performance and why it is regarded as one of the best in history. Talks of a sequel to the successful biopic are causing speculation and intrigue amongst fans of the film and band.

The 2022 Baz Luhrmann film starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler as the titular character is truly an electrifying experience. Elvis is more about the feeling and impact of the King of Rock and Roll than a more traditional biopic. Luhrmann captures the feeling and electricity in Presley’s career through breathtaking visuals and jaw dropping recreations of historical performances. While the film is told in a non-linear way, it is a vibrant exploration into Elvis’ life, the Black music and culture that he drew from, and the period in which he lived, and has earned massive box office success and critical acclaim.

Related: Elvis: Why These Are the Best Musical Moments

6 Rocketman

Taron Egerton shines as Elton John in this musical biopic produced by Elton himself. Rocketman uses cinematic musical numbers and fantastical dreamlike sequences to tell the story of Elton John’s life and career. The film is unlike any other, as it is one of the few musical fantasy films out there that use music and astounding visuals in this way to get audiences into the mind of Elton and what it felt like to be as famous as he is to this day. Taron Egerton and Elton John are known to have a continued friendship and have performed songs together live on stage since this film’s release.

Jamie Foxx’s Oscar-winning performance truly encapsulates the essence and personality of Ray Charles. The 2004 film Ray , directed by Taylor Hackford, is one of the best in capturing the feel of the music and the feeling the musician had on their audience. However, the most jaw dropping factor to this film’s success is Foxx’s dedication to the role. It is reported he lost 30 pounds to play the role of the slender Ray Charles and he glued his eyes shut to fully realize the feeling of blindness and the awe-inspiring talent Charles had.

4 All That Jazz

The 1979 film All That Jazz is an autobiography of director and Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse, who worked on such massive shows and films as Cabaret and Chicago . He writes and directs his own story in this hyper-stylized film through the avatar of a drug fueled womanizer named Joe Gideon, played by Roy Scheider . Scheider had starred in the massively successful blockbuster Jaws four years prior. However, his electrifying and troubled performance is utterly different here and, along with flashy dance pieces and various Broadway style musical numbers, help aid the film’s stylistic presentation.

3 The Doors

Val Kilmer lights a fire as the iconic musician in the classic biopic The Doors . The film is a psychedelic look into the world of Morrison and the legendary rock band. However, Morrison’s drug and sex-fueled career take a turn for the worst, as history proves. But director Oliver Stone uses disorienting angles and camera movements to put the viewer into the perspective of the intoxicated characters. The music is used in live performance sequences to capture what audience reactions to the band were like in their heyday, and incorporates nearly two dozen songs from The Doors.

2 La Vie en Rose

Marion Cotillard delivers one of the best performances of all time in a biopic for the classic film La Vie en Rose . Despite being French and in a French film, Cotillard took home the Oscar for her work in this story of legendary performer Edith Piaf which chronicles her rise to fame from the poverty-stricken streets. The musical sequences are tender and beautiful, and Piaf’s story is heartbreaking. The film depicts most of Piaf’s life and jumps around various time periods. However, the sequences all blend perfectly together and create a beautiful threadline to the artist’s story.

1 tick, tick…BOOM!

Being 30 in the 90s was quite hard for aspiring stars like Jonathan Larson. A 2021 film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the man, tick, tick…BOOM! is a masterpiece and the Oscar-nominated performance by Andrew Garfield is his absolute best. The film is a musical biopic of the theater writer and composer as he struggles to break through to stardom years before his success with the iconic musical Rent . His words are beautifully written and sung by Garfield along with the rest of the cast. tick, tick…BOOM! is also a film that uses music as a metaphor for time and love. While the story is interesting and compelling from a historical perspective, this Netflix original is a beautiful and perfect musical biopic that doesn’t skip a beat.

• Movie Lists

The 10 Greatest Rock Biopics

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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The rock biopic never goes away. Its popularity waxes and wanes, and not everyone will agree on what the great ones are. Just look at the love-it-or-thumb-your-nose-at-it phenomenon that was “Bohemian Rhapsody” — or at Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which seems, thus far, to be a movie that audiences have embraced more than critics have. What we can all agree on, perhaps, is how much we cherish this form . When it’s great, the rock biopic delivers a kick of excitement that’s singular in its grandeur. These movies are all about art, they’re about fame, they’re about sex and drugs, they’re about conducting the electricity of rock, soul, funk, punk and hip-hop, they’re about an actor not just playing but becoming a pop star, and in that sense they’re about music as save-your-soul, walk-on-the-wild-side, stairway-to-heaven religion. Here are the 10 rock biopics we think are most worthy of worship.

In 1980, Ian Curtis, the 23-year-old lead singer of Joy Division, took his own life. His suicide then cast its shadow back over the band, sealing their image as morose prophets of postpunk doom. But Anton Corbijn’s exquisitely accomplished Curtis biopic both mythologizes and undercuts the image of Curtis as the depressive bard of the Manchester music scene. Sam Riley, who looks eerily like Curtis, is mesmerizing in the concert sequences, flinging his arms around in the singer’s trademark martial strut, which was like a stylized version of one of his epileptic fits (a condition he addressed in “She’s Lost Control,” arguably Joy Division’s most arresting song). Shot in lusciously austere black-and-white, “Control” is about another sort of division — the split that Curtis felt between the normality of his home life and the temptations of rock stardom, a conflict that tore him apart.

The Buddy Holly Story

Gary Busey, still mostly an unknown, dropped 35 pounds and did his own singing to play Buddy Holly, the grinning, horn-rimmed Boy Scout of 1950s rock. There are rock biopics that have the gregarious spirit of B-movies, and this is one of them, though it may be the supreme example of how a certain upbeat drive-in-movie geniality can be perfectly attuned to its subject ­— in this case, Busey’s Buddy Holly as a rock dynamo in a nerd’s body, turning songs like “Peggy Sue” and “Not Fade Away” into crackling anthems of happy combustion. The entire movie is a pedestal for Busey’s rambunctious performance, which is all about Holly channeling the spirit of early rock as something larger than himself.

A luridly liberating trip through the violence and hunger, the verbal brilliance and money fever of the hip-hop world, which George Tillman Jr.’s drama views as both heroic and destructive (often for the same reasons). Dressed in pin stripes and a bowler hat, Jamal Woolard is uncanny as the imperious-on-the-outside, haunted-on-the-inside Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., who saunters arounds like a mountainous gangsta John Wayne, imposing himself on each encounter. He starts off as a crook, then becomes a put-on crook who’s reborn into a rap superhero, making up his smoky dark rhymes on the spot, using the words to seduce. But the movie also teases out the glee in Biggie (he’s like a kid cracking up at his own bravado), which is one reason it’s a far richer, subtler, and more potent hip-hop chronicle than “Straight Outta Compton.”

It may seem that the Beatles are too iconic to be convincingly portrayed in a biopic. Yet Iain Softley’s drama is a loving reenactment of the years before the Beatles got famous, when they were just a rough-and-tumble bar band hired to keep the customers awake between strippers by playing hard-rocking cover versions of “Be-Bop-a-Lula” in the grimy rathskellers of Hamburg. And so the movie lets us discover them anew. Ian Hart, a dead ringer for John Lennon, makes him the nastiest and wittiest punk around. Everything but rock ‘n’ roll is a sham to John, yet his hostile japery is itself a mask. We can see that his true musical comrade is Paul McCartney (Gary Bakewell), yet the one John feels closest to is Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff, in his finest performance), the fifth member of the Beatles, who is sexy, aristocratic, and doomed. The movie is about how the Beatles learned to unite rock ‘n’ roll with beauty, and when they finally do, taking the stage to play “Twist and Shout,” it gives you a shudder.

Love & Mercy

It brings off a time-machine miracle. For much of Bill Pohlad’s film, we’re in the studio with Brian Wilson, the damaged prodigy of the Beach Boys, as he creates “Pet Sounds,” and damned if we’re not right there with him — watching him work out his musical arrangements with the Wrecking Crew, or teach his brothers how to sing in contrapuntal harmony, holding the masterpiece he’s making together in his own head. Paul Dano, spacey and spooked, catches the delicate directness of Brian’s lust for the sublime, and the movie shows a deep understanding of how Wilson’s mental-health issues (this is a man who hears voices) are inextricable from his creative virtuosity (this is a man who hears voices). In the film’s other half, John Cusack portrays Wilson 20 years later, when he’d become a wreck under the exploitative “care” of the hustler guru Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), and the story of how Wilson freed himself from this Dr. Feel-Bad becomes as emotionally suspenseful as it is moving.

Jamie Foxx channels Ray Charles in a movie that pays galvanizing tribute to his genius but also digs down into his flawed, soul-deep humanity. The director, Taylor Hackford, creates a supple storytelling structure, allowing Foxx to uses Ray’s blindness as a fulcrum for the singer’s laser-like ability to read people. The movie stays true to Charles’ story, but it’s built like a runaway train to rhythm-and-blues heaven, so that by the time Ray performs “What’d I Say,” he seems to be ascending into a percolating nirvana of electric-piano propulsion. Yet Ray’s triumph is also his downfall. He becomes successful by controlling everything — his music, his business, his master tapes, the women and drugs whose temptations he can’t resist. He becomes a dynamo of unchecked ego, even as he forges a sound as large as America.

I'm Not There

When you hear about Todd Haynes’s visionary biopic-in-six-parts, with half a dozen actors playing Bob Dylan in different guises, it may sound like an overreaching academic stunt. But Haynes is the most down-to-earth deconstructionist alive. He treats each segment as a little movie of its own, and he’s so rapturously attuned to the dirty secret of Dylan’s music — that it was never “folk,” and that the lyrics don’t matter nearly as much as you think — that the movie works as a series of bedazzled epiphanies, whether it’s Cate Blanchett embodying the druggy hipster Dylan of 1965 as a sun-glassed celebrity enigma, or Heath Ledger touching the raw nerve of his marital troubles, or Christian Bale singing the 1980 gospel song “Pressing On” in a way that unlocks the passion of Dylan’s Christian phase. These ever-changing Dylans are as distinct as can be, even as they flow right into one another. What unifies the movie is Todd Haynes’ addiction to Dylan. He wants to lure you inside that intoxication, and does, which is why “I’m Not There” plays like the headiest musical ever made.

What's Love Got to Do With It

The saga of Tina Turner has become a myth, a legend, a parable. But when this biopic was released in 1993, the story of her marriage to Ike Turner — the extraordinary music they made together, the horrific abuse she suffered — was still being unpacked, and in the movie it plays with a force of revelation. Angela Bassett does full justice to the volcanic power of Tina’s stage persona in the 1960s, when the intensity of her singing and dancing trumped every pop performer around. Offstage, she shows us how Tina was trapped in a relationship of merciless fear. Yet Laurence Fishburne’s performance as the manipulative, two-faced Ike is never a caricature; it’s a portrait of toxic domestic male rage that’s rendered as humanely as the film renders Tina’s anguished heroism. “What’s Love Got to Do With It” retains a singular power: as a cautionary tale of unchecked abuse, and as the story of an artist who, even as she hid in the shadows, remade the pop-music landscape with the fury of her gift.

Amazingly, there are still many Chadwick Boseman fans who have never seen the late actor’s finest performance — as James Brown, in all his raspy cunning and whirling funk ecstasy. How does anyone play James Brown? How do you inhabit those moves, that gruffer-than-life personality? You have to be operating on some next level of majestic exhibitionism, but damned if Boseman doesn’t bring it off. Tate Taylor’s movie has a vibrant authenticity — it stays extraordinarily close to the saga of how Brown created his own inside-out version of rock ‘n’ roll, flipping the backbeat, accompanying it all with stage moves that would mark him as a one-man machine of transcendence. Yet the Brown we see is also a scalded soul, at once proud and merciless. With every performance, he’s stomping out his pain, and Boseman is uncompromising when it comes to portraying how Brown shut out the world in order to conquer it.

Sid and Nancy

It was Gary Oldman’s first movie (no one, until then, had heard of him). Yet he inhabited the role of Sid Vicious with such astonishing immersion — the scowling grin and pasty skin; the glassy-eyed delinquent-as-sociopath daze; the way he tossed his body around like an S&M rag doll — that to this day it may be his single greatest performance. In a timeless punk drama, the director Alex Cox did something indelible in its transgressive glee. He made what was essentially a Sex Pistols biopic by building it entirely around Sid, a charismatic wastrel of almost no talent, and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen, played by Chloe Webb as a platinum-blonde junkie vampire who speaks in a screeching whine from hell. These people were thought of, even by many of their closest associates, as a joke. Yet the tawdry glory of the movie is that it digs so deep into their humanity, their dirty-syringe desperation, and their genuine love for each other that it’s like watching “Tristan und Isolde” in safety pins and torn fishnets. Sid, as he once sang, did it “My Way,” and in the movie’s culminating scenes, set in the Chelsea Hotel, Oldman and Webb create a darkly spellbinding magic together, making the pain as real as the self-destructive insanity. With the exception of “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Sid and Nancy” is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll movie ever made. And that makes it the greatest rock biopic.

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Upcoming Music Biopics Coming Out In 2024 And Beyond

Music hits the big screen...

Over the years, great music biopics have given us some of the most enchanting and unforgettable movie moments, which is why it should be no surprise that several Best Picture winners have been from the genre. Movies like Walk the Line , What’s Love Got to Do with It , and most recently, Bob Marley: One Love , have not only shed light on the careers, lives, and legacies of their subjects, they also introduced new audiences to several of history’s best musicians.

In the coming months and years, audiences will get to take a deep dive into the lives of even more celebrated musicians in the crop of upcoming music biopics. Here are some of the music-centric biographical dramas coming out in 2024 and beyond…

Back To Black - May 17, 2024

On May 17 , Marisa Abela will play one of the most successful and tragic singers of the early 21st century when she takes on the role of Amy Winehouse in Back to Black . Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who previously helmed the John Lennon biopic titled Nowhere Boy , the movie will dive into the late singer’s life and the start of her career that saw her go from being a London jazz singer to one of the biggest music sensations in British music history. 

The first Back to Black trailer , which shows Abela doing an incredible job of pulling off Winehouse’s signature vocal stylings and look, has us excited to finally get to see the movie that has been in the works since shortly after the singer’s shocking 2011 death. 

Michael - April 18, 2025

Though the 1992 ABC miniseries, The Jacksons: An American Dream , took a deep dive into the life and career of Michael Jackson and his brothers, the King of Pop has never received a proper music biopic. Well, that will change in 2025 with the release of Michael . Directed by Antoine Fuqua, this highly anticipated biographical drama will turn its focus on the pop culture icon, who will be played by his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, though it’s not yet known what all that will entail.

There are some things we know about Michael at this point, including its April 18, 2025 release date, and the fact that Colman Domingo and Nia Long will be playing his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson. Miles Teller is also set to appear in the movie as John Branca, Jackson’s longtime manager and the co-executor of his estate. A first-look image shared by sites like Deadline in February 2024 showed that not only were cameras rolling, but Jaafar Jackson also looked remarkably similar to his late uncle.

Deliver Me From Nowhere - TBD

Bruce Springsteen is one of the most iconic American rockers, and his 1982 stripped-down LP titled Nebraska is one of the best records of not only his career but in rock music history. At some point in the near future, Scott Cooper’s Deliver Me From Nowhere will explore how “The Boss” crafted his masterpiece and everything that led to it.

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Not a whole lot is known about the movie at this point, but The Bear ’s Jeremy Allen White is in talks to play the New Jersey rock ‘n roll icon while Succession star Jeremy Strong might be joining the biopic as Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau . Both Springsteen and Landau are serving as producers on the film, so don’t get too worried about its authenticity.

Sam Mendes’ Beatles Movies - TBD

Sam Mendes , a director who doesn’t get talked about enough , is preparing to take on what could possibly be his most ambitious project yet, four movies about the Beatles . If all things go according to plan, the 1917 filmmaker will release a series of biopics, with each film centering on a specific member of the iconic rock outfit.

Details are slim to none at this early stage in the films’ development, but there are plenty of key events that would make for great scenes in whatever this ends up being. Mendes, who has made movies like American Beauty and Skyfall throughout his career, will be more than up to the task, and hopefully, that’s the case for whoever signs on to play John, Paul, George, and Ringo. 

Linda Ronstadt Biopic - TBD

Linda Ronstadt, the 11-time Grammy winner behind iconic tracks like “You’re No Good,” “Somewhere Out There,” and “Blue Bayou” will be getting the biopic treatment at some point in the future, and the actress tied to portraying her has us very excited. In January 2024, Rolling Stone confirmed that Only Murders in the Building star Selena Gomez was attached to star in the untitled movie after she shared an image of Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams memoir on her Instagram page.

Not a lot is known about the movie at this time, including its cast, director, and official title. With Gomez being one of the biggest names in pop culture right now, it probably won’t be long before we hear more about this exciting music biopic.

Fred Astaire Biopic - TBD

Hollywood has seen few stars who have shined as bright as Fred Astaire, the legendary entertainer who could seemingly do it all, and better than anyone else. Well, at some point in the future, Tom Holland will play the legendary actor/singer/dancer/musician/choreographer in a biopic that has been long in the works. According to The Hollywood Reporter , the movie, which is being directed by Paddington and Wonka ’s Paul King, will center on the relationship shared by Astaire and his sister, Adele. 

There hasn’t been any word on who will be playing Adele Astaire, but considering her talent was only eclipsed by that of her brother, the ideal candidate will need to be able to sing and dance alongside the Spider-Man star.

Maria - TBD

Pablo Larraín, the Academy Award-winning Chilean filmmaker behind biopics like Neruda , Jackie , and Spencer , will return to the genre once again with his upcoming project, Maria . The movie, which doesn’t have a release date at this time, will see Angelina Jolie take on the role of iconic opera singer, Maria Callas.

According to The Hollywood Reporter , which shared first-look images from the upcoming movie in October 2023, Maria will tell the story of Callas’ final days in 1970s Paris, though not a lot of other details have been released concerning the plot. Production was slated to kick off around that time. 

A Complete Unknown - TBD

At some point in the future, Timothée Chalamet will portray one of the most influential musicians in American history: Bob Dylan. James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown will follow the trailblazing musician around the time he expanded his repertoire and shocked his fans by going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, according to Deadline . Chalamet, who’s perfect for the role , will be joined by Elle Fanning and Edward Norton, who is set to portray folk legend Pete Seeger.

Production on the film kicked off in March 2024 in New York, though we don’t yet know when this will be hitting theaters.

Beautiful - TBD

We’ve seen several long-running Broadway musicals get turned into big-screen adaptations in recent years with the likes of The Color Purple and Mean Girls . At some point soon, we’ll have another addition to that list with Beautiful , a movie based on the Tony Award-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical . 

In December 2022, Variety revealed a ton of information about the project, including that Where the Crawdads Sing star Daisy Edgar-Jones would be playing the beloved musician in the biopic helmed by The Kids Are All Right director Lisa Cholodenko. There aren’t a lot of details about the movie at this time, but Sony Pictures did secure the rights to King’s catalog of hits, meaning we’ll be hearing some legendary tracks in the musical biopic.

Grateful Dead Biopic - TBD

Grateful Dead, one of the pioneers of the jam band movement in the 20th century, will be getting the biographical drama treatment at some point in the future. What makes this so exciting is the fact that Martin Scorsese is attached to direct, Variety reported in November 2021. This won’t be the filmmaker’s first time working on a project about the Dead, as he previously helmed the 2017 documentary, Long Strange Trip .

Deadline also reported that Jonah Hill, who worked with Scorsese in The Wolf of Wall Street , had been tapped to play Garcia in the biopic. There hasn’t been any word on when the project will enter production or who will join Hill in the cast.

Sublime Biopic - TBD

Sublime, the iconic ‘90s band that became a massive hit thanks to its blend of punk, reggae, rock, and late singer Bradley Nowell’s signature voice, will be getting the biopic treatment if everything goes to plan. In September 2022, Variety reported that Francis Lawrence, the director behind I Am Legend and the Hunger Games movies , was spearheading the untitled project for Sony’s 3000 Pictures.

There hasn’t been much in terms of details about the biopic centered around the Long Beach alternative rock band, but it would be interesting to see how the movie handles the band’s rapid rise to fame and Nowell’s tragic death just before the release of their self-titled album.

Bee Gees Biopic - TBD

There has been talk of a movie about the Bee Gees for years, but it looks like it may really be happening this time. In December 2022, Deadline reported that Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria would be helming the Paramount Pictures biographical drama after original helmer, John Carney, backed out.

Not much is known at this time, and we don’t yet know who will be playing the chart-topping disco group best known for coming up with beloved tracks like “Stayin’ Alive” and “How Deep Is Your Love?” on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

We will make sure to keep everyone updated on the status of each of these projects (and any new biographical dramas) as more information becomes available. But, in the meantime, take a look at our rundown of 10 biopics about black musicians everyone should watch.

Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. When he's not writing about movies or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three kids, telling his dogs to stop barking at the mailman, or chatting about professional wrestling to his wife. Writing gigs with school newspapers, multiple daily newspapers, and other varied job experiences led him to this point where he actually gets to write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time.

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2. Green Book

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Clint Eastwood Deconstructed the Music Biopic in This Probing, Heartbreaking Movie

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Clint Eastwood is associated with many things: Westerns, pistol-wielding outlaws, true stories about scrutinized everyday heroes , and maybe even that time he talked to an empty chair. With such a storied and prolific career, his repertoire is as eclectic as any filmmaker in history, so much so that most people are oblivious to his passion for jazz music. When he's not acting or directing movies , you can often find Eastwood sitting in front of a piano. In fact, most of Eastwood's recent films have been scored by the man himself or feature his piano compositions, one of which can be heard during the end credits of Gran Torino . His soothing and inconspicuous scores represent an alternate side to the beloved movie star valorized as an icon of traditional masculinity . It seemed like an odd choice for Eastwood to direct Bird , the story of the brilliant but tortured jazz saxophonist , Charlie Parker , but his love of music, as well as his sympathy toward the burden of striking a chord between wellness and creating great art, allowed him to make his most underappreciated film.

Clint Eastwood's Creative Freedom and Passion for Jazz Led To 'Bird'

By the late 1980s, Eastwood perfected the auspicious "one for them, one for me" model with Warner Bros. In between sequels to Dirty Harry and Every Which Way but Loose , he would direct meditative Westerns like Pale Rider , released during a time when the genre was not in vogue, or an offbeat road trip musical comedy, Honkytonk Man . In 1988, the same year as the fifth and final Dirty Harry installment , The Dead Pool , Eastwood stepped away from the screen and exclusively took directing duties for Bird . The film follows the troubled life and career of the famed jazz musician, Charlie "Bird" Parker ( Forest Whitaker ). Parker immediately made a name for himself while touring jazz nightclubs in New York City in the 1940s. Struggling with substance abuse from an early age, he is supported by his wife, Chan ( Diane Venora ), who helps him through personal demons. Parker, who died at 34 years old, revolutionized jazz with his advancement of bebop and other virtuosic techniques.

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Due to a myriad of uninspiring films in the genre, music biopics are cursed with an unshakable negative connotation in the film community. Our awareness of the tropes and hackneyed conventions of music biopics was due to the sharp satirization in the cult classic comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story . The movie should've been a death blow to the music biopic in the way that Airplane! stunted the popularity of the disaster epic, but with the commercial success of Straight Outta Compton , Bohemian Rhapsody , Rocketman , and Bob Marley: One Love , they show no signs of extinction. Aside from the complications surrounding historical accuracy and creative hindrances enforced by the subject or their estate, music biopics are hampered by the obligation to stuff the entire life of one accomplished artist into a feature film. While the stories of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line and Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody differ in real life, their dramatizations fall for the same clichés and narrative beats.

'Bird' Avoids Many Music Biopic Tropes

To lump Bird in with the crop of familiar music biopics would be a grave disservice, as Eastwood's film is anything but a glorified Wikipedia biography. The director, with a script by Joel Oliansky , deconstructs the genre's tired conventions through a nonlinear narrative and fragmented structure. Running at 2 hours at 41 minutes, Eastwood's longest directorial effort, the film is an epic in the sense of attempting to understand a mythical figure. Archive footage of the saxophonist playing on stage was hard to come by upon release , as Roger Ebert wrote in his review. Bird attempts to crystalize the legend-making surrounding Parker as a jazz genius , one whose modernization of the genre influenced music for generations to come. The film jumps from Parker's stay in a psychiatric hospital to his early youth falling in love with jazz, to showstopping performances inside nightclubs. One minute he's bringing the house down with a revolutionary sound on the saxophone, and the next, he's fighting for his life as he fends off a poisonous heroin addiction. The freewheeling editing, featuring numerous flashbacks and jumps in time, channels the ambitious mind of Charlie Parker, who possessed an ingeniousness that seemed to overpower human anatomy.

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Generally speaking, music biopics cram the entire story (usually with limited artistic success) of an artist's life on the screen. They try to carry the comprehensive weight of a documentary into a narrative feature that requires a tighter dramatic pull. Bird doesn't try to summarize its subject's life , but rather, it captures the essence of Charlie Parker's life that was cut short far too soon. As Ebert eloquently wrote in his review, "This is a film of music, not about it." The narrative has the ebb and flow of a music album, with each track having its own story and personality but all sharing one commonality. In the timeline showcasing Parker's rise to success, there is a tint of melancholy throughout his brilliant jazz numbers, as we are aware of his impending tragic downfall. Eastwood's direction blossoms with the magistery of a swooning musical number, particularly in his photography of 52nd Street, the hub of jazz in New York City. The music sequences, emphasizing the intricacies of playing the saxophone and the intimacy of the local nightclubs, could only be made by someone with deep admiration for the art form.

'Bird' Humanizes a Tortured Artist and Reflects Clint Eastwood's Relationship to Art

While many prominent directors have tackled music biopics, rarely do even the most accomplished filmmakers infuse their voices into the stories of their subject. Eastwood's adoration for jazz and Charlie Parker is evident in his humane portrait of an artist working through the perils of the creative process. Of course, some of the most storied musicians struggled with drug addiction, which is almost automatically dramatized in your basic music biopic. In Bird , the emotional truth in the depiction of Parker's addiction stands out from the pack. The unflinching portrait of heroin addiction does not stem from any hedonism. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that Parker's addiction "is shown as a distinctively personal matter, his way of contending with, or eluding, his artistic demons." Eastwood characterizes his bouts with substance abuse as one of the many dangers of embarking on a career in the arts. In a career-best performance by Forest Whitaker, he grounds the mythical Charlie Parker image as a humble but ultimately tragic figure , with his drive for success and creative prosperity also being the catalyst of his downfall.

If there was any doubt about Clint Eastwood's credentials as a humanist filmmaker, Bird quelled any uncertainties. Unfortunately, most audiences didn't see this alternate side of Eastwood's interests, as the film grossed a lowly $2 million at the box office , one of his weakest financial performances. Like "Bird" Parker's music, the film has grown in estimation since its arrival, and it undoubtedly belongs in the canon of Eastwood's best work. Despite Parker being an unconventional source, Bird is Eastwood's closest example of him reflecting on the nature of art . Parker, loosely resembling one of Eastwood's lonesome outlaws , marches to the beat of his own drum, somewhat literally. Even if it brings him to a world of pain and misery, fulfilling innate artistic desires is the only viable option. No one is expected to be mobile in their 90s, yet Eastwood continues to make feature films as a nonagenarian. While he's made a fair share of swan song films, the actor-director continues to chug along. His expressively sympathetic portrait of Charlie Parker in Bird shows how tormenting any creative field is, and Eastwood recognizes that he's one of the lucky ones.

Bird (1988)

A biographical drama about jazz legend Charlie "Bird" Parker, exploring his extraordinary talent and troubled life. The film portrays Parker's rise in the music world, his struggles with addiction, and the impact of his genius on the jazz scene.

Bird is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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