Top 10 Music Biopics

Greetings, reader!

8 Mile, Eminem's semi-autobiographical Oscar-winning cinematic love letter to hip hop, turned 20 years old earlier this week. While it doesn't quite qualify as a biopic by conventional standards, this anniversary is enough of a segue for me to publish a list I've wanted to write about for a long time: the top 10 music biopics. It will also allow me to review the new Elvis biopic Elvis (2022) - assuming that it made it into my top 10, that is. How does Elvis compare to the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody and others? Did I end up letting 8 Mile and other borderline instances qualify for the list? Was I able to resist the urge to put The Dirt at #1 just to piss off my friend Olli? Read this post to find out.

Here are my honorable mentions: Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Get On Up (2014), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), Sibelius (2003), The Dirt (2019).

10. Sid and Nancy (1986)

"But Sidney's more than a mere bass player. He's a fabulous disaster. He's a symbol, a metaphor, he embodies the dementia of a nihilistic generation. He's a fuckin' star"

During my big punk rock phase (if you're picturing a young Veikko rocking leather boots and a mohawk while spray painting "FUCK THE SYSTEM" on a wall, I unfortunately have to admit that my punk rock phase was spent listening to punk albums, reading up on punk history and writing punk rock songs while doing very little to actively rage against the metaphorical machine. Yes, I completely missed the point of having a punk rock phase), I just had to see this film. As it wasn't available on any streaming service or rental system I was aware of, I resorted to watching it on some cruddy unofficial website.

As a cinema enthusiast, I very much discourage against this sort of behavior, as movies deserve to be watched in better ways - but it has to be said; if there's one movie you're going to watch with shit quality off some semi-legal website, it should be this one. The terrible picture quality and awful audio somehow enhance the punk rock atmosphere, and no matter what your political ideology is, every pop-up ad that pops up to block the viewing experience will make you hate capitalism with the passion of Sid Vicious and company.

But yeah, Sid and Nancy is quite a solid biopic. As the title suggests, the main focus is on the infamous relationship between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman, or as he was known back in the 80's, Gary Youngman) and Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), but there's still enough Pistols to make the film qualify as a music biopic. If you're looking for a conventional, fun and inspiring music biopic, I suggest turning far away from this film, but if you're aware of how Sid and Nancy's story ended and are ready to witness a cinematic account, this film certainly does these tragic lovers justice.

9. Jersey Boys (2014)

"They ask you, what was the high point? Hall of fame, selling all those records, pulling Sherry out of the hat, it was all great. But four guys under a street lamp, when it was all still ahead of us, the first time we made that sound, our sound. When everything dropped away and all there was was the music. That was the best"

Fifty per cent music biopic and fifty per cent mafia flick, Jersey Boys blends genres brilliantly to showcase the rise of iconic pop-rock band The Four Seasons while not shying away from their questionable ties to organized crime. Clint Eastwood was an unconventional yet quite perfect choice for director, as his love for old-school rock music as well as his passion for gritty crime cinema are on full display in this film that just feels like Help! (1965) meets The Sopranos (1999-2007). It's all pretty great.

8. Elvis (2022)

"The way you sing is God-given, so there can't be nothin' wrong with it"

The newest addition to this subgenre of films, at least in the blockbuster mainstream, is this year's Elvis Presley biopic, from the vision of director Baz Luhrmann. It's not the most revolutionary or game-changing biopic, but it does enough to stand out from the crowd in what is becoming quite a crowded field. This is largely thanks to the script's massive focus on the star's relationship with his manager, as Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) has pretty much equal screen time to the King himself (Austin Butler).

There are some negatives, chief among them the film's runtime. There is no reason for Elvis to be 2 hours and 39 minutes long, as the story at hand doesn't call for such lengths and could've been condensed. I get that on some level the scene where the star's wife tells the star that she knows about the other women and the pills and she's leaving him and taking the kid with her would be seen as a necessary part of the story, but when we've seen the same exact scene in every artist biopic ever made, one can ask whether it has to be a part of this one as well.

But the negatives pale in comparison to the positives, which is why Elvis makes it to this top 10 despite its flaws. Chief among the highlights is most definitely the casting decision and role performance of Austin Butler, who totally lives up to a role that is hellishly difficult to live up to. It's interesting how Elvis doesn't go as deep into the main character's psyche as most such films, as musician biopics tend to be very introspective - the Elvis we see throughout the film is mostly "Elvis the product", molded by his manager and other outer forces to be the icon we all know. But Butler includes just the right amount of nuances in his performance to make it clear between the lines that beneath all the layers of stardom was just a kindhearted young man, confused by all the noise and the expectations surrounding him.

7. Teit Meistä Kauniin (2016)

"Mitä kuuluu?"

"Sä kysyt että mitä kuuluu. Sun takia Temonen meillä ei ole enää bändiä!"

Go Finland! This biopic centers on the early days of Apulanta, one of my all-time favorite Finnish bands that has had a huge impact on my own music taste and musicianship from childhood to present day. Directed by the band's real-life former bassist Tuukka Temonen, Teit Meistä Kauniin is a gritty and intimate look at the band's formative years, surrounding them with intriguing social context (Finland's recession in the early 90's played a big part in the society from which the punk rock band sprung from, and is on full display in the film) yet having a lot of humor and heart amidst the various hardships. Temonen's directing is very stylized, bordering on melodramatic, yet it fits the story at hand quite well, making for a thoroughly decent and eye-opening biopic that captures the essence of Apulanta.

6. Rocketman (2019)

"Did being married make you happy?"

"Not really. I'm gay"

What sets Rocketman apart from most other music biopics is the way in which it blends fact and fiction. While there are fantasy-like musical sequences in the mix, this movie about Elton John still is very much a biopic and 100 per cent belongs on this list - the way I see it, those sequences are the film's creative way of showing us the events how Sir Elton personally experienced them, as opposed to how it looked to the objective outside world. For example, what begins as a down-to-earth scene of Elton performing at a prestigious L.A. club escalates into something else when suddenly he's floating in the air, confusing viewers who thought they were in for a regular biopic, but this is just the way in which Lee Hall's script and Dexter Fletcher's directing tell the viewer: "This is how the event felt like to Elton". And with these stylistic choices, Rocketman ends up feeling more like a look into the artist's soul than pretty much any other biopic.

Also, there are some killer musical sequences - after slightly dragging on for its first act, the film starts to pick up its pace with an adrenalizing scene built around the song Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, and the film is much better from that point onwards. Rocketman, perhaps John's greatest song and the namesake of the film, is ingeniously teased with instrumental tracks playing with its chords throughout key moments in the film, until finally the full song is performed in a very powerful and moving sequence.

Tragicomic fact of the day: in Russia and some other countries, this film played in cinemas, but with all of the gay scenes (Elton John talking about his sexuality, scenes where two men kiss each other etc.) being cut out as they don't fit in with everyone's medieval worldview. I can only imagine what an editing nightmare and confusing viewing experience that must have been, as 'The Elton John story but without the gayness' sounds like an idea on par with 'Star Wars without lasers', 'A Tarantino flick but drop the cursing and violence', or 'The Lion King minus the lions'.

5. Amadeus (1984)

"On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it - an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey, this was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God"

This casual winner of eight Academy Awards takes an interesting approach to its subject matter, not unlike Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. While the Bard's play tells the story of Caesar by focusing on Brutus even more than the title character in order to really explore what took Caesar down in the end, Amadeus makes a similar choice as the 'true main character' on many levels is Mozart's (Tom Hulce) bitter rival, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham).

While Hulce is impressive as the iconic composer, Abraham absolutely steals the show with his mesmerizing performance as the composer left in the shadow of Mozart's genius, ambition and arrogance. This tale of two composers is a fantastic period piece and a dramatic tale of rivalry, with the soundtrack making brilliant use of Mozart's compositions at various key moments.

4. 8 Mile (2002)

"As a matter of fact dawg, here's a pencil. Go home, write some shit, make it suspenseful; and don't come back till somethin' dope hits you. Fuck it, you can take the mic home with you"

It's technically not a biopic, but I'm making an exception here - while Eminem chose to tell his story in the pseudo-biopic way, with him playing the title character who has a different name but whose story is largely his, one could argue that one some level films like this are more true to the artist at hand than typical biopics. With a conventional biopic, it feels like cheating whenever the facts are altered for dramatic purpose, but with a film like this, there's no such pressure, and this arguably allows for the slightly altered story to get even more into the artist's soul and the very essence of the story he wants to tell.

Also, it's just one hell of a film. Eminem became the first rapper to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and no wonder why - not only is Lose Yourself one of the greatest songs ever made, but the way its composition process is teased throughout the film, until we eventually hear the final product in the end credits, makes for some serious goosebumps. 8 Mile takes an intriguing look at both the beauty and brutality of urban rap culture, with the atmosphere of street-level hip hop and the impressive performances by Brittany Murphy, Michael Shannon, Mekhi Phifer and Eminem himself carrying the film into great heights.

3. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

"So now what?"

"Oh, this is where the operatic section comes in"

"Ah. The operatic section. Yeah"

Very much the catalyst for the massive wave of music biopics we've seen in the last few years, Bohemian Rhapsody is in many ways a typical and conventional member of this cinema subgenre, not trying anything too daring or out-of-the-box, but it simply is bigger and better than its counterparts. The casting in these films is often good, but how often is it Rami-Malek-winning-an-Oscar-for-defying-the-impossible-and-living-up-to-the-embodiment-of-Freddie-fucking-Mercury good? The scenes featuring the actual music of the artist at hand are often fun, but how often do they make your (or at least my) rock n' roll heart explode with excitement as key scenes blast iconic bangers from Somebody to Love and We Will Rock You to I Want to Break Free and the title track at full volume?

Bohemian Rhapsody is in many ways the blueprint for how to make a successful music biopic. Yes, the script takes some shortcuts and detours from the exact nature of what really happened for dramatic effect, but the film feels 100 per cent true to the spirit of Queen, paying tribute to Freddie and the rest of them in quite a spectacular fashion.

2. I'm Not There (2007)

"I accept chaos. I don't know whether it accepts me"

Is I'm Not There a biopic? Well, yes and no. This artistic and narratively out-of-the-box Todd Haynes film is deeply different from the other movies on today's list, but I feel that it belongs here - on some level, it is a story more true to the musician it's about than perhaps any other film on this list.

You see, I'm Not There follows six people in somewhat separate narratives - a runaway boy from a world of poverty (Marcus Carl Franklin), a poet rambling philosophical thoughts (Ben Whishaw), a hot-shot movie star sick of being a celebrity (Heath Ledger), Wild West outlaw Billy The Kid (Richard Gere), an idealistic protest songwriter in the heyday of the civil rights movement (Christian Bale), and a cynical, artistic music star accused by fans of selling out (Cate Blanchett). The point of the film? Together, these six stories and characters capture the life and essence of Bob Dylan.

You have to see it to believe it. What would on paper sound like a nonsensical and disjointed collection of metaphors turns out to be a profound viewing experience, nothing short of cathartic for Dylan fans like myself. The film would be absolutely nothing without its soundtrack, as it's the presence of poignant and well-chosen Dylan songs in each narrative that ties his ideas, lyrics and overall spirit into each of these six characters, making it feel like you're watching six different sides of the same man even when we're jumping through time and switching locations and whatnot.

1. Straight Outta Compton (2015)

"Ey, hold on, hold on! Y'all know what the motherfuckin' police tried to tell us backstage? They tried to tell us what the fuck we can't play. Motherfuckers tryin' to tell us what the fuck we can't say. This N.W.A.! We do what the fuck we wanna do. We say what the fuck we wanna say. So everybody, put them middle fingers high in the sky! And to the punk-ass cop backstage...Yo, Dre?"

"Waddup?"

"I got somethin' to say"

There were two mistakes that Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of pioneering gangsta rap group N.W.A., could've easily committed and had to avoid. One would've been averting from the more brutal and uncomfortable elements in N.W.A.'s story in order to make the movie more Hollywood and fairytale-like, whereas the other would've been the opposite, as in glorifying and romanticizing the culture of violence, guns, drugs, misogyny et cetera that played a big part in N.W.A.'s story. Amazingly, the film does neither, managing to strike a perfect balance: Straight Outta Compton doesn't shy away from the raw and cruel elements of the culture that N.W.A. spawned from, but it doesn't romanticize any of it. "Our art is a reflection of our reality", Ice Cube (played here by Ice Cube's real-life son, O'Shea Jackson Jr.) says in a dramatic press conference scene, and that is just what the movie feels like.

The film is gritty as hell, and should be watched by all privileged white people who have wondered why a song called "Fuck tha police" has been made and is so popular, as this movie thoroughly demonstrates what the rappers experienced in their upbringing in order to inspire such lyrics. But amidst all of the poverty, gang violence and police brutality depicted in the film, Straight Outta Compton also captures the intrigue and beauty of hip hop culture in its very essence. It helps that it was directed by F. Gary Gray, who had the cinematic experience of having directed films like Friday (1995) and The Negotiator (1998), but had also played a big part creating the visual landscape of the world this film follows, having directed music videos like Ice Cube's It Was a Good Day (1993) and Dr. Dre's Keep Their Heads Ringin' (1995) back in the day.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I celebrate Casablanca's 80-year anniversary by ranking my favorite old (pre-1950's) classics from cinema.