Five of the best music biopics ahead of the 2024 Grammy Awards nominations
With the 2025 Grammy Awards nominations set to be announced later today what better way to celebrate than with some of the best music biopics to have graced the big screen?
Music biopics can strike a controversial chord, either successfully paying tribute to stars gone too soon or risking clashing with fans' memories - or even the musician's feelings about their own journey.
The Grammy Awards nominations are expected to be revealed later today (November 8) and the awards ceremony will take place live at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles on February 2 next year, but if you want to get in the mood in the lead up how about feasting your ears and eyes on some of the most noteworthy films about musicians of all time for this week's UNILAD RANKED?
5) Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Bohemian Rhapsody is underrated and has been overlooked when it comes to weighing up the top biopics - it's funny, endearing, chucklesome and heartwarming with a simmering tension throughout.
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The film was reviewed fairly harshly by critics at the time of its release - obtaining a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 60 percent - however, its popcornmeter score of 85 reflects the love felt among other viewers.
With a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, directed by Bryan Singer and produced by Graham King and Jim Beach, the story centers around around British rock band Queen, honing in on lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek).
It's impossible to deny the magnetism of Rami Malek's acting as Mercury, but it's the singing - which is pretty important in a biopic about a singer - which leaves something to be desired.
According to IMDB, singer Marc Martel 'lends his voice to the biopic as Freddie' and it was a mix of Martel's voice, alongside Mercury and Malek's which makes up the vocals. While you may not be able to tell it's a trio of voices combined, the result of said trio somehow jars or perhaps it's more of a result of how the big performance scenes are shot - in need of some of the pizzazz exhibited in Rocketman or Elvis.
However, given the stellar performances from Malek alongside a cast which includes Lucy Boynton (Mary Austin), Gwilym Lee (Brian May), Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), Joe Mazzello (John Deacon) and Aiden Murphy (John Read), it would've been impossible not to include Bohemian Rhapsody in this week's top five.
4) Walk the Line (2005)
Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody which was lacking a bit of oomph to really contrast its more vulnerable moments, Walk the Line blossoms in its stripped back simplicity.
Focusing on the life of country legend Johnny Cash, the film was written by James Mangold and Gill Dennis and based on two autobiographies by the singer-songwriter titled Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975) and Cash: The Autobiography (1997).
The movie was directed by Mangold and produced by James Keach and Cathy Konrad and while some scenes are fictionalised, it stays true enough to Cash's journey with loss, addiction and love to ensure viewers feel truly connected to the musician - it had me reaching to my phone to play his music after.
Walk the Line stars Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as fellow musician June Carter, the legendary actors playing the perfectly imperfect characters and their complex love story beautifully. Their performances are made all the more impressive given the actors actually sing all the songs themselves. Oh and they learnt how to play their characters' respective instruments - guitar and auto-harp - from scratch too, IMDB notes.
With a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 83 percent and popcornmeter of 90, the film has been praised as 'one of [Phoenix's] best performances' and it makes one Twitter user 'cry every time' - me too viewer, me too.
3) Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021)
With a screenplay by Steven Levenson and directed by Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tick, Tick... Boom! was always going to be nothing short of epic. Add a singing Andrew Garfield into the equation? Well, it's not hard to see why the film was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute.
The Netflix movie centers around American composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson and is based on the stage musical of the same name by Larson himself - the musical a semi-autobiographical story about him writing a musical in a bid to break into the theater industry.
Yep, it's a lot to get your head around - the film's structure certainly mirrors the intensity of Larson's eclectic and erratic character alongside his obsessive nature as a creative, battling to get his foot in the door in what remains one of the most competitive industries.
The chaos of Tick, Tick... Boom! took my brain more than a minute to adjust to and even nearly put me off, but with the help of Garfield's undeniable charm I eased into it - and Garfield's training for a year to get his vocals up to scratch make it an even more daring film you cannot help but admire.
Tackling the devastating impact of the AIDS crisis - with Robin de Jesús' performance as Larson's best friend Michael particularly raw and affecting - it's impossible not to shed a tear, the film successfully carrying the viewer on a grippingly emotional journey despite it being such a frantic and fractured one.
The to-ing and fro-ing in a particular scene between Garfield and Alexandra Shipp (Susan Wilson, former dancer and Larson's girlfriend) is the perfect storm and shines among the whirlwind.
Tick, Tick... Boom! has obtained a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 87 percent and popcornmeter of 96. With the film paying tribute to Larson as an artist who deserved - and still deserves - so much more recognition, well, you simply can't argue with that.
2) What's Love Got to Do with It? (1993)
Based on the life of American singer-songwriter Tina Turner, the screenplay for What's Love Got to Do with It? was written by Kate Lanier, directed by Brian Gibson and produced by Doug Chapin and Barry Krost.
It's a heart-wrenching peer behind the curtains of Turner's rise to stardom but also her running from the hands of abusive partner, with Angela Bassett in the starring role - although, IMDB notes Bassett lip-synced songs with Turner actually singing them instead.
Movies such as What's Love Got to Do with It? bring into the spotlight the importance of including the real person the biopic is about within the creative process. Whether paying tribute to creatives who've passed or portraying the life of someone in the present, I'm a big believer in doing so in a respectful yet also accurate way.
While Turner was included in the making of the film, she said in an interview she wished What's Love Got to Do with It? contained even more truth about her life, however, the studio reportedly didn't think some incidents would actually seem believable to viewers.
Turner told Oprah she 'didn't realize' the film 'would change [certain] details so much' and she also voiced she didn't like being portrayed as a 'victim,' however the singer heavily praised Bassett portrayal of her, deeming her 'perfect,' the actor going on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
A Twitter user noted: "It took me rewatching as an adult to fully appreciate what a truly amazing and respectful job Angela did."
With a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 97 percent and popcornmeter of 88, as another social media user says: "One of the best biopics of all time hands down."
1) Rocketman (2019)
Rocketman is the result of a biopic getting everything just right.
Directed by Dexter Fletcher and produced by Adam Bohling, David Furnish (Elton John's husband), David Reid and Matthew Vaughn, the film saw John fully collaborate with the filmmakers alongside co-producing and working closely with star Taron Egerton.
The result? The film is visually stunning, Egerton's portrayal spot on - the actor doing all of his own singing in the film and absolutely nailing it - and the whole two hours and one minute are utterly spell-binding.
Rocketman strikes the perfect chord between scenes of pure vulnerability and big show-stopping numbers with a respectful portrayal of the rollercoaster highs and lows of John's life.
It remains commendable to both the singer and the film in how it doesn't glamourise or put John on a pedestal either, peeling back the layers for an honest - sometimes brutally so - look back at his life, very much warts and all.
Feathery headdresses off to John for being the sort of celebrity to brave doing this.
John, the film's creative team and Egerton worked together - in what at least seemed to be - perfect harmony to create what's one of the best musician biopics of all time.
Gritty yet flamboyant, dazzling yet bleak, joyous one minute while ripping your heart out of your chest the next - Rocketman has it all.
It's Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 89 percent and popcornmeter of 88 are great but don't do it justice and as one Twitter user noted: "We are seriously not talking about Rocketman (2019) enough..."
And even music biopic haters can't help but love it, another resolving: "As someone who hates the music biopic genre, Rocketman is quite possibly the best one that's ever been made because it embraces the language of musical filmmaking in far more creative ways than every other example that comes to mind."
If you've already watched all the films in this week's UNILAD RANKED, other films worth mentioning include Elvis, Judy, Funny Girl, The Greatest Showman and in more recent years, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Bob Marley: One Love and the controversial Back to Black was released earlier this year too.
Oh and apologies hip-hop fans, if I knew more about the genre I'm sure Straight Outta Compton is great too.
UNILAD RANKED is a weekly series with a new article released every Friday.
Topics: Film and TV, Grammys, Entertainment, Music, Celebrity, UNILAD RANKED, Review, Reviews
Poppy Bilderbeck