The best movies to watch about musicians

Hollywood’s fascination with the highs and lows of the real-life music industry has been longstanding. Maybe it’s the ready-made “three-act structure” most of the stories fall into, or the pageantry inherent to performing music on stage that is so appealing to filmmakers. Biopics of musicians make up a large part of the movie landscape almost every year. This year’s big entry for the genre is Elvis. Baz Luhrmann directs, the director of the fantasy musical 2001 Moulin Rouge!, this latest take on Elvis Presley’s life focuses heavily on the complicated relationship Presley had with his manager Col. Tom Parker (played by multiple Academy Award winner Tom Hanks) and looks to have all the visual splendor one would expect from the acclaimed director tackling a story about the King of Rock and Roll.

Get ready for the future ElvisWe have put together a collection of high-quality music biopics you can stream right from your home on different streaming platforms. The stories of triumph, failure, fortune, temptation, and struggle are universal.

Control

Image: The Weinstein Company

Control This is the story about Ian Curtis (frontman of the British post-punk group Joy Division), and his tragic journey. Dealing with epilepsy and severe depression, the influential singer-songwriter took his own life at 23 years old — just one day before Joy Division was set to leave for their first North American tour. The Control documentary takes you through his teenage years and his tragic death 10 years later. It paints a picture of how sometimes all the success and familial love in the world aren’t enough to numb feelings of emptiness and isolation. This somber story is made palpable by stunning black-and-white imagery from music video director Anton Corbijn (Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”), a compelling wounded lead performance from Sam Riley (Maleficent), and numerous hypnotic songs performed by the actors themselves, taken from Joy Division’s only two albums.

ControlYou can watch it for free on Pluto TV and Plex.

Take the first step towards your goals

Universal Pictures

Biopics are intended to shed light on their subjects — to help humanize mythic figures for an audience of die-hards and casual fans alike. The 2014 film, about the Godfathers of Soul, is not like that. Don’t misunderstand; Take the first step towards your goalsIt tries to make James Brown human. The film shows all of the tragedies and triumphs of Brown’s life, as well as quiet moments. It ping-pongs between the various scenes with great ease and allows the viewer to see them both. The fascinating kaleidoscope view of his life is anchored by an outstanding performance from Chadwick Boseman. But it won’t help us understand James Brown as a performer or man. The film shows him almost as an unresolved contradictory puzzle. Take the first step towards your goalsIt captures his undeniable charisma as well as the intense feeling of live performances. You won’t know the “whys” of James Brown from watching this one, but you’ll be entertained and enamored all the same.

Take the first step towards your goalsYou can watch it on Netflix.

Love & Mercy

Photo: Lionsgate Roadside Attractions

One approach biopics can take is focusing on singular moments in a person’s life rather than trying to cover the entirety of it. A good example of this is 2014’s Love & Mercy, about the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. In the late 1960s, Brian Wilson suffered a nervous collapse and remained a recluse for many years. Love & MercyThe story of Wilson’s life is written in two pieces that tell the tale. The first is about Wilson’s deteriorating mental state as he crafts the band’s most acclaimed album, Pet sounds(And the immediate aftermath) of their commercial failure. This second part is 20 years after the initial failure. Wilson lives a lonely life, under the control of his therapist. Melinda Ledbetter is the woman he falls for and who assists him in breaking free from that unhealthy relationship to learn how to live again.

Scenes with Wilson’s younger brother, played by Paul Dano (a charmingly innocent character), are shot in faux documentary style. This allows viewers to feel the joy and disconnection of Wilson as they watch him grow apart from others. The older Wilson is embodied by an appropriately disheveled John Cusack in scenes that are more traditionally presented, as the viewer is led through the story of his budding romance with Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) and their struggle against the control of Wilson’s therapist (a cartoonish but compelling Paul Giamatti). Wilson’s struggles to get back control of his life. Love & MercyThis is a story that will resonate with those who have found the strength to endure through difficult times because of their loved ones.

Love & MercyIt is now available on HBO Max.

The Dirt

Photo by Jake Giles Netter/Netflix

Mötley Crüe’s collaborative autobiographyThe Dirt is considered by many to be the greatest “tell-all” memoir ever written about the hair metal scene. Its epic and “so outlandish it must be true” tales direct from the members of the band about their origins, life on the road, and all the unreal excess they experienced was always ripe for adaptation. You will be amazed at how they managed to survive and avoid permanent injury or death in these chaotic stories.

Jeff Tremaine of Jackass knows all about self-destructive bro groups. This adaptation captures that chaotic energy by using multiple storytellers. Although they may contradict one another, it keeps the story moving from one unbelievable to the next. This movie is energetic and feels simultaneously cheekily funny and vibrant. It’s a glossy, loud, and fast-paced package that feels perfectly suited for Mötley Crüe’s brand of image-conscious mayhem.

The DirtYou can watch it on Netflix.

Doors

Image: Tri-Star Pictures

Doors is director Oliver Stone’s love letter to the idea of famed frontman Jim Morrison. Music biopics often exaggerate or simplify the facts of a story to make it more fitting for a cinematic adaptation, but here Stone completely ignores nuance and fully embraces the “print the legend” aspect of these stories. He presents The Doors’ lead singer as equal parts poetic, death-obsessed wannabe mystic and magnetic drunken buffoon. There’s no real nuance between these seemingly conflicting traits in this tale of the band’s formation and rise up until Morrison’s tragic death by overdose. The overt exaggeration, devotion to mythmaking over facts, and self-indulgent nature of the film might all be unbearable if not for Stone’s captivatingly hallucinogenic directing, Val Kilmer’s tour-de-force performance as Morrison, and a top-tier supporting cast that includes Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Mimi Rogers, and Michael Wincott. Although it may not be 100% accurate, DoorsFeels like the ultimate distillation of their vibes and the band’s long-lasting appeal.

DoorsParamount Plus, Prime Video, and Paramount Plus are both available.

The Runaways

Image from Apparition

The Runaways weren’t meant to survive. The Runaways were incredibly influential during the four-year period that the all-girl rock band was alive. They set trends and helped to open doors for women who wanted to be part of the heavier music world. However, they were teenagers at the time of the band’s inception, and not really equipped for the harsh world they had been launched into. This 2010 film, centered around guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and the band’s fleeting frontwoman Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), deals with the inevitable crash that occurred as the group tried to cope with sudden success at a young age.

This book is full of great music. Some songs were even performed by the actors. The RunawaysIt captures the youth energy of rock pioneers perfectly. It greatly streamlines the band’s history — narrowing it to a tale of Jett’s determination and Currie’s disintegration as they mutually edge ever closer to true stardom. Stewart and Fanning look a lot like the yin-yang of Stewart and Fanning. The Runaways. The film is worth a look, thanks to their presence and Michael Shannon, who plays the role of their manager, a kind of glam rock mad scientist.

The Runaways It is also available on Hulu, and free on Tubi with advertisements.

Follow the Line

Image: 20th Century Fox

The biopic about Johnny Cash, the beloved singer-songwriter from country music is often regarded as one of the best in the field. It tells the story of Cash’s rise in the music industry with all the tragedy, substance abuse, and eventual redemption typically expected from biopics. Because of James Mangold’s exceptional skill as a writer-director, this film rises to prominence.Logan(and everyone involved in its production. This is the other thing that sets you apart. Follow the LineIt also focuses heavily on Cash’s romance with June Carter, a fellow country star. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon have a profound amount of chemistry in the roles, which translated to them both being nominated for Academy awards due to their performances — with Witherspoon even winning the honor of Best Actress that year. The film featured many Cash and Carter tracks, with both actors being part of its Grammy-winning soundtrack.

Follow the LineYou can rent it on the digital VOD platforms Apple and Google Play.

Wu Tang: An American Saga

Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu

It’s a challenge trying to condense the story of one performer or band into a single movie. Imagine trying to summarize the stories of 10 influential musicians whose history is as dramatic as that of individual members of the legendary hip-hop group known as The Wu Tang Clan. These larger than life characters could not be adequately portrayed in the few minutes of a biopic movie.

Wu Tang: An American Saga The biopic format has been expanded from one film to become a limited-run series. The show tells a rags-to-riches story of rival corner kids during the crack cocaine epidemic of the early ’90s rising above the violence of their local conflicts to come together over a shared love of music. Created by Wu Tang founder RZA, this true (but appropriately embellished) approach to the group’s history should appeal to not only fans of the group, hip-hop, and biopics, but to anyone who enjoys gritty television dramas like HBO’s The Wire or FX’s Snowfall.

Wu Tang: An American SagaHulu has it available for you to view.