movie review biopic

From 'Elvis' to 'The Pianist': 20 Best Biopic Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Read update

Oppenheimer , Christopher Nolan 's most anticipated biopic will soon hit theaters this summer (July 21), marking not only Nolan's return but also the newest installment in the biopic genre, which is currently popular in Hollywood. In the meantime, there are tons of great biopics of the 21st century that fans can watch.

What is a biopic? A biopic (short for "biographical picture") is a non-fictional film that depicts the tale of a real person's life. Biopic movies are usually about a historical figure or a well-known individual. However, they can be about anyone as long as the subject exists. A biopic film must focus on a single protagonist and portray the narrative of that person's life across many years (rather than simply one event or era in their life).

Biopics are the goldmines of Hollywood movies, regardless of whose life they show. Many of these films served as stepping stones in the careers of their filmmakers and actors, helping to launch them to stardom. Even though many excellent biopics are produced each year, a special few have gone above and beyond after the turn of the millennia.

Updated on March 30, 2023, by Jessie Nguyen:

20 'bohemian rhapsody' (2018).

Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of the British rock band Queen and their lead singer, Freddie Mercury , played by Rami Malek . The film traces the band’s rise to fame, from their early days playing small gigs to their legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985. It also explores Mercury’s relationships with his bandmates, as well as his romantic ones and his struggle with his sexuality.

Bohemian Rhapsody nevertheless serves as a good reminder of the band's musical brilliance and Freddie's singular stage presence owing to the film's aesthetically stunning musical moments and Malek's dominating leading role. Despite its limitations, the movie is still an exquisite tribute to the band and its dedicated fans.

Watch on Hulu

19 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001)

Inspired by the 1998 biography of the same name by Sylvia Nasar , A Beautiful Mind chronicles the life of John Forbes Nash Jr. ( Russell Crowe ), who went through it all – from fame's pinnacles to its darkest abysses. He was a mathematical prodigy who was on the verge of receiving international renown when he made an astounding discovery early in his career. Yet he quickly finds himself embarking on a torturous and terrifying quest of self-discovery.

A Beautiful Mind has become one of the most engaging and well-liked movies of all time, despite issues with tone and structure as well as some significant absences from Nash's real life. Because Nash's life is the focus of the film rather than his mental health , and because of Russell Crowe's stirring portrayal, Nash is given a second chance to relive both his success and his failure.

Watch on Prime Video

18 'Elvis' (2022)

Elvis chronicles the life story of American music legend Elvis Presley , played by Austin Butler , from his youth to his 1950s rise to rock and roll stardom while retaining a complicated bond with Colonel Tom Parker ( Tom Hanks ), his manager.

Butler's spectacular portrayal of Elvis humanized the legend by bringing down the spotlight from his physical gestures to the enormous, gruff voice to reveal the troubled man hiding behind the timeless God of Rock. In addition, the wild singing, set design, reenactment of iconic incidents, and compelling performers give the impression that audiences are viewing a documentary instead.

Watch on Max

17 'Ray' (2004)

Ray tells the story of the legendary musician Ray Charles ( Jamie Foxx ) and his struggles with blindness, poverty, and addiction, as well as his relationships with the women in his life. It also delves into Charles' musical career, including his experimentation with different genres such as R&B, gospel, and country, and his collaborations with other musicians.

Ray is a moving and inspiring film that offers a window into the life of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, and the struggles and triumphs that shaped his extraordinary career. Also, the acting is strong, the directing is deft, the storyline is insightful, and Foxx gives an outstanding performance.

Watch on Netflix

16 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013)

The story of 1990s stock trader Jordan Belfort , whose company, Stratton Oakmont, participated in unprecedented levels of corruption and fraud, is told in Martin Scorsese 's smash biopic The Wolf of Wall Street .

Scorsese's picture is the ultimate of excess, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort giving a truly outrageous performance. As they are in many of Scorsese’s films , the sins are visited upon the sinner, but the "Wolf" warns us at the end that no number of cautionary stories will prevent future generations from engaging in short-sighted, amoral, selfish ambitions.

Watch on Fubo

15 'A Hidden Life' (2019)

Based on the true story of Franz Jägerstätter , an Austrian farmer who refused to fight for the Nazis during World War II, The Hidden Life follows Franz ( August Diehl ) as he lives a quiet life with his family in the small village of St. Radegund. When war breaks out, Franz is called up to serve in the German army, but he refuses to swear allegiance to Hitler and fight for the Nazis.

Through a genuine account of faith, family, and the indomitable human spirit in the face of extreme persecution, director Terrence Malick presents the viewers with a rare image of a special kind of hero. Additionally, it serves as an engaging and oftentimes moving example of how regular people respond to the ills of the world.

14 'Lincoln' (2012)

Lincoln follows the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln ( Daniel Day-Lewis ), as he navigates the political landscape of the Civil War era, trying to garner support for the amendment from both Republicans and Democrats. It also focuses on the final months of his presidency and his efforts to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which would abolish slavery.

Lincoln is one of Steven Spielberg 's most methodical efforts as a director, and it is undeniably a respectable, absorbing film. Additionally, despite having a history lesson at its center, it is deftly concealed by one outstanding performance and a number of steadfast supporting characters.

13 'Capote' (2005)

Capote tells the story of Truman Capote ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ), a famous American writer, as he travels to Kansas to investigate and write about the brutal murders of the Clutter family in 1959, which later becomes the basis for his novel, In Cold Blood . The film explores Capote’s relationship with the murderers, Richard ‘Dick’ Hickock ( Mark Pellegrino ) and Perry Smith ( Clifton Collins Jr. ), as he spends them with them in jail.

Hoffman offers a captivating portrayal of and perspective on a troubled character who is nonetheless regarded by many as one of America's best authors. Moreover, Bennett Miller was able to convey the complexity of human brains and relationships, as well as the source of artistic inspiration, thanks to a fantastic screenplay.

Watch on Roku

12 'I, Tonya' (2017)

After her husband ordered an assault on her opponent, Nancy Kerrigan , Tonya Harding ( Margot Robbie ) went from one of the most skilled athletes in the country to a worldwide laughingstock. Her troubles as an outcast, her dysfunctional family, and her outspoken nature were all depicted in the film.

Craig Gillespie 's film does more than convey Harding's story, it completely reframes the narrative and rewrites her as the hero of her own story in a complicated but persuasive way. I, Tonya also provides Robbie with her first opportunity to demonstrate her entire range as an actor, and she is radiant.

11 'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)

Dallas Buyers Club follows Ronald Woodroof ( Matthew McConaughey ), a philandering, drug addict, and homophobic electrician from Texas, living a carefree life until his doctor diagnoses him with HIV/AIDS, which will likely kill him in 30 days. Woodroof discovers an experimental medicine that can potentially prolong his life and establishes the titular "Dallas Buyers Club" to import the drug from Mexico to anyone who needs it.

The combination of sharp character study and moving pharmaceutical docudrama is lively and memorable at just under two hours. Moreover, McConaughey and Jared Leto ’s transformative performances are the reason to visit this biopic. Not only do they successfully give voice to the disaffected of the 1980s, but to everyone who is suddenly confronted with unfathomable challenges.

10 'Hidden Figures' (2016)

Loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly , Hidden Figures chronicles the story of a group of female Black mathematicians (played by Taraji P. Henson , Octavia Spencer , and Janelle Monáe ) who played crucial roles in NASA during the early stages of the US space program.

With its recognizable period-piece perspective on a neglected moment in space history, Hidden Figures maintains optimism for what science and technology may accomplish when the sharpest minds work together. Moreover, the film respectfully honors the unheralded female heroines of history by featuring three exceptional performances from the three leads.

Watch on Disney+

9 'Milk' (2008)

Milk is about the life of an openly gay activist and politician, Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn ), who became the first LGBTQ+ person elected to public office in California. The film chronicles the period from Milk's 40th birthday until his horrific killing in 1978, using archival footage from his life.

The film, directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black , immerses us in the political process as Penn's brilliant performance captures Milk's playful intellectual personality. Furthermore, by combining 1970s news footage with newly shot sequences, Van Sant constructed his film around some massive, screen-filling set pieces, making the audience feel as if they had stepped inside the story.

8 'The King's Speech' (2010)

When Albert "Bertie" George 's father, King George V , dies and his brother King Edward VIII chooses love over the kingdom, he is compelled to crown himself king. The King's Speech depicts the narrative of King George VI 's friendship with his speech therapist, who helped the king overcome his stutter to confidently address his subjects.

Instead of being a film about a monarch triumphantly leading his folks to victory, it is about a would-be king battling to find his voice and the strength to lead his people through one of the most challenging periods in their history. Colin Firth as Bertie also imbues his restrained character with complexity, dignity, and wit, making a lasting impression.

Watch on Plex

7 '12 Years a Slave' (2013)

Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor ) was a free Black man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. For a dozen terrifying years, he was subjected to various forms of torture and wickedness before being free once more.

Though 12 Years a Slave is full of intriguing characters, Ejiofor steals the show by maintaining the character's dignity throughout. Moreover, director Steve McQueen immerses the spectators in an unforgivably hideous era from which there is no way out. It's about as intense as a biopic can go and many viewers deem this movie to be too heartbreaking for a second screening .

6 'The Pianist' (2002)

Based on the autobiographical book of the same name by a Polish-Jewish pianist, composer, and Holocaust survivor, Władysław Szpilman , The Pianist follows Szpilman ( Adrien Brody ), who after being forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, loses contact with his family as a result of Operation Reinhard. He then hides in various places among the rubble of Warsaw from this point until the captives of the concentration camps are released.

The unflinching anti-war film is a masterpiece about the struggle between good and evil, the tenacity and mercy of art, and the horrific personal toll left by one of history's worst moments. Like many films about the Holocaust, The Pianist can be difficult to see, but it's important to remember what happened and Brody was mesmerizing in it.

5 'The Social Network' (2010)

Though it wasn’t perfectly accurate, The Social Network covers the narrative of Facebook's early years and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg ’s ( Jesse Eisenberg ) initial social decline, starting with the break-up of his romantic relationship with Erica Albright ( Rooney Mara ) and concluding with the tragic end of his friendship with co-founder Eduardo Saverin ( Andrew Garfield ).

The film is one of the best performing and acclaimed films of 2010 , thanks to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin 's typical quick-witted writing and Jesse Eisenberg's riveting portrayal of the renowned social network creator. Moreover, everyone in the film is on the verge of snapping, which adds to the film's authenticity and realism.

4 'Catch Me If You Can' (2002)

Catch Me If You Can follows Frank Abagnale Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled con man who pretended to be a doctor, lawyer, and pilot while only being 21 years old. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks ' FBI agent Carl Hanratty gets obsessed with finding Frank and later succeeds in persuading Frank to become an FBI assistant for atonement.

The story was brought to life by Steven Spielberg's skill as a filmmaker, exquisite cinematography, elegant editing, brilliant script, and a beautiful score by John Williams . Not to mention DiCaprio and Hanks' incredible chemistry and performances resulting in a gentle, charmingly adventurous film that makes you feel wonderful.

3 'BlacKkKlansman' (2018)

Based on Ron Stallworth ’s 2014 memoir Black Klansman , BlacKkKlansman takes place in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and follows the city's first Black detective ( John David Washington ) as he attempts to infiltrate and out the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

BlacKkKlansman is timely because it engages in a crucial national dialogue that is full of metaphors and juxtapositions. Moreover, the chemistry between Washington and Adam Driver is crucial to keep the film's rhythm enjoyable as the movie alternates between comedy and crime . Also, through their characters, viewers feel like they have just walked through the lane of history in over two hours.

2 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' (2018)

Melissa McCarthy plays Lee Israel , a struggling writer who seeks to revive her career by selling counterfeit letters from celebrities who have died. Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Marielle Heller is one of the finest contemporary films on economic hardship and ethical compromise.

The biopic is an intellectually interesting drama due to the contradiction between blatant deception, undeniable necessity, and a group of victims who, presumably, can afford to be fooled. Moreover, McCarthy's impressive performance is both fierce and compassionate at the same time, constantly improving the material and stealing every scene she is in.

1 'Selma' (2014)

Selma was praised for its historical authenticity as it followed Martin Luther King Jr. as he fought for Black voting rights. The film follows King's frenetic three months leading up to the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Their efforts directly contributed to President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The film focuses primarily on King's role in the events without diminishing the importance of the other leaders' contributions to molding this pivotal moment in American history. Moreover, the screenplay by Paul Webb and David Oyelowo ’s performance as King gives us a profound, gratifying depiction of King as a man capable of errors, self-doubt, and pain.

Watch on Showtime

NEXT: Great Biopics That Got Surprisingly Dark

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Reagan’ Review: Dennis Quaid’s Affable yet Authoritative Presidential Performance Leads a Blatantly Worshipful Biopic

The film’s once-over-lightly approach to dramatizing key moments in 20th century history likely will please partisan admirers without winning many new converts.

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

‘Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid’ Review: Political Junkies Will Feast on Portrait of the Outspoken Democratic Operative 2 weeks ago
‘Going Varsity in Mariachi’ Review: Netflix Doc Follows Texas Teenagers Through the Ups and Downs of Statewide Band Competitions 2 months ago
‘Reagan’ Review: Dennis Quaid’s Affable yet Authoritative Presidential Performance Leads a Blatantly Worshipful Biopic 2 months ago

There is a great deal more hagiography than history in “ Reagan ,” a worshipful biopic of the 40th U.S. President that often plays like the cinematic equivalent of CliffsNotes, or one of those compact paperback biographies of notable figures that are designed to be consumed in an hour or less.

Latest Music Licensing Deals Underscore Social Media Giants’ Frenemy Status

HBO Among Buyers of Beta Film’s Hot Central Eastern European Slate Led by ‘Soviet Jeans,’ ‘Operation Sabre’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Popular on variety.

There’s actually a very funny moment in the film: when a member of Reagan’s political advance team encourages a cohort to “Win one for the gipper!” — a quote from “Knute Rockne, All American” that stuck with Reagan as both catchphrase and nickname for most of his life. The guy’s cohort responds with a puzzled expression that clearly reads: “What the hell are you talking about?”

Of course, the joke likely will be appreciated best, if not exclusively, by folks with a living memory of Reagan the actor as well as Reagan the politician. That would appear to be the target audience for this once-over-lightly movie: Older people who have long embraced Reagan’s conservative politics and, arguably more importantly, share the film’s explicit and unquestioning regard for deep religious faith.

Dennis Quaid , decked out in rosy-cheek makeup, does a credible and creditable job of conveying both the gregarious charisma and steel-willed tenacity of President Reagan, whether he’s taking on alleged Communists in the film industry during his tenure as SAG president or facing down Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev (Olek Krupa) during nuclear arms control negotiations in the ’80s. To be sure, Reagan himself, too often dismissed as a B-movie actor by people who haven’t actually seen many of his films, probably gave better performances (like, in “King’s Row”) during his Hollywood career. Then again, he never was cast as a President, so it’s difficult to make comparisons.

But Quaid actually has a competitor for top acting honors here. Jon Voight is surprisingly effective as an aged former KGB agent who shares with a visitor in modern-day Russia the insights he gained from decades of keeping tabs on Reagan. Viktor Petrovich is an invented character, used as a narrative device in a manner not unlike author Edmund Morris’ insertion of himself as a fictional observer in his controversial 1999 Reagan biography “Dutch.” But Voight pulls it off, persuasively and often affectingly, even with a tricky Russian accent. He plays Petrovich as a melancholy lion in winter who’s still smarting from being repeatedly ignored, while warning that this “Hollywood Cowboy” might eventually play a major role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As Petrovich narrates the story, we begin with the 1981 assassination attempt, depicted here in a rather klutzy mix of archival footage and slo-mo recreation, then jump back to begin in earnest with young Reagan’s childhood in small-town Illinois. The son of a boisterous alcoholic father and a devoutly religious mother, young Reagan worked as a diligent bodyguard (whose heroics, Petrovich notes, may have been self-embellished) before kicking off an entertainment career as a radio announcer. Both occupations, the film suggests, served him well later in life.

The story sprints to one thing after another, detailing high points in Reagan’s life as though McNamara and Klausner were ticking off items on a grocery list. There’s a fleeting look at Reagan’s marriage to his first wife, actress Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari), who dumps him because, as her star is rising, he’s too distracted by anti-Communist campaigns. (“If you put as much work into your career as you do making your speeches,” she complains, “you’d have an Oscar by now.”) But never mind: Getting divorced allows him to connect with the true love of his life, Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller), even though there’s a slightly creepy quality to his smooth moves during their meet-cute: Of course, as SAG President, he’ll gladly help her avoid being unfairly blacklisted — after they discuss the matter over dinner.

Some of the messier details — the Iran-Contra scandal, for example — are glossed over, and others (most notably, his not-so-benign neglect of the AIDS epidemic) are scarcely mentioned at all. Again, this is hagiography, not history. If you accept it as such, you may find yourself mildly engrossed from scene to scene, regardless of your political persuasion, without ever viewing “Reagan” as anything more substantial than a small-budget docudrama series on cable TV. The only difference here is, unlike those shows, Reagan employs only one talking head: Voight’s KGB agent. That helps.

Reviewed online, Aug. 27, 2024. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 140 MIN.

Production: A Showbiz Direct release of a Rawhide Pictures, MJM Entertainment Group, Makeshift Prods. production, in association with Toy Gun Films, Alluwee Prods., American Troubadours. Producer: Mark Joseph. Executive producers: Kevin Mitchell, Dave Roberts, Travis Mann, Brent Ryan Green, Gerard J. Hall.
Crew: Director: Sean McNamara. Screenplay: Howard A. Klausner, based on the book “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism” by Paul Kengor. Camera: Christian Sebaldt. Editors: Clayton Woodhull, Jeff W. Canavan. Music: John Coda.
With: Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, Jon Voight, Kevin Dillon, Olek Krupa, David Henrie, C. Thomas Howell, Mena Suvari, Xander Berkely, Lesley-Anne Down, Trevor Donovan, Robert Davi, Kevin Sorbo, Jennifer O’Neill.

More from Variety

The Lincoln Lawyer. (L to R) Yaya DaCosta as Andrea Freemann, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller in episode 309 of The Lincoln Lawyer. Cr. Lara Solanki/Netflix © 2024

Netflix Top 10: ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 3 Debuts in Second Place With 7 Million Views

‘Terrifier 3’ Mutilating ‘Joker 2’ at Box Office Is Good for Warner Bros.

‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Sneak Preview Among Highlights of Netflix ‘Fall Edit’ FYC Event

Norwegian True Crime ‘Escaping Bolivia,’ Starring Jakob Oftebro and Ella Øverbye, Boarded by REinvent (EXCLUSIVE)

AI in Animation Is Not an All-or-Nothing Proposition

Netflix Sees Major Exec Shuffle in French Scripted Series Division (EXCLUSIVE)

More from our brands, extremely racist ‘comedian’ speaks at trump rally, calls puerto rico ‘garbage’.

Taste Test: This New Bourbon Is Priced Like a Collectible, but the Flavor Falls Short

Ohtani’s Injury Casts Doubt Over Dodgers’ World Series Chances

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

Ratings: World Series Is Off to Best Start in 7 Years

🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!

Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!

Get us in your inbox

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions.

Awesome, you're subscribed!

The best things in life are free.

Déjà vu! We already have this email. Try another?

Love the mag?

Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions.

Things to Do
Food & Drink
Arts & Culture
Time Out Market
Los Angeles

The 25 best biopics of all time – ranked

From 'Malcolm X' to 'Oppenheimer': the greatest movies inspired by great lives

Hollywood has always loved a biopic – and not just Hollywood. Abel Gance’s legendary silent epic Napoléon and Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc both created early blueprints for biographical cinema. But let’s not kid ourselves: it’s American cinema that has developed the biggest passion for putting the lives of great men and women – and some not-so-great-ones – up in lights. And the early ’80s are when the biopic really kicked up a gear, with films like Raging Bull (about Jake LaMotta), Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn) and The Elephant Man (Joseph Merrick) all vying for Best Picture at 1980’s Oscars. This year, Oppenheimer and Maestro have continued the awards season sideline in teaching us all about Important People. But not all biopics are created equal. The list below singles out the ones that do more than just offer a Wikipedia-like trawl through a life’s events, however eventfully lived. Those flavourless films – J Edgar , Diana etc – often prove far less illuminating than a good hour-long History Channel doc. Instead, we’ve picked films that put fresh spins on famous figures, reframe their lives in insightful ways, and use the language of cinema to lend them grandeur and context in all kinds of memorable ways. Welcome to the cinema of icons.

RECOMMENDED:

✅ The 23 best movies based on true stories 📹 The 65 best documentaries of all-time 😱 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

1. Napoléon (1927)

Move over Joaquin and Ridley , because Abel Gance’s iconic silent epic – all six-ish hours of it – is still the definitive depiction of the diminutive Corsican– yes, including Bill & Ted’s . Played by the gaunt Albert Dieudonné and taking in battles, politics and the young Bonaparte’s famous , it’s a tour de force of cinematic craft, with Gance employing an extraordinary array of techniques to bring this action-packed life to audiences in the late ’20s. Thanks to Kevin Brownlow’s loving restoration, it’s in fighting fettle nearly a century later. It doesn’t cover his entire life – Austerlitz, the retreat from Moscow and defeat at Waterloo were all destined to appear in further films Gance never got to make – but there’s enough Revolutionary-era detail for even the most dedicated sans culotte .

2. Andrei Rublev (1966)

A bad biopic will just plod dutifully through history. For Andrei Tarkovsky, the form offered the chance to philosophise about creative and religious freedom, and explore the tension between his subject, the titular 15th century Russian icon painter, the chaotic medieval landscape he inhabited and the filmmaker’s own Communist homeland. In other words, to go full Tarkovsky. The result is one of the most stunning films of the ’60s, a black-and-white masterpiece embroidered with extraordinary visuals: the hot air balloon, the Tartars’ attack, the casting of the bell, and the weathered face of Rublev himself. Fun fact: his co-writer Andrei Konchalovsky went on to direct Tango & Cash . A tenner if you can find thematic overlap.

3. Raging Bull (1980)

Some biopics cast such a long shadow they end up eclipsing their subject in public imagination. Old-school boxing fans know Jake LaMotta was a real fighter – and a real asshole – and not just a creation of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. But in the cultural consciousness, De Niro is Jake LaMotta. And really, he might as well be, given how deeply he inhabits the role of a violent man increasingly unable to differentiate between a prize fight and everything else in his life. It’s a brutal but necessary portrait of male ugliness, made beautiful by Scorsese’s equally operatic and hallucinogenic visual style.

4. Malcolm X (1992)

If any figure’s life deserves the cradle-to-grave treatment, it’s Malcolm X – and if any director is qualified to film his story with the breadth it requires, it’s Spike Lee. Lee refuses to sand down the edges of the Civil Rights icon’s biography, and in the process revivifies the three-dimensional image of a complex leader that had been flattened into a militant caricature through decades of purposeful revisionism. But the ace, of course, is Denzel Washington, who so fully embodies the activist at each stage of his life – from hoodlum to revolutionary to martyr – that when younger generations think about Malcolm X, he’s the person they see.

5. Amadeus (1984)

Miloš Forman’s opulent, stormy period piece about maverick musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great biopics. Adapting his own play, writer Peter Shaffer keeps the ingenious framing device of capturing Wolfie’s life in flashback through the eyes of his bitter rival Salieri. It lets us see what he sees, but encourages us to take a lot more pleasure in it all, until the charm wears off and the story sours. It’s as light and effortless as a fairy tale – all grand balls, OTT costumes and gossipy salons – but as immaculately constructed as a Mozart concerto. The brilliant Tom Hulce plays Mozart as a giggly manchild, while the equally formidable F Murray Abraham drips venom as the scheming Salieri.

6. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Paul Schrader tackles the life, career and incredibly violent death of Japanese writer and artist Yukio Mishima in a film that shows a good biopic can make dramatic hay from even the most unlikeable figures. Because, make no mistake, Mishima is a bit of a douche: an avatar for toxic masculinity and regressive nationalism who’d no doubt be a social media superstar these days. Schrader’s cleverly constructed, wildly imaginative epic finds beauty in his art and lurid colour in his life, framing it via stagily avant garde dramatisations with Philip Glass’s legendary score lending it all added grandeur.

7. The Elephant Man (1980)

Action and adventure

David Lynch tamped down his surrealist impulses for his first major studio film, but when the source material is the true story of a 19th century freakshow exhibit turned bon vivant, what dreamy embellishments do you really need? Born with severe physical deformities science still hasn’t fully explained, Joseph Merrick nevertheless became the toast of London in the late 1800s when he was discovered to be far more erudite than his appearance suggested. John Hurt works wonders under an intensely cumbersome amount of make-up, literally straining to bring Merrick’s humanity to the surface. And while it might play more conventionally than just about anything Lynch did after, the director still imbues the film with a signature sense of unease.

8. Patton (1970)

Flawed geniuses make great biopic subjects. Flawed heroes maybe even more so. General George S Patton, a hard-charging tank commander during World War II, is definitely one of the latter and depending on which historian you ask, maybe the former too. Embodied by the hardly mild-mannered George C Scott, a role for which he won, and subsequently declined, an Oscar, his wartime experiences make an electrifying case study of almost deranged drive and purpose. The film also makes a fascinating case study in leadership, with the screenplay, co-written by Francis Ford Coppola, never excusing the man’s brutal excesses – including the shellshocked G.I. he infamously slapped.

9. Lawrence of Arabia (2012)

Condensing a great man’s life into a bum-friendly two-plus-hours is the kind of daunting task that David Lean’s widescreen epic makes no effort to attempt. Instead, over 227 minutes this remarkable film recreates the rise of TE Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) from humble army office to leader of the Arab tribes in World War I on the biggest imaginable canvas. That’s not to say it’s all strictly accurate. Despite being based on Lawrence’s own account of the war, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, it drew criticism for its depictions of Arabs in the story (Alec Guinness’s Prince Faisal, in particular), and it failure to include a single female character (British orientalist Gertrude Bell was a key figure in the story). But some British bias aside, much of what’s here is close to what happened IRL.

10. Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan’s doomy portrait of the father of the atomic age will be forever linked to a movie about a plastic doll come to life . But it’s not really such a harsh juxtaposition – for all its physics talk and Senate hearings and apocalyptic visions, Oppenheimer would still qualify as blockbuster movie-making even if it didn’t wind up half of the #Barbenheimer phenomenon. Cillian Murphy is simply that captivating as J Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the weapon that may still annihilate us all, and the movie is simply that big: a three-hour exploration of guilt, war, death and marriage that overwhelms your attention with sheer density.

11. The Last Emperor (1987)

This sweeping epic about Aisin Gioro Puyi, China’s last monarch, is one for all the they-don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to heads out there. And Bernardo Bertolucci’s sweeping, nine-Oscars-winning movie really does feel like an offering from another era – not least because China is unlikely to be lending 19,000 soldiers to a Hollywood studio anytime soon, or handing over the keys to Beijing’s Forbidden City. That’s the backdrop to the film’s most famous shot: a toddler-aged Puyi standing before a vast crowd of his subjects. Despite being based on Puyi’s autobiography – or maybe because of it – The Last Emperor was called out for soft-soaking his cruelty. But as an depiction of 60 years of chaos and change, it’s still jaw-dropping.

12. Ed Wood (1994)

Ed Wood is often laughed off as the worst director of all-time, but as time has gone on, and we’ve seen filmmakers do far worse with much bigger budgets, it’s easier to appreciate him as one of cinema’s truest believers, driven to serve his vision as best he could. That doesn’t make his movies any better, nor his technical ineptitude any less funny. But Tim Burton’s loving reappraisal manages to laugh with admiration rather than derision, to the point of looking and feeling like one of Wood’s films, at least in terms of vibe and not, like, visible boom mics. Johnny Depp is enthusiastically daft in the lead, and finds true warmth in his friendship with Martin Landau’s ageing, broken-down Bela Lugosi.

13. Spartacus (1960)

‘I’m Spartacus!’ ‘No, I’m Spartacus!’ The stand-up-and-cheer moment in Stanley Kubrick’s CinemaScope epic feels much more Tinseltown than Ancient Rome, but the film around it is all based on real events. Specifically, a slave revolt against the Romans led by a Thracian slave in 71 BC. Famously, Kubrick directed it as a hired gun at the behest of its star Kirk Douglas, and it’s Kubrickian more in spectacle than style or theme – with the big battles and colosseum scenes making it the Gladiator of its day. It came with uncanny historical resonance, too: screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood 10 and for a time, was denied credit on the film. His Spartacus moment took a lot longer to happen, but he got a much happier ending ( and a Bryan Cranston film made about him ).

14. Persepolis (2008)

There’s not a load of animated biopics but those there are, are great. Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises , about fighter plane pioneer Jiro Horikoshi, is one such. Flee , about Afghan refugee Amin Nawab, is another. But Marjane Satrapi's adaptation of her own graphic novel about her childhood in Iran may be the best of the lot. It follows a young Satrapi as she tries to coexist peacefully with the Iranian Revolution, a feat made much tougher by her, a) being a woman, and b) having a mind of her own. The animation, aping the style of the book’s black-and-white illustrations, gives this touching, but punky coming-of-age story an aesthetic all of its own.

15. A Hidden Life (2020)

It’s noteworthiness rather than just notoriety that drives a good biopic. Franz Jägerstätter, played with rugged stoicism by Inglourious Basterds’ August Diehl, probably wouldn’t have ended up with a film made about his life had fate not reached into his bucolic corner of the Austrian Alps in the early 1940s. But the sheer courage and spiritual principle displayed by this humble family man in the face of the moral depravity of the Nazi state provide Terrence Malick’s stirring film with a chance to elevate him from history’s marginalia. A hidden life no more.

16. Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

The tropes of the musical biopic had not yet been fully codified when Michael Apted adapted country icon Loretta Lynn’s rags-to-riches story, but even now that they’ve been trod into dust, Coal Miner’s Daughter remains uniquely moving. You know the major beats: a girl is born into poverty, marries young, survives abuse and myriad other hardships, then succeeds beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. But Apted and stars Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones string the familiar narrative together with such well-observed humanity that it feels less like standard Hollywood biography and something closer to a folk tale.

17. Walk the Line (2005)

Casting is always crucial in biopics, but if you’re making a movie about Johnny Cash and June Carter, it’s everything : if the chemistry between your leads is less than electric, you’re done for. Thankfully, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon just about set the screen ablaze, he as country music’s ultimate voice of the voiceless, she as the beacon of light guiding him through his own personal darkness. Their shared authenticity – in both their onstage duets and offstage quarrels – elevates the film above its ‘behind the music’ cliches. That didn’t prevent it from being cut in half pretty bad by the hilarious parody Walk Hard – but if it helped bring the world Dewey Cox, that only makes it better.

18. I'm Not There (2007)

Dylanology has been an unofficial field of academic study since the ’60s, so there’s little anyone could possibly gain from a straightforward Bob Dylan biopic. Wisely, in I’m Not There , Todd Haynes does the exact opposite of ‘straightforward’, taking a more symbolic approach in examining the towering musician’s muses and mythos. Six different actors portray various Dylanesque personae, none of them actually named Bob Dylan. Most memorable is Cate Blanchett as folk singer Jude Quinn, basically an alternate-reality version of Dylan circa his electric conversion. It’s a fascinating experiment that’s sometimes also inscrutable – as anything truthful to this particular subject should be.

19. Lincoln (2013)

Actors have gone to great lengths in prepping to play historical figures before. Daniel Day-Lewis levelled up, however, as Abraham Lincoln, asking to be addressed as ‘Mr President’ on set and not breaking character for three months, even in the car to work. Which may, thinking about it, have been a carriage. But such is the burden of depicting a figure of the magnitude of Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s serious-minded history, and the results are extraordinary. The film isn’t too shabby either. Tony Kushner’s screenplay, based Doris Kearns Goodwin’s famous Lincoln biography ‘Team of Rivals’, saupercharges Congressional debates and policy-making summits with the urgency of a thriller. Legislation drafting has never been this exciting.

20. I, Tonya (2017)

Not even the trashiest Lifetime screenwriter could script a scandal as perfect as the one that enveloped US figure skating in 1994: all-American ice princess Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the knee by an unknown assailant. The suspect? Her chief rival, trailer park roughneck Tonya Harding. It was world-class tabloid fodder – but tabloids, of course, have little use for nuance or empathy. Director Craig Gillespie doesn’t rehabilitate Harding, exactly, but brings the circumstances of her life into better view, while still recognising the dark absurdity of the controversy that made her famous. Margot Robbie proved her range in the lead role, but it was Allison Janney, as her abusive, chain-smoking mother, who rightly won all the awards.

21. Control (2007)

Anton Corbijn is uniquely suited to make a movie about late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis: he jump started his photography career in the ‘70s by shooting the band for NME, and later directed a posthumous video for their song ‘Atmosphere’. No wonder, then, that the movie looks like how the band sounded: monochrome and austere, yet starkly beautiful. As you’d expect of a film about a musician who hung himself at age 23, the prevailing mood of Control is somber, but Sam Riley gives Curtis a detectable heartbeat, portraying him as a man capable of love (and even humour), but only from a distance.

22. Ray (2005)

Narratively, Taylor Hackford’s look at the life and times of Ray Charles is Music Bio 101, charting the legendary entertainer’s rise from blind prodigy to American icon, with all the attendant battles against sin and vice in between. What earns it a place on this list is Jamie Foxx, who doesn’t so much embody Charles but fuse with his DNA like the alien in The Thing . Foxx doesn’t just burrow under his skin – although the surface-level impression is uncanny – but into his heart, brain and everything else, drawing far more out of the performance than the script seemed to offer him.

23. Man on the Moon (1999)

Self-described ‘song and dance man’ Andy Kaufman dedicated his life and career to inscrutability, to the point that the ‘real Andy’ became unknowable, perhaps even to the comedian himself. In lieu of separating fact from fiction, Milos Forman’s biopic simply reiterates the legend. Is there much to learn from restaging Kaufman’s greatest hits, like the wrestling matches and Mighty Mouse and the milk-and-cookies stunt from Carnegie Hall, even with the fine detail Forman provides them? Not really. But Jim Carrey famously poured himself into portraying Kaufman with such scary accuracy that it goes beyond movie acting and becomes a form of performance art in itself – perhaps the most appropriate tribute you can offer him.

24. Rocketman (2019)

If you only watch one biopic about a flamboyant British musical superstar who loves a party, make it Rocketman rather than Bohemian Rhapsody . Dexter Fletcher ended up working, uncredited, to finish the Freddie Mercury movie just before he tackled Elton John’s life. He saved all the magic for this one, sketching out a vivid fantasia that feels entirely in keeping with the pop star’s bonkers life, and adopting the grammar of movie musicals to swerve the tired clichés that blight so many biopics . Elton’s suicide attempt, flowing from swimming pool to hospital in one shot and accompanied by the title song, is sheer, drug-addled wonderment.

25. Elvis (2022)

It might have been Harry Styles. It might even have been Miles Teller. The fact that it’s Austin Butler, a hitherto barely known actor with only a passing resemblance, who ended up playing Elvis demonstrates that charisma flows in both directions when you’re playing a superstar. Not to say that Butler doesn’t have the goods: he’s magnetic, whether gyrating on stage and rocketing up the hit parade, or being believably damaged during the crash landing of the Vegas years. Tom Hanks’s rubbery Colonel Parker aside, Baz Luhrmann’s rock ‘n’ roll Babylon is the best kind of gaudily OTT real-life spectacle.

[image] [title]

Discover Time Out original video

Press office
Investor relations
Work for Time Out
Editorial guidelines
Privacy notice
Do not sell my information
Cookie policy
Accessibility statement
Terms of use
Modern slavery statement
Manage cookies
Advertising

Time Out Worldwide

All Time Out Locations
North America
South America
South Pacific

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

About Rotten Tomatoes®
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening This Week
Top Box Office
Coming Soon to Theaters
Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most Popular Streaming Movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

85% Smile 2 Link to Smile 2
99% Anora Link to Anora
77% We Live in Time Link to We Live in Time

New TV Tonight

100% Somebody Somewhere: Season 3
-- Lioness: Season 2
-- Wizards Beyond Waverly Place: Season 1
-- The Diplomat: Season 2
-- Tú también lo harías: Season 1
-- The Marlow Murder Club: Season 1
-- Buy It Now: Season 1
-- Finding Mr. Christmas: Season 1

Back to Black

Where to watch.

Watch Back to Black with a subscription on Peacock, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Back to Black 's sympathetic approach to its subject's story is an overdue antidote to the tabloid treatment she often received in life, even if the end results are disappointingly pedestrian.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Sam Taylor-Johnson

Marisa Abela

Jack O'Connell

Eddie Marsan

Juliet Cowan

Sam Buchanan

Nick Shymansky

Lee film review — Kate Winslet is vivid in close-up of war photographer Lee Miller

Keep abreast of significant corporate, financial and political developments around the world. Stay informed and spot emerging risks and opportunities with independent global reporting, expert commentary and analysis you can trust.

Try unlimited access Only $1 for 4 weeks

Then $75 per month
New customers only
Cancel anytime during your trial

Keep reading for $1

Explore our subscriptions

Find the plan that suits you best.

Print + digital

Professional

Premium access for businesses and educational institutions.

Get Started

Check if your university or organisation offers FT membership to read for free.

Review: A power broker takes on a quick study in ‘The Apprentice,’ a window onto Trump’s rise

Copy Link URL Copied!

There’s a scene late in “The Apprentice,” the new film directed by Ali Abbasi about the relationship between Donald J. Trump and his attorney and mentor Roy Cohn, that’s akin to Dr. Frankenstein realizing in horror just what he has made.

An ailing, AIDS-stricken Cohn (Jeremy Strong) is being uncomfortably fêted at the palatial Florida estate Mar-a-Lago for his birthday. His longtime protégé, Trump (Sebastian Stan), seems to have ascended to the height of his powers (how things would develop three decades later is not yet known at this mid-1980s moment). Empowered by his own hubris, Trump builds and borrows and beds with impunity — all with a freewheeling sense of gleeful combativeness.

After an aggressive and somewhat insulting birthday toast, Trump wheels out an American flag-shaped birthday cake festooned with sparklers, an ode to Cohn’s oft-repeated professions of love for country. Cohn, for the first time in the film, looks shaken. It’s the icing on top of what he already suspects: that he’s created a monster, a monster to whom America is a joke, a punchline, something to be devoured and consumed, like a can of Diet Coke, a blond model or a bottle of pills, all things that Trump consumes ravenously over the course of the film.

Jeremy Strong on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA.

Who’s afraid of Roy Cohn? Not Jeremy Strong

In the controversial Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” Strong takes on the role of notorious political fixer Roy Cohn and somehow finds a way into empathy.

Oct. 7, 2024

Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” written by political reporter and Roger Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman, is a portrait of the former president as a young man. Stan delivers the performance of his career to date, embodying Trump from the early 1970s to the 1990s. The plot concerns Trump’s learning at the feet of Cohn, the powerful political fixer known for his work with anticommunist Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), someone who brags of sending the Rosenbergs to the electric chair.

Abbasi opens the film with punk-rock flair, with young Donald, his Redford-inspired coif whipping in the wind, hitting the streets of Manhattan, mooning over the rundown Commodore Hotel, making his way inside the dark, luxe interior of the private Le Club. There, Cohn will send over one of his boy toys to invite Donald to dine at his table with him with his coterie of gangster clients. Donald is a striver, looking to please his cruel father, Fred (Martin Donovan), and he hopes that with Roy on his side, they’ll defeat a housing discrimination lawsuit brought against the Trumps by the Department of Justice.

It’s through this lawsuit that Cohn imparts the three rules that Trump has since lived — and ruled— by. One: Attack, attack, attack. Two: Admit nothing, deny everything. Three: Always claim victory, never admit defeat. As Cohn lays out these lessons, and as Trump parrots them years later during the ghost-writing of his book “The Art of the Deal,” it’s almost sickening to reflect on how we’ve seen these precepts play out in the governing of the United States of America.

A fur-coat-wearing woman speaks to press at an event.

This is the method by which Abbasi and Sherman go about making their argument about Trump. They lay it all out for the audience to see but don’t spell out the message that we’re meant to take away from it all — that would put too fine a point on it. We can plainly see Trump’s narcissism and psychopathy grow more malignant as the film progresses. The naïf we meet in the beginning becomes something far more terrifying as he is empowered by his success, hopped up on janky diet pills, following rules imparted to him by his impossibly complicated father figure, Cohn.

Both the movie’s style and the performances evolve to capture the eras we traverse. Cinematographer Kasper Tuxen uses different film formats, with grainy Super 16mm (and European disco hits) of the ’70s giving way to the camcorder and VHS images from news cameras in the ’80s, reflecting the environments in which the media-obsessed Trump exists. The rich, dim interiors of Cohn’s cloistered world give way to the gaudy, golden posturing of Trump’s living spaces.

Two men drive in the back seat of a limo.

The team behind the Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice’ talks politics, power and peril

Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and director Ali Abbasi dive into their controversial biopic and the stakes as it hits theaters just before the presidential election.

Sept. 2, 2024

Stan’s and Strong’s astonishing performances also deepen and develop over the course of the film. Initially, Stan imparts only a small flavor of the familiar Trump flair; as his Trump ages, his delivery becomes more pronounced, his accent and cadence informed by both Fred and Roy. Strong is transformed as Cohn: slack-jawed and dead-eyed but constantly in motion, propelling his lithe, tanned body forward with a driven intensity in business and in pleasure. His dawning horror toward the end of the movie is startling only because we realize that Roy might actually have some kind of conscience, his shark-like appetite for power eclipsed only by his student’s.

Some may want “The Apprentice” to go further. It does humanize Trump. But it also presents a plainly obvious depiction of how a man can turn into a monster with the right personality, background and guidance. What more could it possibly need to say?

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'The Apprentice'

Rating: R, for sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, sexual assault, and drug use Running time: 2 hours Playing: In wide release Oct. 11

Trump has notched a list of once-unthinkable ‘firsts.’ Will they prevent him from winning?

Oct. 23, 2024

E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court after former President Donald Trump appeared in court, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

New film returns to Trump’s sexual assault trial and E. Jean Carroll

Oct. 16, 2024

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 4: A flag supporting special counsel Jack Smith is seen on a house in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Sunday, February 4, 2024. Smith is prosecuting former President Donald Trump. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Calmes: Jack Smith’s filing shows that Trump is already starring in a Jan. 6 sequel

Oct. 6, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

An image from the animated movie "Memoir of a Snail."

Review: Get under its shell and you’ll be charmed by ‘Memoir of a Snail’ and its unique loner

Oct. 25, 2024

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, center, questions special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, second from left, about evidence not turned over to defense attorney Alex Spiro, second from right, during actor Alec Baldwin's trial for involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the Western movie "Rust," Friday, July 12, 2024, in Santa Fe, N.M. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool)

Hollywood Inc.

New Mexico judge denies prosecutor’s bid to reopen Alec Baldwin manslaughter case

Amanda Zurawski, who developed sepsis and nearly died after being refused an abortion when her water broke at 18 weeks, second from left, and Samantha Casiano, who was forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term and give birth to a baby who died four hours after birth, second from right, stand with their attorney, stand with other plaintiffs and their attorneys outside the Travis County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Review: The war over healthcare rights gets a human face in the undeniable ‘Zurawski v Texas’

A man shields the sun with a stack of documents.

Review: Labor organizers score against Amazon in ‘Union,’ a complex, essential documentary

What’s fact vs. fiction in Netflix’s ‘Dating Game’ killer film ‘Woman of the Hour’

Oct. 21, 2024

Palme d'Or-winning director Sean Baker sits inside the Gardena Cinema.

His Palme d’Or may change things, but for now, he can still go to the movies in L.A.

Theresa Randle with her hair braided and in a bun in a sparking, stringy gown.

‘Bad Boys’ actor Theresa Randle detained by LAPD after suspected felony assault incident

Oct. 11, 2024

A somber cardinal considers weighty papal matters.

Stanley Tucci talks to us about his new film ‘Conclave’ and, of course, Italian food

Israel-Gaza War
War in Ukraine
US & Canada
UK Politics
N. Ireland Politics
Scotland Politics
Wales Politics
Latin America
Middle East
In Pictures
BBC InDepth
US Election
Election polls
Kamala Harris
Donald Trump
Executive Lounge
Technology of Business
Women at the Helm
Future of Business
Science & Health
Artificial Intelligence
AI v the Mind
Film & TV
Art & Design
Entertainment News
Arts in Motion
Destinations
Australia and Pacific
Caribbean & Bermuda
Central America
North America
South America
World’s Table
Culture & Experiences
The SpeciaList
Natural Wonders
Weather & Science
Climate Solutions
Sustainable Business
Green Living

The one thing that Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black gets so right

Sam Taylor-Johnson's new Amy Winehouse biopic has garnered incredibly mixed responses from critics. But the film captures one element of the star perfectly – how funny she was.

Is it surprising that Back to Black, director Sam Taylor-Johnson's hotly anticipated biopic of Amy Winehouse, is garnering such mixed reviews? It's currently 52% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with top film critics awarding it everything from one to four stars. Probably not – Winehouse wasn't just one of the most influential musicians of her generation, but also an incredibly complex person to capture. Asif Kapadia, director of an Oscar-winning documentary about the singer that many regard as definitive, 2015's Amy , described her as "an amazing contradiction in every way". After conducting more than 100 interviews with Winehouse's family and friends, Kapadia came to the conclusion that she was "a very shy girl who's [also] a show-off".

Warning: This article contains language that some readers may find offensive.

Taylor-Johnson's film about Winehouse, which arrives in UK cinemas this weekend before opening in the US on 17 May, is perhaps too brisk and conventional to capture all facets of the singer's stratospheric rise and desperately sad demise. A few months before she died of alcohol poisoning in July 2011, aged just 27, Winehouse had underlined her high standing in the music industry by recording a duet, a cover of the 1930s jazz standard Body and Soul, with her musical hero Tony Bennett. But Back to Black does deserve credit for reminding us that as well as being a very famous woman dealing with "demons" – a simplistic shorthand for her eating disorder, addictions and tempestuous marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil – Winehouse was thrillingly unfiltered and very funny. British actress Marisa Abela, who gamely uses her own singing voice in the film instead of lip-syncing to Winehouse's versions of signature hits including Rehab and Valerie, shows her spunky side beautifully.

In one of the film's strongest scenes, we see Winehouse arriving at her record company’s London offices in a buoyant mood. Within minutes, she's crushed by the news that her debut album, 2003's striking jazz-hip-hop hybrid Frank, won't be getting a US release. "There is strong competition from Jamie Cullum, Katie Melua and Joss Stone," an executive tells her, putting her in the same category as three other young British artists with vaguely jazzy and soulful sounds. When Winehouse leaves the meeting, she makes her feelings on this reductive comparison abundantly clear by repeating Melua's name with a judiciously chosen expletive. It's a winning moment because it feels so believable: Winehouse always had a bullish self-belief in her songwriting talent and retro-leaning musical taste.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘maria’ review: angelina jolie’s maria callas suffers at a chilly distance in pablo larraín’s biopic.

This chronicle of the final week in the life of the opera legend follows ‘Jackie’ and ‘Spencer’ in the Chilean director’s trilogy about famous women caught in the emotional headlights.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

Angelina Jolie sings onstage in 'Maria.'

Full credits

Thr newsletters.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘wallace & gromit: vengeance most fowl’ review: aardman’s beloved duo return with a zippy, gorgeously animated netflix caper, david harris, ‘the warriors’ actor, dies at 75, angelina jolie says ‘maria’ allowed her to be “terrified again as an artist” and “find my voice”, nick park and merlin crossingham on the return of wallace and gromit in new netflix film ‘vengeance most fowl’, ‘venom’ box office: ‘last dance’ opens to solid $175m globally despite sluggish $51m u.s. bow, johnny depp talks ‘modi,’ “bouts” with hollywood and moving on: “i don’t have any ill feelings toward anyone”.

‘The Apprentice’ Is the Most Brutal Donald Trump Biopic Imaginable

By David Fear

Every superhero gets an origin story. So, for that matter, do most supervillains. The Apprentice drops viewers into New York circa 1973, when a 34-year-old resident of Queens walked in to the upper-crust establishment on the Upper West Side known as Le Club. He went there in an attempt to impress a young woman. He’d leave having met a well-known lawyer and well-connected member of New York’s elite, who would end up changing his life. The legal eagle was the notorious Roy Cohn. The outer-borough wannabe was Donald Trump .

Editor’s picks

The 100 best tv episodes of all time, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 200 greatest singers of all time, trump can't stop ripping on detroit while campaigning in michigan, trump’s lawyers are ready to subvert the 2024 election — but they don’t want to go to jail, this twist on door-knocking could help harris defeat trump, musk says trump win would result in ‘hardship’ for some americans, joe walsh cancels veterans' benefit concert, citing 'circumstances beyond organizers' control', stevie nicks: ‘i believe in the church of stevie’, lil durk’s murder arrest shows drill rap is a dead-end.

This review originally ran as part of our coverage of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

David Harris, Actor Who Played Cochise in 'The Warriors,' Dead at 75

By Daniel Kreps

Why Keri Russell Loves ‘Being a Mess and Dropping F-Bombs’ on ‘The Diplomat’

in conversation
By Alan Sepinwall

Leo DiCaprio Endorses Harris Over Climate Policies: Trump 'Denies the Science'

Save the Planet
By Tomás Mier

James Franco Talks Seth Rogen Friendship Fallout After Allegations: 'I Guess It's Over'

This Is the End
By Jon Blistein

Judge Upholds Dismissal of Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' Charges

rust shooting

Most Popular

Robert downey jr. confronts elon musk 'cosplaying tony stark' by saying: 'i just wish he would control his behavior a little more', the golden bachelorette joan's thoughts on chock after the show are not going to make fans happy, 'venom: the last dance': first reactions after the premiere, jennifer lopez's ex-husband claims she was involved in diddy's "freak-off" parties, you might also like, ‘venom: the last dance’ climbs to $124 million at international box office, $175 million globally, jewelry brand mejuri launches design excellence award scholarship fund , the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘wallace & gromit: vengeance most fowl’ review: britain’s most beloved stop-motion characters return to battle an old foe, ohtani’s injury casts doubt over dodgers’ world series chances.

FILMS / REVIEWS France / Belgium

Review: Monsieur Aznavour

by Fabien Lemercier

22/10/2024 - Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade sign a vast biopic full of contrasts about an ambivalent, tenacious and ambitious artist from a penniless immigrant background

“I want to show them that I’m not negligible material. They haven’t heard the last of Aznavour”, “Whether you like it or not, I am a singer.” To become an artist, manage to make a living with that work and, even better, enjoy immense success, is never easy and, in retrospect, the rise to fame seems to be the consequence of an improbable alignment of planets between talent, work and luck. Such is the singularity of the trajectories of the most brilliant stars, who are also often shaped in the crucible of complex personalities, between shadow and light, such as Charles Aznavour (1924-2018), the man “with 180 millions albums sold, the son of refugees who became a symbol of French culture around the world.”

It is this prodigious career bringing together childhood dreams and fierce adult ambitions, sometimes incredible adventures amongst fellow creative people, and a perpetually unsatisfied struggle to reach the top, that Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade have taken on in their third feature film, Monsieur Aznavour [ + see also: trailer film profile ] , released in French theatres on 23 October by Pathé and already acquired in 41 international territories. This romantic portrait on the long term joins a lineage of many biopics in the same style (from Walk The Line to Bohemian Rhapsody [ + see also: trailer film profile ] , as well as La Vie en Rose [ + see also: trailer film profile ] , Ray , etc.) and relies, like them, largely on the art of temporal ellipses and on its central performance, in this case that of Tahar Rahim .

Structured in five parts ( Les Deux Guitares , Sa jeunesse , La Bohème , J’me voyais déjà and Emmenez-moi ), the film manages to sketch with very quick strokes the poor childhood in 1930s Paris of Charles Aznavourian, within a happy family of stateless Armenians, before lingering a little longer on the initiatory period of his integration within the circle of French chanson: his meeting and association as a piano-singing duo during the German Occupation with Pierre Roche (a very good Bastien Bouillon ), the vampiric protection (“you’re like me, you’re from the streets”) of Édith Piaf (an excellent Marie-Julie Baup ), his incursion into New York without a visa, two years in Montreal, romantic and professional break-ups, the auteur/singer dilemma due to seemingly insurmountable obstacles (Charles is not deemed attractive enough and his voice is judged too veiled for a singer, and critics compete in mean xenophobia towards him), taking risks and profound doubts before the long awaited triumph on 2 December 1960 on the stage of the Alhambra. A decade of hits will follow (“I’ve found the Aznavour formula”), with worldwide success propelled by insatiable ambition and the rise to legendary status. Yet behind the seemingly fulfilled artist, the man is suffering…

Carried by intentions of undeniable integrity, Monsieur Aznavour doesn’t lack charm and features some very beautiful, intense sequences (notably concert scenes), which alternate with passages that are slightly less emotionally convincing because more focused on the narrative progression constrained by the very long duration of the story (although the editing is very successful). Yet its biggest point of honesty and, at the same time, its Achilles’ heel, remains Aznavour's personality whose dark side (his obsession with reaching the top of the bill at the expense of everything else) limits the spectator’s empathy, in particular in the last chapter of the story. Tahar Rahim’s performance, at once exceptional and disproportionate much like his model himself evidently was, is another weakness of the film.

Monsieur Aznavour was produced by French outfits Mandarin & Compagnie and Kallouche Cinéma , and co-produced by Pathé , TF1 Films Production and Belgian company Beside Productions , with Logical Content Ventures . Playtime handles international sales.

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

more about: Monsieur Aznavour

Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade sign a vast biopic full of contrasts about an ambivalent, tenacious and ambitious artist from a penniless immigrant background

22/10/2024 | Films | Reviews | France/Belgium

Playtime boasts two contenders for the Golden Lion at Venice

The French sales agent will be pinning its hopes on the Coulin sisters’ The Quiet Son and Stranger Eyes by Yeo Siew Hua in competition, as well as on Diciannove by Giovanni Tortorici in Orizzonti

21/08/2024 | Venice 2024/Toronto 2024/San Sebastián 2024

Cécile de France leading the cast of Dalloway

Anna Mougalis, Frédéric Pierrot and Lars Mikkelsen also star in Yann Gozlan’s new movie, produced by Mandarin and Gaumont

01/08/2024 | Production | Funding | France

Playtime boasts an attractive trio in the Cannes showcase

The French sales agent will wager on Meeting with Pol Pot and The Marching Band in the Cannes Première section, and Black Dog in the Un Certain Regard section

10/05/2024 | Cannes 2024 | Marché du Film

Playtime to pull out all the stops in Berlin

The agent will sell Competition titles The Devil’s Bath and Suspended Time and upcoming films by François Ozon, Rithy Panh, the Coulin sisters, and Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade

12/02/2024 | Berlinale 2024 | EFM

French sales agents shift up a gear in Cannes

CANNES 2023: Playtime kicks off presales on Monsieur Aznavour , mk2 Films on Joachim Trier and Raoul Peck’s upcoming films, and Orange Studio on Maria starring Matt Dillon

18/05/2023 | Cannes 2023 | Marché du Film

French sales agents whip out new aces at the EFM

BERLINALE 2023: Pierre Niney stars in The Count of Monte-Cristo , Tahar Rahim graces Monsieur Aznavour , Noémie Merlant will topline Emmanuelle by Audrey Diwan, while Adèle Exarchopoulos leads Planète B

23/02/2023 | Berlinale 2022 | EFM

related news

25/10/2024 Valencia 2024

Review: A Bathroom of One's Own

25/10/2024 Rome 2024

Review: Hey Joe

25/10/2024 Seminci 2024

Review: The Party’s Over

25/10/2024 Cinemed 2024

Review: Meat

Review: The Opera!

24/10/2024 Rome 2024

Review: The Return

Copyright Disclaimer

The images used on this website have been provided by journalists and are believed to be free of rights. However, if you are the owner of an image used on this website and believe that its use infringes on your copyright, please contact us immediately. We will remove the image in question as soon as possible. We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that all images used on this website are used legally and in accordance with copyright laws.

About us | Contact us | Logos and Banners

Cast & crew
User reviews

Vaazha: Biopic of a Billion Boys

Four friends deemed 'losers' face immense pressure from parents and society upon entering adulthood. Their emotional tale sees them embark on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance, wher... Read all Four friends deemed 'losers' face immense pressure from parents and society upon entering adulthood. Their emotional tale sees them embark on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance, where love ultimately triumphs over judgment. Four friends deemed 'losers' face immense pressure from parents and society upon entering adulthood. Their emotional tale sees them embark on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance, where love ultimately triumphs over judgment.

Anand Menon
Amith Mohan Rajeshwari
Joemon Jyothir
22 User reviews
2 Critic reviews

Top cast 21

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

User reviews 22

vinodguruprasadsn
Aug 24, 2024
August 15, 2024 (India)
Disney+ Hotstar
Icon Studios
Imagin Cinemas
WBTS Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes
Dolby Digital

More to explore

'Priscilla' review: Elvis Presley's ex-wife gets a stylish yet superficial movie treatment

Those heartfelt Elvis Presley love songs will probably sound a bit sour after watching the new biopic " Priscilla ."

Based on Priscilla Presley ’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me,” the stylized drama (★★½ out of four; rated R; in select theaters Friday, nationwide Nov. 3) chronicles the early relationship and tumultuous marriage between Priscilla ( Cailee Spaeny ) and Elvis (Jacob Elordi). But don’t go in expecting a retread of last year’s “Elvis.” With “Priscilla,” co-writer/director Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”) presents Elvis as the toxic King of Rock 'n' Roll, successfully giving their love story a distinct perspective, though one lacking character development or any significant nuance.

Spaeny, whose biggest roles to date are “The Craft” and “Pacific Rim” sequels, is the real find here, gamely playing the title character from a young teen to her late 20s. In 1959, Priscilla is a 14-year-old ninth grader feeling bored and stuck in Germany, where her Air Force dad (Ari Cohen) is stationed, when a young military man asks if she likes Elvis Presley, then a soldier overseas in the Army. She gets permission from her reluctant dad and mom (Dagmara Dominczyk) to attend a party at Elvis’ place.

'Priscilla' movie fact check: Did Elvis and Priscilla Presley really take LSD together?

“You’re just a baby,” the 24-year-old music superstar says – the first of many times the sentiment is expressed about their massive age difference and the fact that she always looks like a kid next to him. (With a bouffant hairdo, she still doesn’t come up to his shoulders.) Even considering the time period, it’s a creepy sight for 2023 eyes but they do hit it off, sharing a strong sense of homesickness. The time comes when he has to return to the States, years pass as he focuses on his movie career, and finally, she convinces her parents to let her finish up school in Memphis, Tennessee.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Priscilla soon figures out that she’s only traded one cage for another: He’s often off making movies, leaving her alone at Graceland to read magazine reports of rumored dalliances with co-stars Ann-Margret and Nancy Sinatra – not to mention endure side-eye from jealous classmates. And when Elvis is around, he’s increasingly controlling in every aspect, including her makeup and the color of her wardrobe. (Mr. “Blue Suede Shoes” is not a fan of brown!)

'A child playing dress-up’: ‘Priscilla’ movie doesn’t shy away from Elvis age gap

She wants to work at a boutique after school, but he says no. She wants to be intimate, but he brushes her off. He flies off the handle at her, and moments later he’s asking for forgiveness. Drugs and erratic behavior begin to be a part of their relationship as they marry and have a child. In one scene, an angry Elvis flings a chair in her direction and almost hits her, though the abuse is more psychological than physical, and Priscilla has to work to find any sense of freedom.

While complementary in their individual points of view, “Priscilla” and “Elvis” couldn't be more opposite. “Elvis” is zippy and energetic while “Priscilla” is methodical, bordering on sedate. However, the biggest sin with “Priscilla” is Coppola never really digs into her wants and desires apart from Elvis. While they’re shown getting to know each other early on and there are moments of passion and fury later between the couple, their emotional bond is left unexplored to the point where you really wonder why Priscilla sticks around through her love’s Bad Boyfriend 101 antics.

'Priscilla' cast: Why Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi avoided Austin Butler's 'Elvis'

Elordi has his moments as Elvis – one fun scene, in particular, has him snapping photos with excited nuns after Priscilla’s graduation – but his performance is surprisingly charmless, almost by design. “Priscilla” overall has a rather anti-Elvis vibe: Instead of the King’s tunes, the soundtrack is sprinkled with songs like a Ramones cover of The Ronettes’ “Baby, I Love You” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” (“Don’t Be Cruel” and “Heartbreak Hotel” honestly would have been too on the nose, anyway.)

Like most Coppola efforts, it's a good-looking film yet the storytelling in “Priscilla” frustrates instead of illuminates, letting down its namesake with a superficial approach to an iconic life.

'Priscilla': Why does Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' end a movie about Elvis' ex-wife?

Back to Black

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson ’s “Back to Black” invokes a single question, one fans of Amy Winehouse are sure to recognize: What kind of f*ckery is this? The Camden-bred superstar, played by Marisa Abela , was famously “just one of the girls.” Down to earth, charming, witty, and, when she opened her mouth, a dazzling performer with an unbelievably soulful voice. Infamously, those who remember Amy will also recall a brutal struggle with addiction and leeching media frenzies that followed her to her death at age 27 from alcohol poisoning in the summer of 2011.

“Back to Black” chronicles the years between the success of 2003’s breakthrough Frank and the blowup of the film’s titular album in 2006. But if you expect to learn about Amy the person or even Amy the musician, temper your expectations. Taylor-Johnson’s film, penned by Matt Greenhalgh , is concerned with Amy the addict , making “Back to Black” a dreadful, dastardly attempt at a biopic.

If there’s one assumption to be made about any musician’s biographical drama film, it’s that it will be music-centric. While “Back to Black” has plenty of performances highlighting some of Amy’s most famous songs, they are almost exclusively used for simple soundtrack and pity fodder rather than essential structure. They almost feel like flippant reminders to portray Amy as a performer rather than solely the emotional wreck they characterize her as. The film allots next to none of its runtime to the actual making of either album. We are given fractional context to her artistry, only minor bullet points, like a single guitar-in-the-bed songwriting sesh and a cheeky Mark Ronson namedrop.

“Back to Black” misunderstands Amy’s legacy. The film doesn’t permit unfamiliar audiences to be privy to her iconicity. It doesn’t showcase the ravenous support from her hometown and country, the way they rallied behind her, or the transition of her fame to the States. It neglects to acknowledge any of the reasons why Amy and her music were so beloved. Very little of her actual career is touched on in the film. Instead, it plays more like a montage of toxic romance, drug use, and impromptu tattoos.

Many of the onstage moments serve to show issues with sobriety or the mournful longing she feels for her on-and-off boyfriend and eventual husband, Blake (Jack O’Connell). The singular clip we’re given of the making of Back to Black is a moment of her tearfully recording the titular track, declaring, “he’s killed me,” and hard cutting to a leap in time where Amy is in the deepest throes of substance abuse. Not even her addiction, the film’s misguided though central focus is given thoughtful narrative—it’s just something that happens off-screen. It’s treated with cut-to-the-chase rapidity because, as the film sees it, we know it happens anyway.

Abela gives a valiant effort in her performance, loosely capturing Amy’s onstage mannerisms and idiosyncratic dancing. But gesture is not essence, and there’s always a distracting artifice to her depiction. Amy Winehouse’s charisma and charm were almost as famous as her voice, and Abela’s hollow copy and exaggerated accent put her out of her depth in attempting to replicate them.

If the film’s navel-gazing take on defining Amy by drug use wasn’t criminal enough, the script treats these struggles and her eventual death as matters of fate: an end bound to her from the beginning. Every reach for a beer or glass of wine is dramatized like a smug nod to what we know is coming. From the top of the film, Amy is portrayed as a philandering, snarky silver tongue, a criminal to the love lives of others and a fated victim to her own heart. Blake is treated like a casualty to the irrepressible storm of her out-of-control nature, and her father, a powerless, wishful supporter, even though simple biography dictates otherwise. Neither of these men is fully to blame, but omitting their enabling and exacerbation of Amy’s vulnerabilities is irresponsible to the dignity of history. Amy is portrayed as a naive and directionless mess, and all the while, the music is never the cornerstone of the story. It begs the question: Why was this film made?

When we reflect on pop culture’s past with 2024 eyes, looking back on how the media and public treated Amy, we recall the exploitation with disgust. We compare it to Britney and vow to do better next time. The hopeful implication here would be that we could honor Winehouse’s story better in death than in her life, yet this expectation sets the viewer up for failure. While Taylor-Johnson directs scenes that seem to shake their head at the oppressive paps that tail Amy’s every move, her film fails to do anything different. There’s a gross level of romanticization and infantilization that hemorrhages any hint of life force from this story. The same sensationalist treatment she attempts to scoff at is integral to the story she’s chosen to tell. Taylor-Johnson’s predatory, voyeuristic eye never fails to capitalize on the strife of Amy’s addiction without providing empathy or care. It renders the music purely as a consequence of a proposed penchant for pain and poor choices, depicting its hero as pathetic.

“Back to Black” makes a martyr of its subject, flattening Amy Winehouse’s life and music to a series of binges and failure to overcome heartbreak. It viciously strips her of any agency or humanity, positing her to be nothing more than a tragedy with an iconic album. While there’s no way to separate Amy’s biography from her addiction, to conflate it with her entire existence, sidelining personhood and omitting the pillars of her legacy is an offensive approach to storytelling.

For fans who love her, this film is a heart-wrenching watch for all the wrong reasons, and for any of the true loved ones she’s left behind, the impact feels as if it can only be devastating. “Back to Black” spotlights the same dialogue in its introduction as in its final act, Amy laments, “I want to be remembered as a singer. I want to be remembered for my voice.” Yet, the film hardly remembers her for more than her darkest moments, a posthumous “too bad” that will leave many leaving the theater disturbed.

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL.

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse
Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil
Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse
Lesley Manville as Cynthia Winehouse
Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse-Collins
Bronson Webb as Joey
Matt Greenhalgh
Sam Taylor-Johnson

Now playing.

Memoir of a Snail

Don’t Move

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

Black Box Diaries

Your Monster

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock

Latest articles

Before (Apple TV+) Billy Crystal TV Review

Billy Crystal Struggles to Clarify Apple TV+’s Haunting New Horror Series “Before”

Silence As Salvation: The Quiet Femmes of Modern Horror

A Master of Subtle Function: Cinematographer Dick Pope (1947-2024)

30 Years of “Hoop Dreams”: Steve James on Roger Ebert, Oscar Snubs, and Documentary Filmmaking

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

IMAGES

10 Best Biopic Movies of All Time!
10 Best Biopic Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)
Sam Bahadur Movie Review
Lion Movie Review (2016)
Best Biopic Movies
The Most Inspiring Biopics Of All Time

VIDEO

Hyderabad Famous Kumari Aunty Shop Re Opening Visuals
90's

COMMENTS

Reagan (2024) Review: Biopic is Hardly a Great Communicator
Drama. 135 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2024. Nell Minow. August 29, 2024. 4 min read. Our 40 th President remains something of a cipher: Ronald Reagan was a small-town boy turned movie star, union leader, and a politician whose folksy demeanor in the Oval Office contrasted with the furthest-right economic and national security policies in decades.
Reagan (2024)
Sep 9, 2024. TOP CRITIC. Like Reagan the actor and Reagan the president, Reagan the new movie has a strained relationship with reality. Sep 6, 2024. TOP CRITIC. Without any lifelike characters, it ...
20 Best Biopic Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)
20 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (2018) Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of the British rock band Queen and their lead singer, Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek. The film traces the band's rise to ...
'Reagan' Review: Dennis Quaid Leads a Worshipful Biopic
Camera: Christian Sebaldt. Editors: Clayton Woodhull, Jeff W. Canavan. Music: John Coda. With: Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, Jon Voight, Kevin Dillon, Olek Krupa, David Henrie, C. Thomas ...
25 Best Biopics of All Time: From 'Oppenheimer' To 'Malcolm X'
5. Amadeus (1984) Miloš Forman's opulent, stormy period piece about maverick musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great biopics. Adapting his own play, writer Peter Shaffer ...
Reagan (2024 film)
Reagan is a 2024 American biographical drama film directed by Sean McNamara and written by Howard Klausner, based on Paul Kengor's 2006 book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.The film stars Dennis Quaid as President Ronald Reagan, Penelope Ann Miller, Mena Suvari, Kevin Dillon, David Henrie, and Jon Voight. [4]Filming began on September 9, 2020, and included locations such ...
Reagan (2024)
Reagan: Directed by Sean McNamara. With Dennis Quaid, Mena Suvari, Kevin Sorbo, C. Thomas Howell. A drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.
Respect movie review & film summary (2021)
6 min read. The Aretha Franklin biopic, "Respect" ends with footage of the real Queen of Soul bringing down the house at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Carole King. Re plays the piano and sings " (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," the composition King co-wrote. At the climax of this performance, Re tosses her fur coat to ...
Rocketman movie review & film summary (2019)
5 min read. "Rocketman," about the life and music of Elton John, is a formulaic, paint-by-numbers biopic. It actually begins at a moment of crucial emotion and flux in the singer's life, then backtracks to show us how he ended up there—a narrative device that already was a cliché when the brilliant " Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story ...
Back to Black
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse's early rise to fame and the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black. Told from Amy's perspective and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the ...
Lee film review
Lee, starring Kate Winslet, is the biopic of Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, the singular woman who took indelible pictures of the second world war from London, Normandy and, finally, Germany. The ...
The Apprentice review: Sebastian Stan is 'excellent' as a young ...
With Sebastian Stan as the young Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his notoriously vicious mentor, The Apprentice is part "compellingly cynical buddy movie", part conventional biopic.
'The Apprentice' review: Roy Cohn's fall and Trump's rise
Oct. 10, 2024 5:20 PM PT. There's a scene late in "The Apprentice," the new film directed by Ali Abbasi about the relationship between Donald J. Trump and his attorney and mentor Roy Cohn ...
The one thing that Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black gets so right
Sam Taylor-Johnson's new Amy Winehouse biopic has garnered incredibly mixed responses from critics. But the film captures one element of the star perfectly - how funny she was.
'Maria' Review: Angelina Jolie in Pablo Larraín's Callas Biopic
August 29, 2024 10:50am. Angelina Jolie in 'Maria.'. Courtesy of Venice Film Festival. In Jackie and Spencer, Pablo Larraín removed any trace of starch from the historical bio-drama to examine ...
'The Apprentice' Is the Most Brutal Donald Trump Biopic Imaginable
You can't accuse the movie of pulling its punches. The Apprentice is a biopic, starting from the moment Trump and Cohn lock eyes across a crowded room — the beginning of most great love ...
Review: Monsieur Aznavour
22/10/2024 - Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade sign a vast biopic full of contrasts about an ambivalent, tenacious and ambitious artist from a penniless immigrant background "I want to show them that I'm not negligible material. They haven't heard the last of Aznavour", "Whether you like ...
Judy movie review & film summary (2019)
The audience is meant to feel and see every muscle in her strained back and flailing arms while performing, but watching the actress work is not why most of us would buy a ticket to "Judy.". For purists and die-hard fans, "Judy" might smack of heresy. Of course, it's not altogether factual—there's entertainment to be made.
Vaazha: Biopic of a Billion Boys (2024)
Vaazha: Biopic of a Billion Boys: Directed by Anand Menon. With Siju Sunny, Amith Mohan Rajeshwari, Joemon Jyothir, Anuraj O.B.. Four friends deemed 'losers' face immense pressure from parents and society upon entering adulthood. Their emotional tale sees them embark on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance, where love ultimately triumphs over judgment.
'Priscilla' review: Sofia Coppola stylizes Elvis Presley love story
Those heartfelt Elvis Presley love songs will probably sound a bit sour after watching the new biopic "Priscilla.". Based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me," the stylized ...
Sydney Sweeney boxer movie films scenes in Gastonia NC
The movie could appear in theaters by fall or winter 2025, according to music, film and TV news site Uproxx. "When the film is released, look out for familiar sights in our hometown @followers
Back to Black movie review & film summary (2024)
Taylor-Johnson's predatory, voyeuristic eye never fails to capitalize on the strife of Amy's addiction without providing empathy or care. It renders the music purely as a consequence of a proposed penchant for pain and poor choices, depicting its hero as pathetic. "Back to Black" makes a martyr of its subject, flattening Amy Winehouse ...
Srikanth (film)
Srikanth is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language biographical film on the life of Srikanth Bolla, a visually-impaired industrialist and the founder of Bollant Industries.Starring Rajkummar Rao in the title role, it is directed by Tushar Hiranandani and co-stars Jyothika, Alaya F and Sharad Kelkar. [4]The film was shot in two months at various locations of India and USA, between November 2022 to ...

From 'Elvis' to 'The Pianist': 20 Best Biopic Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Read update

Updated on March 30, 2023, by Jessie Nguyen:

19 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001)

18 'Elvis' (2022)

17 'Ray' (2004)

16 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013)

15 'A Hidden Life' (2019)

14 'Lincoln' (2012)

13 'Capote' (2005)

12 'I, Tonya' (2017)

11 'Dallas Buyers Club' (2013)

10 'Hidden Figures' (2016)

9 'Milk' (2008)

8 'The King's Speech' (2010)

7 '12 Years a Slave' (2013)

6 'The Pianist' (2002)

5 'The Social Network' (2010)

4 'Catch Me If You Can' (2002)

3 'BlacKkKlansman' (2018)

2 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' (2018)

1 'Selma' (2014)

‘Reagan’ Review: Dennis Quaid’s Affable yet Authoritative Presidential Performance Leads a Blatantly Worshipful Biopic

Related Stories

Latest Music Licensing Deals Underscore Social Media Giants’ Frenemy Status

HBO Among Buyers of Beta Film’s Hot Central Eastern European Slate Led by ‘Soviet Jeans,’ ‘Operation Sabre’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Reviewed online, Aug. 27, 2024. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 140 MIN.

More from Variety

Netflix Top 10: ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 3 Debuts in Second Place With 7 Million Views

‘Terrifier 3’ Mutilating ‘Joker 2’ at Box Office Is Good for Warner Bros.

‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Sneak Preview Among Highlights of Netflix ‘Fall Edit’ FYC Event

Norwegian True Crime ‘Escaping Bolivia,’ Starring Jakob Oftebro and Ella Øverbye, Boarded by REinvent (EXCLUSIVE)

AI in Animation Is Not an All-or-Nothing Proposition

Netflix Sees Major Exec Shuffle in French Scripted Series Division (EXCLUSIVE)

Taste Test: This New Bourbon Is Priced Like a Collectible, but the Flavor Falls Short

Ohtani’s Injury Casts Doubt Over Dodgers’ World Series Chances

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

Ratings: World Series Is Off to Best Start in 7 Years

The 25 best biopics of all time – ranked

1. Napoléon (1927)

2. Andrei Rublev (1966)

3. Raging Bull (1980)

4. Malcolm X (1992)

5. Amadeus (1984)

6. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

7. The Elephant Man (1980)

8. Patton (1970)

9. Lawrence of Arabia (2012)

10. Oppenheimer (2023)

11. The Last Emperor (1987)

12. Ed Wood (1994)

13. Spartacus (1960)

14. Persepolis (2008)

15. A Hidden Life (2020)

16. Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

17. Walk the Line (2005)

18. I'm Not There (2007)

19. Lincoln (2013)

20. I, Tonya (2017)

21. Control (2007)

22. Ray (2005)

23. Man on the Moon (1999)

24. Rocketman (2019)

25. Elvis (2022)

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Back to Black

What to Know

Critics Reviews

More Like This

Lee film review — Kate Winslet is vivid in close-up of war photographer Lee Miller

Try unlimited access Only $1 for 4 weeks

Explore our subscriptions

Professional

Review: A power broker takes on a quick study in ‘The Apprentice,’ a window onto Trump’s rise

Who’s afraid of Roy Cohn? Not Jeremy Strong

The team behind the Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice’ talks politics, power and peril

More to Read

Trump has notched a list of once-unthinkable ‘firsts.’ Will they prevent him from winning?