For the past few decades, awards ceremonies and end-of-year lists have been swarmed with cinematic retellings of the lives of musical geniuses. 2024, in particular, seems to have been a breeding ground for these films. Too often than not, however, these legendary stories with soaring potential are exploited for their value at the box office, prioritising critical attention over substance and sensitivity and causing the projects to crash and burn.
With the recent releases of A Complete Unknown and Better Man, it seems the past few years’ obsession with musician biopics that no one asked for has reached a peak. But where do these new titles stand next to some of the best and worst films that this genre has to offer? So, starting with the absolute worst, here is a taste of the spectrum of quality that the film industry has produced in its mindless churning-out of biopics.
12) Nina (2016) – Nina Simone
If you’re going to make a film that exclusively focuses on the most unflattering and traumatic period of a singer’s life (as the majority of biopic failures choose to do), surely you could at least give it some depth or direction? Nina does neither. It lacks even a drop of visual or narrative excitement, making a spectacle of Simone’s mental health issues but forgetting to be spectacular while doing so.
Despite this entrenched dullness, however, most of the discourse surrounding the film’s release sprouted from its controversial use of blackface to make light-skinned actress Zoe Saldana look more like the legendary performer. Simone’s estate repeatedly criticised this casting, with her daughter asserting that “My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark. Appearance-wise this is not the best choice”.
There’s truly nothing positive I can think to say about this, I’ll just have to echo the common understanding that this film should never have been made. We’re off to a great start!
11) Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) – Freddie Mercury
Behold! The story of a generational performer, renowned for his unwavering eagerness to push boundaries, told through quite possibly the most formulaic, copy-paste, status-quo narrative the world has ever seen, glittered with misleading and – at times – problematic inaccuracies. With disorienting, skittish cutting, useless reaction shots, and iMovie-esque graphics, this film winning an Oscar for editing is like Charlie Chaplin winning for best sound design.
Bohemian Rhapsody’s most glaring failure, however, among a sea of lacklustre foundations, is its portrayal of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and diagnosis of AIDS. The queer community, depicted in this film as a collective of devious, drug-using sex addicts, is positioned as the evil which drags the singer away from his roots and his bandmates. It’s uncomfortable, misleading, and incredibly ironic when the film includes the line “I don’t have time to be their victim, their AIDS poster boy, their cautionary tale”.
10) Back to Black (2024) – Amy Winehouse
The life and tragedy of Amy Winehouse has been printed and publicised like the bible. So, regrettably, I had hoped that this biopic would at least render a fresh perspective (feel free to point and laugh).
What I was instead confronted with was a hollow regurgitation of the reckless, violent alcoholic caricature that was made out of the singer while she was alive. Back to Black is lazy and careless, and shows little concern for the artistic aspect of Amy’s life, which the film literally points out is what she wanted to be remembered by. It constantly struggles to say anything of any interest, and therefore feels like a harsh appropriation of a real person’s real struggles for the sake of a cheap money grab.
I would recommend listening to Winehouse’s full discography after watching… to cleanse your palette.
9) Bob Marley: One Love (2024) – Bob Marley
It’s not offensively bad, which is a relief. We’ve escaped the territory of exploitative biopics that shakily hold themselves up with trauma porn and nostalgia, so that’s a plus. The problem with One Love is that, instead, it is astoundingly mediocre – in no way is it a bad film, it just feels lacklustre and bland at every point.
The pretty decent performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch playing Marley and his wife Rita, respectively, are unfortunately weighed down by sluggish writing, which has been chewed through by the same formulaic parasite as nearly every other music biopic ever made. If I have to watch one more scene where an artist’s most famous lyric comes to them naturally in a conversation and they act like they’ve been touched by God, bad things will happen.
8) Ray (2004) – Ray Charles
I feel like something a bit more creative could have been done here, no? Something to give Ray a rev of emotional weight or cinematic significance? It feels like a wasted opportunity not to focus more on the power that music (and the exceptional ability to create it) must hold when you lose your eyesight at a young age. But what do I know?
Look, it’s a great film, Jamie Foxx’s performance is outstanding, blah, blah, blah. I feel like I’ve written the exact same review five times – why is every biopic the exact same? I can admit that Ray is at least a good film, but nothing about it feels tailored to the person it seeks to depict.
7) Rocketman (2019) – Elton John
In a much-needed change of pace, Rocketman is a glimpse of greatness, at its best. Scenes like the ‘Crocodile Rock’ performance are evidence of how exciting and moving music biopics have the potential to be.
Yet, the film’s shortcomings, although easy to forgive and move past, certainly brought my feet back to the earth. These failures, which mostly occur when Rocketman slips and falls into the habits of many other biopics, whether it be through overused cliches, futile symbolism, or lazy narrative devices, produce a sensation of apathy that clouds the ecstatic feeling otherwise experienced.
Also, be warned, for every scene that Taron Egerton steals, Bryce Dallas Howard’s grating, god-awful British accent ruins.
6) A Complete Unknown (2025) – Bob Dylan
It’s good, very good even – just not great. I wanted to love this film so badly, and at times I did, but it certainly leaves audiences wanting something more.
To give credit where credit is due, A Complete Unknown manages to dodge many of those traps that other biopics are gnawed by. The dialogue is solid, even if the majority of Timothée Chalamet’s lines come out as a variation of incoherent mumbles and ‘c’mon man’s. Dylan’s tumultuous relationship with folk music and the public’s expectation of him is certainly the most compelling aspect of the film, but only really gains momentum in the final act.
I’m also always a sucker for a love triangle plot, so bonus points for that. The leading performances all live up to expectations, could have been better, but undoubtedly could have been worse. Although, to no one’s surprise, not even Timothée Chalamet can make the one-man-band harmonica holder look even remotely cool.
Stream Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez.
5) Better Man (2024) – Robbie Williams
Expectations were low for this one, but in the most pleasant cinematic surprise of the year, Better Man actually humiliates all the previous features on this list because it makes thrilling biopics seem so incredibly easy to pull off. The widely-discussed CGI monkey gag pays off unbelievably well and sets the stage for a charming and innovative depiction of the former Take That member’s life.
Better Man takes visual and narrative risks that other films on this list simply chose not to entertain and the more outrageous that it gets, the further it exonerates itself from the dreaded curse of the biopic. A personal highlight and proof of this point is the medieval battle sequence between Robbie and an army of doppelgänger CGI monkeys during the film’s climax. Absolute cinema.
Sure, it’s self-indulgent and cliché, but that’s the only thing a Robbie Williams biopic would ever be.
4) Elvis (2022) – Elvis Presley
It’s a mess, I know. The editing feels like it was done by a group of 13-year-olds who just downloaded Capcut. The pacing is constantly whiplash-inducing. Tom Hank’s performance is utterly dreadful. Elvis’s mistreatment of Priscilla is profusely glossed over. It lacks depth and, in many parts, simply glances at the events of the rock-and-roll star’s life, rather than in any way exploring them.
And yet, despite the movie’s blatant flaws, the voltage that pulses through it is undeniable, it somehow just works. Director Baz Luhrmann injects each scene with a copious dose of his signature style, which is polarising as always. However, I would assert that the result is a biopic fit for the king.
Austin Butler’s performance is sublime. Laced with energy, he is undoubtedly the highlight and exhibits arguably the best acting on this list. The fact that he didn’t get an Oscar out of this is a stain on the already tarnished reputation of the Academy, and to lose to Brendan Fraser sobbing in a sweaty fat suit nonetheless – sigh.
Please don’t burn me at the stake for ranking this so highly.
3) I’m Not There (2007) – Bob Dylan
A profoundly original take on the concept of a biopic, I’m Not There somewhat experimentally constructs 6 different versions of the same character, whose narratives mesh together to form a visceral take on the life, legacy, and music of Bob Dylan.
This innovative approach to the task of portraying a real person pays off massively, achieving a sense of comprehensiveness that very few films are ever able to achieve. The acting is exceptional across the board – Cate Blanchett seems to shape-shift into the singer. With the sunglasses on, she looks more like Bob Dylan than Bob Dylan does.
But each rendition of the star tackles a different aspect of his persona, from his relationships, to his fame, to his pretentious ramblings and frustration with the press, and does so with commendable precision and charm. The film starts to lose its footing and energy in the second half but makes up for it with a beautiful ending. Also, Julianne Moore as Joan Baez undoes any possible grievance I could have with this.
2) Control (2007) – Ian Curtis
Alright, you made it, we’re down to the last two, no more complaining. This is what a perfect biopic looks like: the story of the Joy Division frontman, directed by none other than the band’s former photographer.
What ultimately sells this film, though, is its subtlety; nothing is embellished, romanticised or overworked, the story and the music just speak for themselves. It strikes a seamless balance between reminiscence and quality, clearly a love letter to the band, the era, and the person, but not so much that it forgets what it is. I don’t even have anything interesting to say about this, I just loved it.
1) Amadeus (1984) – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This one feels like maybe it doesn’t count, but let me try anyway.
In a spectacle that overflows with artistry and originality, the dramatized tragedy of the life of Mozart is told through the confessions of Antonia Salieri, a fellow composer convulsed with jealousy at the prodigal musician’s seemingly godsent ability. As our protagonist’s resentment for him mobilises into revenge and manipulation, we watch as the renowned composer’s greatness begins to crumble beneath him. In a sense, Mozart is the doomed rockstar of the classical period.
If Control is the perfect biopic, then this film resides in a space which is beyond perfect. It explores music and religion with such nuance and integrates itself with the diegetic performances in a way that I would argue is comparable to Powell and Pressburger’s legendary The Red Shoes. Amadeus is a Shakespearean formulation of obsession and bitterness on an immense visual and audial scale. I have zero notes.
