5 Best Biopics About Musicians With High Rotten Tomatoes Scores if You Liked Midas Man
Stories about real musicians whose bizarre fates mean no less than their greatest hits.
In recent years, the number of biopics has grown exponentially – after all, the coveted statuettes are much more readily awarded to films based on real events.
And a movie about a legendary musician increases the chances of success, because audiences will sing along to famous songs.
1. Love & Mercy, 2014
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
The Beach Boys invented the surf rock genre and later began to experiment with the sound, adding psychedelic touches to the songs. The main driving force was musician Brian Wilson, who suffered from mental illness and hallucinations that threatened his career.
The main character was played by two actors: Paul Dano for the young incarnation and John Cusack for the adult version. Brian Wilson himself praised the biopic, which accurately depicts the singer's chaotic career, which included both unprecedented fame and serious illness.
2. Walk the Line, 2005
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
The great country singer Johnny Cash is not only an author of iconic songs, but also a lover. This is shown in the biopic Walk the Line, which focuses on his affair with June Carter. The man was hopelessly in love with her for many years. It was love that saved him when drugs and alcohol took him to the bottom.
The movie became a breakthrough for the leading actors: Joaquin Phoenix received a Golden Globe and his first Oscar nomination in the male lead category, and Reese Witherspoon took home statuettes at all the major film awards for her role as June Carter.
3. Amadeus, 1984
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
Biopic about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in which real facts are mixed with grotesque fantasies. The narrator is the middle-aged Antonio Salieri, who ends up in a madhouse, where he confesses to a priest.
The entire life of his arch-enemy Mozart flashes before our eyes. The composer was declared a genius as a child, while Salieri himself worked hard and earned all his modest fame with blood and sweat. Therefore, the envious composer decides to destroy the rude genius.
4. Control, 2007
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is one of the most tragic figures in the music industry. The founder of an entire genre, a conductor of melancholic energy and a British prophet, he committed suicide after recording only a few songs.
The movie tells his story – epileptic seizures, confusing romances, a quarrel with his bandmates and an existential dead end.
The black-and-white biopic was the film debut of director Anton Corbijn, who was previously known as a photographer and creator of music videos. It was he who moved to London in the late 1970s, where he photographed the rising stars of the British scene, including Joy Division.
5. Rocketman, 2019
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
Reginald Dwight wears thick-framed glasses, loves to play the piano and performs in small pubs. Soon he will adopt the pseudonym Elton John, meet the author of his hits, Bernie Taupin, and move to the US.
Director Dexter Fletcher has made an unusual biopic – not just a story interspersed with songs, but a full-fledged musical film in which Elton John's hits illustrate every turning point in his life.