Rock Biopics That Don’t Suck

When rock stars get the Hollywood treatment, the result is often a lackluster re-creation of their career’s most famous highs and lows. But the best musical biopics do more than just cover their subjects’ greatest hits, adopting unconventional modes of storytelling that go deeper than mere mimicry. These films find visionary directors putting their imprints on the brilliant, often tumultuous lives of boundary-breaking musical icons: Ken Russell elevating one of the original celebrities of the classical world to the heights of glam-rock outrageousness in LISZTOMANIA; Susanna Nicchiarelli reckoning with the pain and regret that fame leaves in its wake in NICO, 1988; and Todd Haynes teasing out the enigmatic multiplicity of Bob Dylan by enlisting six different actors to portray him in I’M NOT THERE. In thrall to the ecstatic power of music, these portraits explode rise-and-fall conventions to reveal deeper truths about identity, artistry, and the myths we create around both.

Coprogrammed by Yasi Salek, writer and host of the podcast Bandsplain