Watched 'Get On Up' with Chadwick Boseman (RIP) last night. Felt it was better on repeat viewing, though he didn't quite nail the dancing (hard job!) his acting was on point.

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Have you ever been turned on to an act after watching a biopic? Have you watched any that were acts you don't even care for? I guess fans view these more harshly than non-fans. So what are in your opinion some of the best or worst?

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[Edited 8/9/21 2:13am]

Marrk said:

Watched 'Get On Up' with Chadwick Boseman (RIP) last night. Felt it was better on repeat viewing, though he didn't quite nail the dancing (hard job!) his acting was on point.

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Have you ever been turned on to an act after watching a biopic? Have you watched any that were acts you don't even care for? I guess fans view these more harshly than non-fans. So what are in your opinion some of the best or worst?

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[Edited 8/9/21 2:13am]

No.

I've enjoyed most of the ones I've seen. Probably my favorite is "What's Love Got To Do With It" because I wasnt familiar with Ike & Tina's discography so it made me collect their discography, which turned out to be better than most of Tina's solo work.

In general, I don't get the hype around them. It's sorta the same hype around GLEE. "Ohh, they're doing a Madonna episode." Bitch, the last thing I care about is watching a bunch of millennial whiners sing a Madonna song. We have Madonna. We don't need Gaga, Glee or anyone else trying to snatch the wig. Ain't happenin'.

Everyone raved about Ray. Sure, it was good. But it wasn't Ray Charles. It was Jamie Foxx impersonating Ray Charles. Same with Get On Up. Chadwick did great, but it wasn't James Brown. It's always interesting to see what events they pick to tell the story. There is no way anyone's story is going to bet old in a couple of hours or so. People rave about the performances, but - it's not the artist.

A good example of the juxtaposition of a retelling as to the artist telling it is this: What's Love Got To Do With It. The movie was intense story telling. But it missed a lot, and some things were sorta fudged. The superior version of Tina Turner's story is the documentary on HBOMax right now, where she tells her story, she fills in the holes, provides new video and new perspective to it all. It's more complete, and certainly more satisfying.

I believe the lack of luster in many bio pics is the reason for the surge in shows like Behind The Music, Rockumentary, Classic Albums, Unsung, etc. It's one thing to tell or reenact a story. It's quite another to see the artist, in their home, talking, showing their belongings to the world, seeing them in the 'natural habitat,' as it were, just being who they are, not who we expect them to be. We expect to hear or see Tina getting punched around like a rag doll by Ike. What we don't expect, but are more satisifed with, is her providing videos and pictures, narrating the story, and seeing her face and hearing her voice while telling her story.

And I get tired of hearing folks say, "Well she didn't look like her," or "so-in-so wasn't that tall" or wasn't that tan, or didn't have that whatever etc. It's a stupid argument, which means no one is willing to go deeper and examine what was on screen. It's superficial and vapid.

I can't imagine the thunderstorm brewing if there was ever a Prince biopic. Every little fucking nuance that any fan thinks he had is going to be scrutinized and raked over the coals. ("Well! He never crossed his legs left over right, it was always right over left." Sit down, Karen.) I honestly hope they never make a Prince bio - not for another decade or two, at least. Do a documentary, fine. But don't get someone to play him. No one is ever going to be right for all viewers, and every other Prince fan is gonna play armchair producer.

Not generally, like standard biopics they often Oscarbait and exaggerate or make things up to hit those awards-night beats. Ones I did enjoy were The Doors, What's Love Got to Do With It, Control (Joy Division) and Love & Mercy EXCEPT for the boring parts with John Cusack. The interesting ones focus on the actual process of music creation/production. L&M showed some good tension between BW and the band, wish more zeroed in on the love of music that compelled the subject rather than the drug problems, melodrama, etc to try and tickle the rubes.

TrivialPursuit said:

In general, I don't get the hype around them. It's sorta the same hype around GLEE. "Ohh, they're doing a Madonna episode." Bitch, the last thing I care about is watching a bunch of millennial whiners sing a Madonna song. We have Madonna. We don't need Gaga, Glee or anyone else trying to snatch the wig. Ain't happenin'.

Everyone raved about Ray. Sure, it was good. But it wasn't Ray Charles. It was Jamie Foxx impersonating Ray Charles. Same with Get On Up. Chadwick did great, but it wasn't James Brown. It's always interesting to see what events they pick to tell the story. There is no way anyone's story is going to bet old in a couple of hours or so. People rave about the performances, but - it's not the artist.

A good example of the juxtaposition of a retelling as to the artist telling it is this: What's Love Got To Do With It. The movie was intense story telling. But it missed a lot, and some things were sorta fudged. The superior version of Tina Turner's story is the documentary on HBOMax right now, where she tells her story, she fills in the holes, provides new video and new perspective to it all. It's more complete, and certainly more satisfying.

Exactly. I rather have good documentary, where the people involved tell their stories. I don't need wannabes acting it out. My imagination is good enough and whatever is depicted seldom is accurate anyway.

I like these:

New Edition Story (I haven't seen the Bobby Brown one, but it's the same actors from the NE miniseries)

The Jacksons: An American Dream

The Temptations

Nowhere Boy (John Lennon as a teenager)

CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Get On Up (James Brown)

Lady Sings The Blues (Billie Holiday)

The Prince one with Bruno Mars playing Prince will be Epic...

SoulAlive said:

I never saw ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ but so many people have told me that it is excellent.

It was a decent reenactment.

Rocketman was more of a rock musical, like In The Heights or West Side Story. Something where the songs were also dialog and moved the story along. Rocketman was also more fantasy-bent and made no qualms about that. It was a fun romp.

I couldn't get past Rami's overbite to see Freddy at all. "Oh, but that Live Aid performance..." Like I said, give me the real deal, not Rami's version. He's not a singer, he's an actor. Freddy was everything.

Indeed.I foound it to be an interesting,refreshing way to tell John's story.I'd like to see more biopics like this...where they try new ideas.

TrivialPursuit said:

Rocketman was more of a rock musical, like In The Heights or West Side Story. Something where the songs were also dialog and moved the story along. Rocketman was also more fantasy-bent and made no qualms about that. It was a fun romp.

funkman88 said:

Dont really like them as a whole because most fabricate some even have wrong timelines the QUEEN Freddie Mercury one had a lot of incorrect stuff and dates, so they are what they are very over dramatic for the purpose of making it sell to an audience, so whatever it takes that is what they do. If you want to learn more about an artist or get deep, you need straight documentaries, the Bee Gees one from this year amazing, The tina turner one, amazing, the one on Michael Hutchence of INXS called MYSTIFY was incredible, as a big time INXS fan from day one I was amazed at all the footage and things I didnt know about them. There was one last year on Harry Chapin that was incredible, these are the things you should watch for getting the real deal on an artist, because usually its done by fmaily or people that were deep with the artist, not a screenwriter and director, so I would say stay away from BIOPICS unless you are just looking for an overdramatic version of an artists highlights and lowlights.

lastdecember said:

If you want to learn more about an artist or get deep, you need straight documentaries

Actually, you would get a book. There's been over a thousand books on The Beatles since the 1960s. Even ones about Stuart Sutcliffe & Mona Best (Pete's mother) & The Quarrymen. A documentary is not that likely to say much about Mona Best, if at all. The Genesis book Chapter And Verse (written by the band memebers and people who worked with them like Chester Thompson) has way more information in it than any of their documentaries.

funkman88 said:

The Prince one with Bruno Mars playing Prince will be Epic...

it would be pure comedy

Most of the ones I see suffer from either two problems:

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1) Treat their protagonist as an idol/icon, and heightens a lot of their mostly uninteresting life into spectacle, their music being just a background for this, as if it always just mirrors their intimate life. (like Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line").

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2) Repeat same-old stuff everybody already knows about their personal life without anything interesting to add, but gets by on the strength and popularity of the music (like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody").

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The big problem for me is that, many times, those are basically fiction films marginally based on some musician's biography, yet they're sold as almost documentary-like. To not fall down on superficiality yet still recognizing their subject's artistry can be difficult, but it's been done sometimes. Elton John's biopic "Rocketman" comes to mind as a great example in this, as addind his songs as musical numbers, instead of something that plays over edited shots of whatever important was happening in his life when he wrote it, keeps this authenticity yet doesn't take the protagonist more seriously than it should.

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EDIT- Another great example I just remembered: The Rose (1979), marginally based on Janis Joplin's biopic, but because her name wasn't used on the main character (renamed Mary Rose Foster), the creative freedom made for a much more compelling drama than if it was all the time worried about making its subject look up to her mythical status.

[Edited 8/10/21 14:34pm]

Don cheadle as Miles Davis running all over town for organ record and cocaine was EPIC!

automatic said:

A more recent biopic or I should call it a docudrama I saw on Hulu was Madonna and The Breakfast Club. I enjoyed it but it wasn't what I call high quality. It mixes interviews with Madonna's band mates with reenactment dramatization's of her pre-fame life and from what a read the actual real life locations were used. The actress looked surprisingly like Madonna.There was also tape recordings used of Madonna made by her then boyfriend Dan Gilroy.

Madonna is now working on her biopic...trying to get a script together.The director of 'Rocketman' has said that he would love to direct it.Her story is really interesting.If they do it right,it will be fantastic.

I dislike most that I've seen. They tend to be incredibly formulaic, with simplistic notions of how art gets made (fight with your girlfriend / turn it into your biggest hit). I also find it such an insult that they call the movie "Aretha" or "Ray", and the movie includes no vocals by either Aretha or Ray. So is this about the musician, or is this about the actor wanting an Oscar?

The entire point of Aretha is the voice. It doesn't matter if someone else CAN sing the songs, they don't have that voice.

I guess my favorite is What's Love Got To Do With It. As far as I know, it had Tina's real vocals, and wasn't the same old formula. It was more like a horror movie, and that moment when she finally hit back in the limo was cathartic and great.

I don't think I would like Prince biopic, I would think it would ring false, I know too much about the subject, hard to overlook fudged happenings

Was not a huge Ray Charles fan, but Jamie was incredible in that movie, and rang very true to me, do not know enough about Ray to watch it with a discrimanating eye. The music and vocals were amazing to me, even if not Ray

The Best Biopic to me was Searching for SugarMan, or was that a documentary, dunno, what's the diff, but that show pulls at my emotions big time, love that Rodriquez

jfenster said: