movies about music or musicians | The Boneyard

movies about music or musicians

nwhoopfan

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Some of these have come up in other threads, but there's gotta be tons of 'em. I'm not much into musicals, so I'll leave those for somebody else. Also plenty of documentaries/biopics about actual musicians, but I'll skip that too.

Most of these are dramas. A few comedies. Music might be central or it might be more on the periphery. I think in just about all of them the actors do their own singing, some of them also are really playing their instruments. I can appreciate that authenticity, even if they don't have great singing voices they are at least passable.

Begin Again (great performances and symbiotic relationship between Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley)

Sing Street (same director as above)

Rudderless (interesting dynamic between Billy Crudup and Anton Yelchin)

One More Time (Christopher Walken as a way over the hill, completely non self-aware crooner and Amber Heard as his estranged daughter; also a good performance by Oliver Platt as the family attorney/friend)

A Late Quartet (a bit melodramatic, but good performances by Christopher Walken, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Imogen Poots)

You're Not You (a bit of a stretch, but it does have a struggling songwriter who's making a mess of her life and finally finds something worth caring about; great performance by Emmy Rossum)

Pitch Perfect (silly but fun and endearing ensemble comedy; sequel was not as good and third one looks like it might be a trainwreck)

Band Aid (dramedy that was more drama than comedy; a bit uneven but I'll give lots of credit to Zoe Lister-Jones for writing, producing, directing, starring and cowriting all the songs, she must've poured her heart into this film)

Blink (thriller featuring some cool Celtic/rock music and Madeleine Stowe)

The New Guy (had to pick at least one movie featuring Zooey Deschanel singing, she's got a great voice; this was a goofy teen comedy but it was fairly fun)

Almost Famous (several great performances and the fictitious band sounds good)

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (fake biopic featuring John C. Reilly; hit and miss but has its funny parts; I think mostly based on Johnny Cash but it takes swipes at plenty of other famous musicians)

This is Spinal Tap (popularized the mockumentary; "our amps go up to 11")

Josey and the Pussycats (this one got trashed, but it's actually a pretty decent satire about consumerism and following trends; the songs from the band are actually halfway decent send ups of bubble gum pop; probably the best part is the fake boy band at the beginning that is absolutely spot on)

Roadies (a tv series, not a movie; critics hated it and it was cancelled after 1 season, but I loved it; great ensemble cast, numerous cameos from real musicians, Imogen Poots stole the show)


I know I listed quite a few, but there's still tons more.
 

nwhoopfan

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Thought of a few more.

Bandslam (okay, kinda cheesy, but it has heart; Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens are both Disney kids that grew up singing and acting, so it's not a stretch for them)

Grace Unplugged (Aly's younger sister AJ plays a pastor's daughter who goes astray chasing the bright lights trying to start a musical career)

Get Over It (more cheese, but I love it; delusional high school drama department head directs musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, much hijinx ensues; good young cast at the time--Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Mila Kunis, Colin Hanks, Zoe Saldana, some older established talent and several musical personalities including Sisqo and Vitamin C that have completed disappeared since then)

If I Stay (Chloe Grace Moretz is a cellist and her boyfriend is the front man for an up and coming local band in Portland, OR)
 

nwhoopfan

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O Brother Where Art Thou (the Soggy Bottom Boys!; movie and soundtrack played a big role in sparking a folk/roots music revival)
 
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OT but I've never sat thru a Beatles movie. Are they dated or still watchable if you weren't around for their actual time together?
 

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OT but I've never sat thru a Beatles movie. Are they dated or still watchable if you weren't around for their actual time together?
I love them, but I love the Beatles and pretty much everything to do with them. Very smart, very funny, very irreverent and very aware.
 

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It's not a movie about music or musicians, but it's one of my favorite scenes of all time from one of my favorite movies of all time, which captures the essence of music for me more effectively than anything else (especially when combined with the scene that precedes it):

 
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Since you included a TV series, I'd add Mozart In the Jungle on Amazon. Fun show about a orchestra in NYC with great music.
 
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O Brother Where Art Thou (the Soggy Bottom Boys!; movie and soundtrack played a big role in sparking a folk/roots music revival)

Blues Brothers

Amadeus

Oh Brother and Blues Brothers are both very infectious. I like them both quite a bit, and have seen them both a bunch of times.
 

intlzncster

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Not quite 'musicians' per se, but Duets was surprisingly good.

The great Footloose.

The highly, highly underrated Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

School of Rock
High Fidelity
Empire Records
8 Mile
(borders on biopic but is technically fiction)
The Wall (Pink Floyd) probably qualifies, as the lead character is a musician dealing with his demons.
 
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The Beat That My Heart Skipped - Romain Duris is a great french actor and the lead in one of my favorite films, L'Auberge Espagnole, and in this he was again quite good playing a hitman/thug who wants to break away from the life and go after a missed career as a concert pianist.

Inside Llewyn Davis - Coen Bros. movie that started Oscar Isaac's career. I remember liking it at the time but not much else about it.

Crazy Heart - Never seen it but supposed to be good. I think Bridges finally won for this one.

Doors, Ray, Walk the Line - They were all kind of ok, never did get the love for the last two. Ok movies for sure but I feel sour about them thinking here and now.

Straight Outta Compton - Pretty darn good and snappy biopic about NWA.

Across the Universe - Tried so hard to be emotionally manipulative but at least it was visually sumptuous. Decent use of Beatles music anyway.
 

storrsroars

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Doors, Ray, Walk the Line - They were all kind of ok, never did get the love for the last two. Ok movies for sure but I feel sour about them thinking here and now.

I agree about those movies not being great, with the difference being I never got the love for the first listed.

I probably won't watch 95% of the film's listed so far as I usually find "struggling artistic genius" films quite tedious.

While not actually about musicians, I do enjoy Pirate Radio.

I'll add 24 Hour Party People, which can be difficult to understand, but as a Happy Mondays/Black Grape fan, seeing the trainwreck that is Shaun Ryder documented on film drew me in.
 
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I love Walk the Line. One of my sneaky under the radar recommendations to people.

Are we including documentaries here? The OP was vague on if we "could" include them so I'll suggest The Amy Winehouse documentary. A++.
 
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As someone that wished he had more musical talent, I'm a sucker for a music movie. I'm not counting musicals because they are usually not about music or musicians. Some others not mentioned above off the top of my head:

Eddie and the Cruisers. More Springsteen than some Springsteen.

Mr. Holland's Opus. I teared up.

Pump Up the Volume. Not great, but strong soundtrack.

Mighty Wind. The folk music version of Spinal Tap?

Crossroads. Machio is the best guitarist of a generation!

Light of Day. Joan Jett and MJ Fox doing Springsteen? Had to be good.

Satisfaction (Justine Bateman). Sooo bad, but so 80's.

Rocky Horror Picture Show. May not fit if you treat it as a musical, but it was really about the music.

Purple Rain. Loved Morris Day and The Time (and Apollonia).

Pitch Perfect. The first one was pretty damn funny in my opinion.
 

nwhoopfan

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Are we including documentaries here? The OP was vague on if we "could" include them so I'll suggest The Amy Winehouse documentary. A++.

Sorry for vagueness. Documentaries are good, I just didn't include any in my list.
 
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I love Walk the Line. One of my sneaky under the radar recommendations to people.

Are we including documentaries here? The OP was vague on if we "could" include them so I'll suggest The Amy Winehouse documentary. A++.

My wife and I are Johnny Cash fans, so we saw Walk the Line when it was first released. I have not seen it since, but I do recall that it was a very solid movie. Also thought Reece Witherspoon was quite good in her Oscar winning performance as June Carter Cash.
 
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Mighty Wind. The folk music version of Spinal Tap?

Considering that Mighty Wind was made by many of the same people involved in the making of Spinal Tap, that would be a fair assessment. Mighty Wind is certainly a solid mockumentary and well worth seeing, but it is not quite on the same level as Spinal Tap or Best in Show.
 

Husky25

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Jersey Boys-a virtually scene by scene recreation of the play.

The Temptations
 

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