movie review
The best music movies throughout history.
Top 10 Music Biopics
The world of music is often celebrated in motion pictures, if you are like me and are fascinated with the lives of famous musicians there is an abundance of movies tailored to just you.
Phill RossPublished 4 years ago in BeatReview of 'Yesterday'
Well, my wife and I just saw Yesterday, having taped it last week on HBO, and we loved it. This is contrary to some otherwise worthy critics, but what else is new.
Paul LevinsonPublished 4 years ago in BeatA Filmmaker's Review: "What Happened Miss Simone?" (2015)
Nina Simone is known as not only one of the world's greatest entertainers, but also one of the 20th century's greatest pianists. A singer of revolutionary politics, she was not as appreciated at her time as she has been after her revival period. Her songs have often been anthems for causes such as the seminal "Mississippi Goddam" and her covers of jazz classics have always reminded us of the legendary Billie Holiday as Nina Simone once sang "My Baby Just Cares For Me" and even the song "Fine and Mellow".
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in BeatHow Does this Movie Exist? 'Rockula' 1990
This might just be me being a little… hyperbolic, but, the 1990 musical comedy Rockula starring Dean Cameron is disease somehow rendered as a movie. Watching Rockula, which was released 30 years ago as of this writing, in February of 2020, was what I imagine contracting the plague must have been like. It begins as discomfort that grows into genuine aches and pains before developing into an all consuming feeling of slow, painful, agonizing death.
Sean PatrickPublished 4 years ago in BeatMiss Americana
As a black man, in my early fifties and having grown up in south London, my musical influences and leanings were towards soul and funk with a smidgen of reggae. My clubbing days were solidly soul and funk, moving into house and garage music and embracing the musical mores that surrounded that scene.
Q-ell BettonPublished 4 years ago in Beat'Walk the Line' Review
Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line is a musical biopic about Johnny Cash’s life, musical career and particularly his romantic involvement with country singer June Carter. The film is based on two of Cash’s autobiographies 1975s Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words and 1997s Cash: The Autobiography. The screenplay is written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, and the film is directed by James Mangold.
A Filmmaker's Review: 'I Saw the Light' (2015)
Hank Williams is one of my all-time favourite singers and when I was a slightly younger me, I used to really enjoy watching this film. All in all, it is a fun film about Hank Williams and shows us what his fame would've looked like way back when he was actually alive. Set in the late 40s, this film gives light to the final years of the singer with the deterioration of his marriage to Audrey and his alcoholism getting the better of him. The only problem I had upon the next and more analytic watch of this film is that it really lacks some substance. Yes, it's a fun film - but nothing that you'd say is any good critically and that's how we're going to look at it today.
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in BeatA Filmmaker's Review: 'Behind the Candelabra' (2013)
Behind the Candelabra (2013) is one of those films that everyone remembers being released but nobody knows where it went. It's like after its cinema play it kind of dropped off the face of the earth even though it did fairly well at the box office. I can assure you that this film, if you haven't seen it, is a lot more entertaining than you think it is. A mixture of music, comedy, drama and biography - this film tells an incredibly whimsical and slightly off-key tale of the latter part of Liberace's career. It is a visually stunning movie and I think that Liberace himself would've liked it quite a lot. Let's start off with my history with this movie...
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in BeatA Filmmaker's Review: 'La Bamba' (1987)
The stunning story of the father of Chicano Rock, Ritchie Valens - this film gives us a highlight of his short life and his shoot to stardom when the song "Come On, Let's Go" gets released as a single. I'm not going to lie, I purely enjoyed this film because Ritchie Valens is one of my favourite singers of all time. This film is so enjoyable because it's fun and musical - it doesn't focus all too much on tragedy but focuses instead on giving you enough of Ritchie Valens to know how his legend was perfectly preserved by those around him. It is such an incredible film to watch.
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in BeatMy Review of 'Rocketman'
Rocketman came out not too long after Bohemian Rhapsody. Both are about flamboyantly gay musicians making it big in the music industry with tons of drugs, sex and underhanded people. The fact that the characters of these two movies are so similar and that the movies came out so close to one another entails that comparisons will be made, but these two movies are very different from one another.
Brian AnonymousPublished 5 years ago in BeatMovie Review: 'Desolation Center' Doc Explores Guerilla Concerts of the 80s
Where did the idea of festivals mixing art and music come from? Some will credit Lollapalooza or Burning Man for creating this unique combination of art and music. But, the real origin of a truly punk festival of music and art may be Desolation Center. Director Stuart Swezey was the founder of Desolation Center in the 1970s and now, Swezey has taken the reigns to tell the story himself of the founding of a festival.
Sean PatrickPublished 5 years ago in BeatMovie Review: 'I Can Only Imagine'
Released in 2018 and with a modest budget of $7 million, I Can Only Imagine became a box office success, raking in $85 million worldwide to become the fifth highest-grossing music biopic and the sixth highest-grossing Christian film of all time in the United States. Still, it took me well over a year to watch it. And then I immediately saw why the movie won "Inspirational Film of the Year" at the 2018 Dove Awards.
Rachel CarringtonPublished 5 years ago in Beat