That’s certainly fair…
… though this movie might also be viewed as a biopic on blues rock guitar through the eyes of those characters rather than as a documentary about those specific people…
… but angels on pins and it’s your topic so you get to decide :-)
Diego
Not sure how it took so long to get to Almost Famous, but we got there. :)
Pretty much every good one has been mentioned, except:
Grace of My Heart: Really think this might be one of the best – and least known, underrated music movies ever made. In a field crowded with movies about dudes, it also stands out – it’s about a woman, stars a woman, and is written and directed by a phenomenally talented woman who basically saw this film end her career as a potential a-lister (mostly because the studio couldn’t figure out how to promote it when it originally came out in 1996.) Phenomenal cast (Illeana Douglas should’ve been a star, based off this, but also Jennifer Leigh Warren, Bridget Fonda, John Turturro, Richard Schiff, etc.) Probably didn’t help things much for this movie that a few years after it came out, Phil Spector went from “reclusive weirdo” to “abusive sociopathic murderer”.
Also…Bound For Glory. Really terrific take on Woody Guthrie’s early days
Sing Street is splendid, and the kids in it are for the most part excellent. Whenever John Carney comes up I think I should watch more of his films but then I forget.
I have a soft spot for Bird, the 1988 Clint Eastwood directed film starring Forest Whitaker. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, and I’m a bit afraid it won’t quite hold up. My recollections of it are quite fond, especially since I wasn’t familiar with Charlie Parker before the movie. It’s a biopic, but the music, or possibly performing music, is the main character, and I fell in love with the music.
I put on “Elephant” with my seven year old son driving yesterday. I turned the volume to a minimum but he still covered his ears saying “it’s so loud”
Oh! The mention of Bird made me think of Round Midnight, with Dexter Gordon. An absolutely fantastic film. It’s a fantastic imagining of the 1950s NYC and Paris jazz scenes.
One of us! But yeah, it’s loud and raw.
On the animated side of the stage, there’s the tremendous bard tales in Coco and Kubo and the Two Strings, as well as Soul, and my wife told me she enjoyed Sing, at least.
“American Pop” was apparently expensive as hell to create and make, and it did NOTHING at the box-office, completely baffling Ralph Bakshi’s built-in audience who wanted him to make the sequel to the Lord of the Rings animated film he’d directed/animated a few years before.
I was 14 when trailers for this aired for a few weeks during The Midnight Special on NBC and syndicated late night “Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert”. It blew my mind, and I was desperate to see it. And then it was in and out of theaters in the blink of an eye and the local critic in the paper hated it. I forgot about it for years, mostly, though it was clear to see that when I did care to look it up, the critical reception was muted at best.
Finally saw “American Pop” a few years ago and enjoyed the hell out of it, though I can absolutely understand why it didn’t work at all for critics or much of the public on release. At times it feels like a montage, and it just zooms around with quick edits and feels like Bakshi’s got the shortest attention span in the whole world. The movie’s like an hour and a half long, and he tries to cram this epic, multi-generational story into that span.
But here’s the thing. About 6 months after “American Pop” stiffed at the box office in February of 1981, this weird little cable channel called MTV premiered. And once-baffled would-be audiences got used to quick-cut edits and sort of nonsensical timelines. Which is to say: “American Pop” has aged pretty well. It’s still just kind of a mess, but it’s a glorious kind of mess that’s kind of a wonder to behold.
Yeah I saw this fairly young too and it had a big impact.
Cadillac Records
Renaldo & Clara (there - I said it!)
The Buddy Holly Story
Great Balls of Fire
Thought I’d necro this for us 80’s indie kids. Somehow I utterly missed this when it came out last year.
Spud plays Alan McGee in a dramatization of the Creation Records story. Produced by Danny Boyle, co-written by Irvine Welsh, so hello Trainspotting. Directed by the guy who made the Joe Meek movie.
The cast list has people playing Dan Treacy and Young Bobby Gillespie and Jim and William Reid.
Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s streaming on AMC+…looks like it might be a lot of fun!
CODA is a nice addition to the list.
School of Rock is a goofy addition to the list
These are my two favorites:
But this is my guilty pleasure addition that I adore:
The Red Violin
Thirty two Shortfilms About Glenn Gould
Amadeus
Whiplash
Shine (Geoffrey Rush was great)
New York, New York (DeNiro and Minelli were great)
and there are movies that would be a lot less without their music:
Gattacca
The Piano
The Draughtsmans Contract
Indiana Jones
Star Wars
Someone I was friends with in HS channel
One of his other videos and appropriate for this thread is about Get Crazy, from the director of Rock & Roll High School. It’s not on any of the movie streaming services but you can find it on Youtube.
Very cool. I’ll be watching more of his stuff. Thanks.
A couple more other more out there flicks.
Uncle Peckerhead, this is a very B movie about a small time band touring locally trying to get signed, the catch is their roadie just happens to turn into a man eating monster at night. The thing about it though is it’s clear someone who worked on it was in a band because it captures a lot of the realities of being in a small band, from the petty rivalries with other local bands to getting screwed over by the local club promoters.
Rock & Rule the other animated music movie from the early 80s. This time featuring anthropomorphic animals, again about a band trying to get signed but with more sci-fi/fantasy implications mixed in. But there’s inner band turmoil here, a lead holding back one of the other talented members of the band only to end up overshadowed, the dangers of signing with big label etc.
See this makes me think Green Room should be suggested - the whole first act is basically witnessing the shitty life of a D-grade band before things get… intense.
Just watched this, and for fans of Creation it is a lot of fun! Goddamn I enjoyed this movie, and had no idea it existed, so thanks for necro-ing this thread.
(I’m not sure it’s a film with universal appeal, but for us Creation Records fanboys…man is it a good time.)