Hollywood have latched onto the musical biopic, and continue to tighten their grip. Just when you think audiences couldn’t stomach another one, director Sam Mendes has announced not one, but four separate biopics of each of the Beatles. The genre skyrocketed after Bryan Singer’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” raked in $910.8 million, and was followed by a rapid stream of others, namely Elton John’s upbeat and surreal biopic “Rocketman” (2019), “Elvis” (2022), and more recently Amy Winehouse’s story in “Back to Black” (2024) and Bob Dylan’s “A Complete Unknown” (2024).
This rising trend has been criticised and slammed by many online as a lazy and unimaginative cash-grab. Hollywood has seemed to revel in the convenience of an existing devoted and widespread audience that existed prior to the film’s existence. The legal loophole that largely does not require legal permission from artists’ families and estates to bring their lives to the screen is, well, remarkable.
However, with a devoted audience, comes exceptionally devoted critics, who deem themselves almighty legacy-protectors. “Back to Black” was wrapped in controversy for the messy portrayal of Amy Winehouse, stumbling on stage with smeared messy black eyeliner. Social media exploded in light of the “inauthentic” and flat impression of her signature voice in the beloved songs we all know and love. Perhaps insensitively premature, being only a little over ten years since the star’s tragic death.
These critics have not been enough to slow the abundance of these films in cinemas each year. Going to the cinema to see Timothée Chalamet’s impression of Bob Dylan will most likely feature pre-film trailers of the Bruce Springsteen biopic “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” or Selena Gomez as Linda Ronstadt expected later this year. This popularity, despite opposition, can be a tribute to the formulaic storytelling blueprint we see time and time again. It may lack care and sensitivity in the supposed “honouring” of these global superstars, but the entertainment value has cyclically generated success and mass viewership. Audiences are continually returning to cinemas to see beloved artists rise to fame, experience struggle in their private or professional lives, and either end up spiralling into disaster or becoming immortalised in legendary music success, with a final legendary performance sequence. This narrative has proved to be the undeniable recipe for success.
What is abundantly clear is that we are all nosey. Audiences arrive at cinemas like vultures in flocks to witness the dark underbelly of the world’s most famous artists. The biopic is set apart from other genres as despite the story historically pre-existing, the Hollywood-ified version does not. And its construction is often unsettling. Timelines altered, downfall and struggle sensationalized, and hardship capitalised on. The depiction of Whitey Houston in the 2022 blockbuster “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” mentioned her performances at the 1991 Superbowl and the 1994 American Music Awards, but it was laser-focussed on her drug-abuse and her troubling infamous marriage to Bobby Brown. “Back to Black” follows suit, honing in on Winehouse’s relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil presented as the primary cause of her alcohol and drug abuse.
This is not to say that these films don’t have the capacity for artistic value and historical significance. With significant care and respect, a biopic can successfully and honestly tell a story that fans globally are desperate to see, and musician’s legacies should not be ignored. However, with the pace at which these films are being churned out, the cautious attention needed to successfully tell a real and honest story seems impossible. If the vultures keep flocking, Hollywood will keep delivering.
“Bohemian Rhapsody cast on MTV Movies” by MTV International is licensed under CC BY 3.0.