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The 140+ Best Biography Movies

Biographical films explore the fascinating lives of historical figures and cultural icons. The best biography movies offer viewers a detailed look into the lives of these people, skillfully recreating stories that have shaped history and left a lasting impact on the world. With unforgettable narratives to explore, you will find these films showcase exceptional storytelling, nuanced performances, and unparalleled cinematic vision. 

The best biography movies offer not just boring history, but gripping, groundbreaking, and original narratives. For instance, films like Catch Me If You Can follow the high-stakes exploits of a charming con artist, bringing together thrilling action with intriguing character development. Schindler's List, on the other hand, tackles the harrowing subject of the Holocaust, masterfully capturing the heroic efforts of one man to save lives during a dark time in history. Then there's A Beautiful Mind, which delves into the complex life of renowned mathematician John Nash, showcasing the challenges and triumphs associated with his brilliance. These films are but a few examples of the best biographical movies that excellently capture the essence of their subjects and the genre. 

The lasting impact of these movies demonstrates how well they resonate with audiences, transcending time and cultural boundaries. Biographical movies not only accurately depict the lives of their subjects, but they also elevate the art of storytelling by blending truth with cinematic drama. Through these exceptional films, viewers gain fresh perspectives on the world, history, and the individuals who have shaped it, marking these biographical movies as the very best in their field. 

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The 25 best biopics of all time – ranked

From 'Malcolm X' to 'Oppenheimer': the greatest movies inspired by great lives

Hollywood has always loved a biopic – and not just Hollywood. Abel Gance’s legendary silent epic Napoléon and Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc both created early blueprints for biographical cinema. But let’s not kid ourselves: it’s American cinema that has developed the biggest passion for putting the lives of great men and women – and some not-so-great-ones – up in lights. And the early ’80s are when the biopic really kicked up a gear, with films like Raging Bull (about Jake LaMotta), Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn) and The Elephant Man (Joseph Merrick) all vying for Best Picture at 1980’s Oscars. This year, Oppenheimer and Maestro have continued the awards season sideline in teaching us all about Important People. But not all biopics are created equal. The list below singles out the ones that do more than just offer a Wikipedia-like trawl through a life’s events, however eventfully lived. Those flavourless films – J Edgar , Diana etc – often prove far less illuminating than a good hour-long History Channel doc. Instead, we’ve picked films that put fresh spins on famous figures, reframe their lives in insightful ways, and use the language of cinema to lend them grandeur and context in all kinds of memorable ways. Welcome to the cinema of icons. 

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Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

1.  Napoléon (1927)

Move over Joaquin and Ridley , because Abel Gance’s iconic silent epic – all six-ish hours of it – is still the definitive depiction of the diminutive Corsican– yes, including Bill & Ted’s . Played by the gaunt Albert Dieudonné and taking in battles, politics and the young Bonaparte’s famous , it’s a tour de force of cinematic craft, with Gance employing an extraordinary array of techniques to bring this action-packed life to audiences in the late ’20s. Thanks to Kevin Brownlow’s loving restoration, it’s in fighting fettle nearly a century later. It doesn’t cover his entire life – Austerlitz, the retreat from Moscow and defeat at Waterloo were all destined to appear in further films Gance never got to make – but there’s enough Revolutionary-era detail for even the most dedicated sans culotte .

2.  Andrei Rublev (1966)

A bad biopic will just plod dutifully through history. For Andrei Tarkovsky, the form offered the chance to philosophise about creative and religious freedom, and explore the tension between his subject, the titular 15th century Russian icon painter, the chaotic medieval landscape he inhabited and the filmmaker’s own Communist homeland. In other words, to go full Tarkovsky. The result is one of the most stunning films of the ’60s, a black-and-white masterpiece embroidered with extraordinary visuals: the hot air balloon, the Tartars’ attack, the casting of the bell, and the weathered face of Rublev himself. Fun fact: his co-writer Andrei Konchalovsky went on to direct Tango & Cash . A tenner if you can find thematic overlap.

3.  Raging Bull (1980)

Some biopics cast such a long shadow they end up eclipsing their subject in public imagination. Old-school boxing fans know Jake LaMotta was a real fighter – and a real asshole – and not just a creation of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. But in the cultural consciousness, De Niro is Jake LaMotta. And really, he might as well be, given how deeply he inhabits the role of a violent man increasingly unable to differentiate between a prize fight and everything else in his life. It’s a brutal but necessary portrait of male ugliness, made beautiful by Scorsese’s equally operatic and hallucinogenic visual style.

4.  Malcolm X (1992)

If any figure’s life deserves the cradle-to-grave treatment, it’s Malcolm X – and if any director is qualified to film his story with the breadth it requires, it’s Spike Lee. Lee refuses to sand down the edges of the Civil Rights icon’s biography, and in the process revivifies the three-dimensional image of a complex leader that had been flattened into a militant caricature through decades of purposeful revisionism. But the ace, of course, is Denzel Washington, who so fully embodies the activist at each stage of his life – from hoodlum to revolutionary to martyr – that when younger generations think about Malcolm X, he’s the person they see. 

5.  Amadeus (1984)

Miloš Forman’s opulent, stormy period piece about maverick musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great biopics. Adapting his own play, writer Peter Shaffer keeps the ingenious framing device of capturing Wolfie’s life in flashback through the eyes of his bitter rival Salieri. It lets us see what he sees, but encourages us to take a lot more pleasure in it all, until the charm wears off and the story sours. It’s as light and effortless as a fairy tale – all grand balls, OTT costumes and gossipy salons – but as immaculately constructed as a Mozart concerto. The brilliant Tom Hulce plays Mozart as a giggly manchild, while the equally formidable F Murray Abraham drips venom as the scheming Salieri.

6.  Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Paul Schrader tackles the life, career and incredibly violent death of Japanese writer and artist Yukio Mishima in a film that shows a good biopic can make dramatic hay from even the most unlikeable figures. Because, make no mistake, Mishima is a bit of a douche: an avatar for toxic masculinity and regressive nationalism who’d no doubt be a social media superstar these days. Schrader’s cleverly constructed, wildly imaginative epic finds beauty in his art and lurid colour in his life, framing it via stagily avant garde dramatisations with Philip Glass’s legendary score lending it all added grandeur.

7.  The Elephant Man (1980)

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David Lynch tamped down his surrealist impulses for his first major studio film, but when the source material is the true story of a 19th century freakshow exhibit turned bon vivant, what dreamy embellishments do you really need? Born with severe physical deformities science still hasn’t fully explained, Joseph Merrick nevertheless became the toast of London in the late 1800s when he was discovered to be far more erudite than his appearance suggested. John Hurt works wonders under an intensely cumbersome amount of make-up, literally straining to bring Merrick’s humanity to the surface. And while it might play more conventionally than just about anything Lynch did after, the director still imbues the film with a signature sense of unease.

8.  Patton (1970)

Flawed geniuses make great biopic subjects. Flawed heroes maybe even more so. General George S Patton, a hard-charging tank commander during World War II, is definitely one of the latter and depending on which historian you ask, maybe the former too. Embodied by the hardly mild-mannered George C Scott, a role for which he won, and subsequently declined, an Oscar, his wartime experiences make an electrifying case study of almost deranged drive and purpose. The film also makes a fascinating case study in leadership, with the screenplay, co-written by Francis Ford Coppola, never excusing the man’s brutal excesses – including the shellshocked G.I. he infamously slapped.

9.  Lawrence of Arabia (2012)

Condensing a great man’s life into a bum-friendly two-plus-hours is the kind of daunting task that David Lean’s widescreen epic makes no effort to attempt. Instead, over 227 minutes this remarkable film recreates the rise of TE Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) from humble army office to leader of the Arab tribes in World War I on the biggest imaginable canvas. That’s not to say it’s all strictly accurate. Despite being based on Lawrence’s own account of the war, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, it drew criticism for its depictions of Arabs in the story (Alec Guinness’s Prince Faisal, in particular), and it failure to include a single female character (British orientalist Gertrude Bell was a key figure in the story). But some British bias aside, much of what’s here is close to what happened IRL. 

10.  Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan’s doomy portrait of the father of the atomic age will be forever linked to a movie about a plastic doll come to life . But it’s not really such a harsh juxtaposition – for all its physics talk and Senate hearings and apocalyptic visions, Oppenheimer would still qualify as blockbuster movie-making even if it didn’t wind up half of the #Barbenheimer phenomenon. Cillian Murphy is simply that captivating as J Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the weapon that may still annihilate us all, and the movie is simply that big: a three-hour exploration of guilt, war, death and marriage that overwhelms your attention with sheer density.

11.  The Last Emperor (1987)

This sweeping epic about Aisin Gioro Puyi, China’s last monarch, is one for all the they-don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to heads out there. And Bernardo Bertolucci’s sweeping, nine-Oscars-winning movie really does feel like an offering from another era – not least because China is unlikely to be lending 19,000 soldiers to a Hollywood studio anytime soon, or handing over the keys to Beijing’s Forbidden City. That’s the backdrop to the film’s most famous shot: a toddler-aged Puyi standing before a vast crowd of his subjects. Despite being based on Puyi’s autobiography – or maybe because of it – The Last Emperor was called out for soft-soaking his cruelty. But as an depiction of 60 years of chaos and change, it’s still jaw-dropping.

12.  Ed Wood (1994)

Ed Wood is often laughed off as the worst director of all-time, but as time has gone on, and we’ve seen filmmakers do far worse with much bigger budgets, it’s easier to appreciate him as one of cinema’s truest believers, driven to serve his vision as best he could. That doesn’t make his movies any better, nor his technical ineptitude any less funny. But Tim Burton’s loving reappraisal manages to laugh with admiration rather than derision, to the point of looking and feeling like one of Wood’s films, at least in terms of vibe and not, like, visible boom mics. Johnny Depp is enthusiastically daft in the lead, and finds true warmth in his friendship with Martin Landau’s ageing, broken-down Bela Lugosi.

13.  Spartacus (1960)

‘I’m Spartacus!’ ‘No, I’m Spartacus!’ The stand-up-and-cheer moment in Stanley Kubrick’s CinemaScope epic feels much more Tinseltown than Ancient Rome, but the film around it is all based on real events. Specifically, a slave revolt against the Romans led by a Thracian slave in 71 BC. Famously, Kubrick directed it as a hired gun at the behest of its star Kirk Douglas, and it’s Kubrickian more in spectacle than style or theme – with the big battles and colosseum scenes making it the Gladiator of its day. It came with uncanny historical resonance, too: screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood 10 and for a time, was denied credit on the film. His Spartacus moment took a lot longer to happen, but he got a much happier ending ( and a Bryan Cranston film made about him ). 

14.  Persepolis (2008)

There’s not a load of animated biopics but those there are, are great. Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises , about fighter plane pioneer Jiro Horikoshi, is one such. Flee , about Afghan refugee Amin Nawab, is another. But Marjane Satrapi's adaptation of her own graphic novel about her childhood in Iran may be the best of the lot. It follows a young Satrapi as she tries to coexist peacefully with the Iranian Revolution, a feat made much tougher by her, a) being a woman, and b) having a mind of her own. The animation, aping the style of the book’s black-and-white illustrations, gives this touching, but punky coming-of-age story an aesthetic all of its own. 

15.  A Hidden Life (2020)

It’s noteworthiness rather than just notoriety that drives a good biopic. Franz Jägerstätter, played with rugged stoicism by Inglourious Basterds’ August Diehl, probably wouldn’t have ended up with a film made about his life had fate not reached into his bucolic corner of the Austrian Alps in the early 1940s. But the sheer courage and spiritual principle displayed by this humble family man in the face of the moral depravity of the Nazi state provide Terrence Malick’s stirring  film with a chance to elevate him from history’s marginalia. A hidden life no more.

16.  Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

The tropes of the musical biopic had not yet been fully codified when Michael Apted adapted country icon Loretta Lynn’s rags-to-riches story, but even now that they’ve been trod into dust, Coal Miner’s Daughter remains uniquely moving. You know the major beats: a girl is born into poverty, marries young, survives abuse and myriad other hardships, then succeeds beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. But Apted and stars Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones string the familiar narrative together with such well-observed humanity that it feels less like standard Hollywood biography and something closer to a folk tale.

17.  Walk the Line (2005)

Casting is always crucial in biopics, but if you’re making a movie about Johnny Cash and June Carter, it’s everything : if the chemistry between your leads is less than electric, you’re done for. Thankfully, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon just about set the screen ablaze, he as country music’s ultimate voice of the voiceless, she as the beacon of light guiding him through his own personal darkness. Their shared authenticity – in both their onstage duets and offstage quarrels – elevates the film above its ‘behind the music’ cliches. That didn’t prevent it from being cut in half pretty bad by the hilarious parody Walk Hard – but if it helped bring the world Dewey Cox, that only makes it better.

18.  I'm Not There (2007)

Dylanology has been an unofficial field of academic study since the ’60s, so there’s little anyone could possibly gain from a straightforward Bob Dylan biopic. Wisely, in I’m Not There , Todd Haynes does the exact opposite of ‘straightforward’, taking a more symbolic approach in examining the towering musician’s muses and mythos. Six different actors portray various Dylanesque personae, none of them actually named Bob Dylan. Most memorable is Cate Blanchett as folk singer Jude Quinn, basically an alternate-reality version of Dylan circa his electric conversion. It’s a fascinating experiment that’s sometimes also inscrutable – as anything truthful to this particular subject should be.

19.  Lincoln (2013)

Actors have gone to great lengths in prepping to play historical figures before. Daniel Day-Lewis levelled up, however, as Abraham Lincoln, asking to be addressed as ‘Mr President’ on set and not breaking character for three months, even in the car to work. Which may, thinking about it, have been a carriage. But such is the burden of depicting a figure of the magnitude of Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s serious-minded history, and the results are extraordinary. The film isn’t too shabby either. Tony Kushner’s screenplay, based Doris Kearns Goodwin’s famous Lincoln biography ‘Team of Rivals’, saupercharges Congressional debates and policy-making summits with the urgency of a thriller. Legislation drafting has never been this exciting.

20.  I, Tonya (2017)

Not even the trashiest Lifetime screenwriter could script a scandal as perfect as the one that enveloped US figure skating in 1994: all-American ice princess Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the knee by an unknown assailant. The suspect? Her chief rival, trailer park roughneck Tonya Harding. It was world-class tabloid fodder – but tabloids, of course, have little use for nuance or empathy. Director Craig Gillespie doesn’t rehabilitate Harding, exactly, but brings the circumstances of her life into better view, while still recognising the dark absurdity of the controversy that made her famous. Margot Robbie proved her range in the lead role, but it was Allison Janney, as her abusive, chain-smoking mother, who rightly won all the awards.

21.  Control (2007)

Anton Corbijn is uniquely suited to make a movie about late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis: he jump started his photography career in the ‘70s by shooting the band for NME, and later directed a posthumous video for their song ‘Atmosphere’. No wonder, then, that the movie looks like how the band sounded: monochrome and austere, yet starkly beautiful. As you’d expect of a film about a musician who hung himself at age 23, the prevailing mood of Control is somber, but Sam Riley gives Curtis a detectable heartbeat, portraying him as a man capable of love (and even humour), but only from a distance.

22.  Ray (2005)

Narratively, Taylor Hackford’s look at the life and times of Ray Charles is Music Bio 101, charting the legendary entertainer’s rise from blind prodigy to American icon, with all the attendant battles against sin and vice in between. What earns it a place on this list is Jamie Foxx, who doesn’t so much embody Charles but fuse with his DNA like the alien in The Thing . Foxx doesn’t just burrow under his skin – although the surface-level impression is uncanny – but into his heart, brain and everything else, drawing far more out of the performance than the script seemed to offer him.  

23.  Man on the Moon (1999)

Self-described ‘song and dance man’ Andy Kaufman dedicated his life and career to inscrutability, to the point that the ‘real Andy’ became unknowable, perhaps even to the comedian himself. In lieu of separating fact from fiction, Milos Forman’s biopic simply reiterates the legend. Is there much to learn from restaging Kaufman’s greatest hits, like the wrestling matches and Mighty Mouse and the milk-and-cookies stunt from Carnegie Hall, even with the fine detail Forman provides them? Not really. But Jim Carrey famously poured himself into portraying Kaufman with such scary accuracy that it goes beyond movie acting and becomes a form of performance art in itself – perhaps the most appropriate tribute you can offer him.

24.  Rocketman (2019)

If you only watch one biopic about a flamboyant British musical superstar who loves a party, make it Rocketman rather than Bohemian Rhapsody . Dexter Fletcher ended up working, uncredited, to finish the Freddie Mercury movie just before he tackled Elton John’s life. He saved all the magic for this one, sketching out a vivid fantasia that feels entirely in keeping with the pop star’s bonkers life, and adopting the grammar of movie musicals to  swerve the tired clichés that blight so many biopics . Elton’s suicide attempt, flowing from swimming pool to hospital in one shot and accompanied by the title song, is sheer, drug-addled wonderment.

25.  Elvis (2022)

It might have been Harry Styles. It might even have been Miles Teller. The fact that it’s Austin Butler, a hitherto barely known actor with only a passing resemblance, who ended up playing Elvis demonstrates that charisma flows in both directions when you’re playing a superstar. Not to say that Butler doesn’t have the goods: he’s magnetic, whether gyrating on stage and rocketing up the hit parade, or being believably damaged during the crash landing of the Vegas years. Tom Hanks’s rubbery Colonel Parker aside, Baz Luhrmann’s rock ‘n’ roll Babylon is the best kind of gaudily OTT real-life spectacle.

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Screen Rant

10 best autobiographical movies, ranked according to rotten tomatoes.

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"Exactly The Same Ending": Alien: Romulus Director Confirms Similarities With Another Horror Remake

After 51 movies, mark wahlberg still hasn’t paid off his $20 million villain role from 28 years ago, the crow 2024's dismal rotten tomatoes score gets blunt reaction from original director & star.

Steven Spielberg's name will be back on the tip of everyone's tongue this awards season, with his new film The Fabelmans set to release on November 23. Spielberg's upcoming movie is unique from the rest of his masterpieces because it serves as a semi-autobiographical story of his own life, with a fictional character embodying a young aspiring director dealing with his parents' failed marriage.

The Fabelmans has received rave reviews since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, but Spielberg is far from the first filmmaker to illustrate his own life for material. Semi-autobiographic films are surprisingly common, whether a filmmaker recaptures a youthful memory or the hardships they faced during a cultural shift.

Amarcord (1974) - 87%

Federico Fellini was one of Italy's great auteurs, and Amarcord is one of his most acclaimed movies, having won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, alongside two nominations Fellini received for Best Director and Original Screenplay. The story is a series of vignettes about the eccentric inhabitants of a small town in Fascist Italy, told from the point of view of Titta, a young teenager.

RELATED: 10 Best Biopics Of All Time, According To IMDb

Fellini himself grew up in similar circumstances in the town of Rimini (near the movie's setting) and based Titta in part on a childhood friend, Luigi "Titta" Benzi (via The New York Times ). Perhaps, the adolescent perspective explains why so many characters are childishly obsessed with sex, such as young Titta and Uncle Teo.

Almost Famous (2000) - 89%

Almost Famous is a story of young would-be music journalist William Miller, who adventures with the band Stillwater. Considering Cameron Crowe had written for Rolling Stone as a teenager, he created the leading characters based on his own life, which makes his comedy-drama his most personal film (via Indiewire ). Although Stillwater is a fictional band, they are probably based heavily on real bands like The Eagles or Led Zeppelin.

Not only is Almost Famous is an engaging coming-of-age story and nice tribute to the rock bands of the '70s, it's one of the ultimate "plotless" hang-out movies . The viewer gets to know the band just like William, and seeing guitarist Russell Hammond betray him is genuinely heartbreaking after so much fun.

The Big Red One (1980) - 90%

The Big Red One is a highly underrated World War II movie about five soldiers in the eponymous 1st Infantry Division. The film has some impressive battle sequences and great performances from actors like Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill, but what makes it stand out is that director Samuel Fuller used his own wartime experiences as a basis for the story.

RELATED: 10 World War II Movies That Threw Realism Out The Window

Like the Sergeant and his squad, Fuller served in the "Big Red One" and even participated in the liberation of Falkenau concentration camp (via RogerEbert.com ). The liberation sequence is the movie's most heartbreaking, as it is nearly dialogue-free and shows Sarge helpless to save a suffering child, illustrating the graphic tragedies of the war.

Lost In Translation (2003) - 95%

Lost in Translation was a critical darling and a surprise hit with audiences, grossing over $118 million worldwide against a $4 budget (via Box Office Mojo ). The movie showed Sofia Coppola's directorial talents, Scarlett Johansson as a then-upcoming star, and Bill Murray's dramatic chops, as some fans still want a sequel to follow up on that infamous cliffhanger.

The movie also has some loosely autobiographical elements, with Coppola having spent a lot of time in Japan (via Departures ), presumably leading to the same kind of culture shock that Bob experiences. In addition, Coppola wrote Lost in Translation before her divorce from Spike Jonze, who may have served as a basis for Charlotte's husband John.

American Graffiti (1973) - 96%

Before he cemented his legacy as a pop-cultural icon with Star Wars , George Lucas' magnum opus was American Graffiti , a beloved teen comedy that has left a huge impact on many of the coming-of-age movies that followed it. In one of his best-directed movies, Lucas was innovative in creating the film's structure and authentic teen narrative, as he came up with the film's premise based on his own teen years.

American Graffiti is set in Lucas' hometown of Modesto, California, and John Milner's love of drag-racing is the one thing the director shared growing up, which also nearly ended up killing him (via SlashFilm ). The fact that much of the film is inspired by real-life also gives it an air of melancholy, particularly how the epilogue shows that two protagonists are doomed to early deaths.

Persepolis (2007) - 96%

Based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is a coming-of-age film based on young "Marji's" life after the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi co-wrote and directed the movie herself, along with fellow French graphic novelist Vincent Paronnaud.

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The movie adaptation was critical acclaimed and was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. From youthful rebellion to growing up under an oppressive regime, Marji's story is told with a powerful voice, giving a firsthand account of the struggles that came along during a cultural change.

Au Revoir Les Enfants (1988) - 97%

Since so many great filmmakers lived through World War II, it makes sense that they would integrate the deadliest conflict in human history into their works. Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants is the French filmmaker's take on the subject, following a young boy who discovers that his school's headmaster is sheltering Jewish children.

Au revoir les enfants was inspired by the actions of real-life Catholic priest Père Jacques, who happened to be the headmaster of Malle's own boarding school (via Film School Rejects ). Knowing this makes his film counterpart, Père Jean, immensely sympathetic, and the movie's ending, in which he is unable to save the titular enfants , becomes even more of a tearjerker.

The 400 Blows (1959) - 99%

The 400 Blows may have been François Truffaut's feature debut, but viewers can already see a filmmaker in the making of becoming one of the French New Wave's essential figures . The movie is a slice-of-life look at Antoine Doinel, a rebellious boy who is misunderstood and mistreated by all the adults in his life.

Truffaut put a lot of himself into Antoine, having been a troublemaking kid who never knew his biological father and a difficult relationship with his adoptive parent (via The Criterion Collection ). This makes Antoine's arguments with Julien and the latter's subsequent abandonment of him feel more realistic than a typical coming-of-age movie.

Lady Bird (2017) - 99%

Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut, Lady Bird follows Christine "Lady Bird" MacPherson, a nonconformist teenage girl who doesn't fit in with her peers and has to contend with well-being but an overbearing mother. The film received critical acclaim, with high praise going to Saoirse Ronan's performance, as well as Gerwig's direction.

RELATED: 10 Directorial Debuts By Popular Actresses

Lady Bird was a labor of love for Gerwig, who spent many years writing the script and was inspired by her own teen years growing up in Sacramento. At the New York Film Festival, she stated "Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know" (via IndieWire ).

Fanny And Alexander (1983) - 100%

The story of a brother and sister whose lives are turned upside down when their mother marries an abusive tyrant of a bishop, but Fanny and Alexander was Ingmar Bergman's cinematic swan song. The movie's three-hour running time and slow pacing mean it's not for everyone, but admirers like Sam Mendes consider it one of their favorite movies .

For inspiration, Bergman drew from his experiences with his own father, a member of the clergy who was described as having a "volatile" personality (via The Independent ). The scene in which the ghost of Bishop Vergerus taunts Alexander by saying he will never be free reads very differently knowing this context, like an acknowledgment from Bergman himself that he could never fully rid himself of his father's influence.

NEXT: 10 Sports Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On Real Life Stories

• The Fabelmans

Best Autobiographical Movies from Major Filmmakers

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It takes a lot of courage for an artist to dive into one's personal life and create something purely autobiographical for the entire world to see. In the case of cinema, it gives filmmakers a chance to take a look back at their lives through a creative lens and to reminisce their long-lost days. Indeed, whether it's to look back fondly at their youth or tackle informative, and often difficult, moments in their past, directors will utilize the autobiographical film, not as a form of self-indulgence or vanity, but as an unearthing and a sharing of their stories in a way that belongs to them.

The autobiographical genre has been around since the beginning of cinema. However, the last handful of years has seen a sort of boom, with Kenneth Branagh directing Belfast last year (which dives into his childhood ) and, this year, Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans . Here, we’re taking a look at the best autobiographical movies ever released.

7 The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg (2019)

Written and directed by the British filmmaker Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir is a semi-autobiographical drama film starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, and Tilda Swinton . The plot revolves around young film student Julie, who falls in love with well-to-do office worker Anthony, but their toxic relationship ends up affecting her university studies. As it turns out, Anthony is a heroin addict, has had questionable relationships with three other young girls, and doesn't shy away from breaking into Julie's apartment. The movie received critical acclaim right upon its release at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite the excellent acting, stunning cinematography, and precise editing, it may be not be everyone's cup of tea as the plot can run dry throughout its runtime.

Related: 8 Major Filmmakers Who Directed Music Videos

6 The Squid and the Whale — Noah Baumbach (2005)

The Squid and the Whale is a semi-autobiographical independent comedy-drama written and directed by Noah Baumbach . The filmmaker was one of the few screenwriters to ever sweep "The Big Four" critics awards with this Super 16mm-shot film. The plot focuses on two boys from Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorce back in 1986. Although the arrogant novelist dad and unfaithful writer mom agree to share custody, their parenting is more combative than before. Baumbach is known for dealing with similar themes in some of his other movies, such as failed marriages of aspiring artists, but you can feel how painfully realistic this one is. While the other movies focus on the adults, The Squid and the Whale pays closer attention to how divorces affect the children and their mental state.

5 Roma — Alfonso Cuarón (2018)

Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is yet again a semi-autobiographical drama film starring Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira in the leading roles. Not only did Cuarón also produce, shoot, and co-edit the movie himself, the plot is also based on his own upbringing in the Colonia Roma in a neighborhood of Mexico City. Set in 1970 and 1971, the movie follows a live-in Mixteco housekeeper of an upper-class family. What sets this movie apart, as outlined by Film School Rejects , is its monochrome color and minimalist shots scattered throughout the movie. The housekeeper (inspired by Cuarón's) is treated like part of the Mexican family, even when she announces her sudden pregnancy. It illustrates class differences as a salient matter in Mexican culture and promotes that there's more to life as a Hispanic than being a maid and taking care of your children.

4 American Graffiti — George Lucas (1973)

The first movie to ever be produced by Lucasfilm, American Graffiti is a coming-of-age comedy-drama directed by George Lucas and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, and many more. Set in 1962, the movie is a study of cruising and early rock 'n roll, popular in Lucas' teenage years. At the center of the movie, there are different teenagers and their adventures over the course of one night, which were inspired by Lucas' own rebellious days. Its earnest soundtrack, on top of a grim sense of humor and its span over just one day, hits differently and more strongly than other movies. Universal Pictures was the only one to accept Lucas' pitch and agree to produce the film. Well, shame on those who passed, given how American Graffiti has become one of the most profitable movies ever made.

Related: The Best Biopics About Actors, Ranked

3 Minari — Lee Isaac Chung (2020)

Directed and written by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is a semi-autobiographical drama movie starring Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, and Alan Kim in the leading roles. Based on Lee's own upbringing, the plot is set in the 1980s and follows a South Korean-immigrant family as they move to Arkansas to live on a farm and start their own "American Dream". The Yi family wants to grow their own Korean produce and start their own family business, but not everything's as easy as it seems. Minari explores the immigrant experience, the hardships of moving to a sparsely populated place, meeting new people, the strain it can put on marriage, what it means to sacrifice for family, and the vague concept of the American dream.

2 Lady Bird — Greta Gerwig (2017)

Written and directed by Greta Gerwig in her solo directorial debut, Lady Bird is a coming-of-age comedy-drama starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in the leading roles. Inspired by Gerwig's teenage years, the movie follows a young girl — self-named "Lady Bird" — who's a high school senior in 2002 with creative aspirations, but has a strained relationship with her mother, who is not understanding of her needs. The city of Sacramento plays a huge role in the movie as Lady Bird's dream is to move somewhere with culture rather than a stagnant place where nothing ever happens. However, most importantly, it depicts the painful truth of some mothers loving their daughters out of duty rather than liking them as human beings.

1 The 400 Blows — François Truffaut (1959)

As the directorial debut of François Truffaut, The 400 Blows is one of the defining coming-of-age drama movies of the French New Wave. Jean-Pierre Léaud plays a semi-autobiographical character of Truffaut called Antoine Doinel, a rebellious Parisian boy who seeks understanding from his teachers and parents due to his rebellious nature. More than 60 years after its release, The 400 Blows is still considered one of the best French spectacles in history. It shines light on the misunderstood youth of the 50s and 60s in France, while rejecting the traditional ways of filmmaking. It won Truffaut the Best Director award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival — and rightfully so, as it helped create the foundation of new French cinema.

• Movie Lists

100 best biopics of all time

The grand sweep of history is perhaps more easily told through a narrower lens, which is one reason why biopics (biographical pictures)—which can tell the story of a movement, era, or idea through one individual's life—have become so popular in recent years. Filmmakers have increasingly preferred to work in the genre over the past several decades, finding that the unique challenges in condensing a life can embolden creativity and experimentation, resulting in extraordinary movies. Take "Persepolis," for example: The 2007 film explores the Iranian revolution through the life of an ordinary teenage girl via cartoons, weaving snapshots of an ordinary lift in the midst of social upheaval to make one of the most impactful and influential films of the decade.

While the genre has turned out some truly excellent films, not all biopics are created equal. The biggest criticism leveled against them is that they often blend fiction with fact in an irresponsible or misleading manner. J.R.R. Tolkien's estate essentially disowned the 2019 film "Tolkien," feeling the author's character and related facts were misrepresented. Another frequent complaint is that the movies trot out only the best-known facts about an individual's life, failing to offer anything new or revelatory, as with the Grace Kelly biopic "Grace of Monaco." So, which movies in this high-risk, high-reward genre are worth a watch?

Stacker compiled data on biopics to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. To qualify, the film had to be listed as "biography" on IMDb and have a Metascore. Ties were broken by Metascore, and further ties were broken by IMDb user rating. Every film on the list has been considered within the context of the history and development of the genre.

Whether it's a gangster epic like "Goodfellas," a royal family drama like "The Queen," or one of the many chronicles of the lives of artists and musicians like "Endless Poetry" or "Amadeus," biopics offer something for everyone. Click through to discover the best cinematic portraits of extraordinary lives.

#100. Donnie Brasco (1997)

- Director: Mike Newell - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 127 minutes

Undercover FBI agent Donnie Brasco (real name Joseph D. Pistone) infiltrates the legendary Bonanno crime family in 1970s New York City in this true crime drama. Starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, the film was based on Pistone's book , "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia." It's believed that Pistone's long career as an undercover agent generated over 200 indictments and 100 convictions of Mafia members.

#99. The Last Emperor (1987)

- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 163 minutes

Bernardo Bertolucci's " The Last Emperor " follows the life of Pu Yi, who took the throne when he was 3 years old and abdicated when he was 7. The film, shot entirely on location in China and its ancient Forbidden City palace complex, follows a country's move from feudalism through revolution to a peaceful republic, all through the lens of one man's life.

#98. Philomena (2013)

- Director: Stephen Frears - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 77 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 98 minutes

Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) spends 50 years searching for her forcibly adopted son with the help of a journalist, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan). The film won four Oscar nominations and took home several trophies at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. While the film is certainly a tearjerker , it is balanced both by comedic moments and the real Ms. Lee's inspirational fortitude in the face of so much loss and grief.

#97. Lorenzo's Oil (1992)

- Director: George Miller - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 129 minutes

In the 1980s, Augusto and Michaela Odone experience every parent's worst nightmare when their son Lorenzo is diagnosed with an incurable nerve disease that will eventually paralyze and kill him. Failing to receive the help they needed from doctors, the Odones begin a desperate search for a cure themselves, eventually stumbling upon an oil they believe could reverse the most devastating effects of their son's illness. Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon star in this film about one couple's desperate struggle to save their family.

#96. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

- Director: Marielle Heller - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 109 minutes

Tom Hanks stars as one of TV's most beloved personalities, Fred Rogers, in this 2019 biopic. Based on a 1998 Esquire article, the film doesn't delve into Roger's life story but rather focuses on the friendship between Rogers and the troubled journalist Tom Junod (renamed Lloyd Vogel in the film). The real-life Mrs. Joanne Rogers makes a brief cameo in the film, and it's a quote from her that reminds viewers that her late husband wasn't a saint, just an ordinary man who tried very, very hard to be better and kind.

#95. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 72 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 135 minutes

John Nash Jr., a Nobel Prize winner, was one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever seen. He also struggled with schizophrenia. " A Beautiful Mind ," based on an unauthorized biography of the same name written by acclaimed journalist Sylvia Nasar, tells Nash's incredible, inspirational life story. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe, the movie won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and grossed over $313 million at the box office.

#94. Into the Wild (2007)

- Director: Sean Penn - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 73 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 148 minutes

Written, directed, and produced by Sean Penn, "Into the Wild" tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a loner who cashed in his law school fund and took off for the Alaskan wilderness in the 1990s. At first charmed by the slower pace of life, McCandless eventually found himself disillusioned with nature and attempted to return to society before making a grave mistake that would cost him everything. The story is based on a nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer, as well as information from McCandless' surviving sister, Carine McCandless.

#93. The Sea Inside (2004)

- Director: Alejandro Amenábar - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 74 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 126 minutes

A Spanish-language drama, " The Sea Inside " tells the story of Ramon Sampedro, a man who became a quadriplegic after a diving accident in the 1960s and fought for 30 years for the legal right to end his own life through euthanasia. Javier Bardem stars as Sampedro in an incredibly moving performance that focuses on one individual's definition of dignity. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film in 2004.

#92. American Gangster (2007)

- Director: Ridley Scott - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 157 minutes

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe co-star in " American Gangster ," a film that chronicles the life of Fred Lucas, a gangster who smuggles heroin into the United States, essentially instigating the drug epidemic that swept Harlem and all of New York City in the 1970s. Although the film brought in $266 million at the box office, those who were connected with the case in real life, including Lucas himself , have argued that it takes too many liberties and strays pretty far from the truth.

#91. The Killing Fields (1984)

- Director: Roland Joffé - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 141 minutes

Nominated for seven Oscars at the 57th Academy Awards, " The Killing Fields " tells the story of two journalists, American Sydney Schanberg and Cambodian Dith Pran, who are covering the country's civil war and find themselves trapped when Pol Pot begins his bloody Year Zero cleansing campaign. Critics loved the film, including Adrian Turner from Radio Times , who wrote, "Few feature films have captured a nation's agony more dramatically."

#90. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

- Directors: John Frankenheimer, Charles Crichton - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 147 minutes

One of the looser retellings on our list, "Birdman of Alcatraz" is about a man (Burt Lancaster) serving a life sentence for murder who becomes an expert on birds while behind bars. The movie was based on Thomas E. Gaddis' book about Robert Stroud, the titular "birdman," and was nominated for four Academy Awards. The real Stroud died a year after the film was released, without ever seeing it .

#89. Endless Poetry (2016)

- Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky tells his own life story in " Endless Poetry ." The second installment of his cinematic memoir, the film is set in 1940s Chile, when Jodorowsky is a young man just breaking into the country's artistic circles. Very experimental in its form, the film doesn't accommodate casual viewing but offers a fascinating story for those willing to pay close attention.

#88. An Angel at My Table (1990)

- Director: Jane Campion - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 158 minutes

The story of New Zealand author Janet Frame's life, " An Angel at My Table " is based on Frame's three autobiographies and uses three different actresses to portray her at different points in her life, from her impoverished childhood through her time at a mental institution (wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia) to the beginning of her wildly successful writing career. The film swept awards in New Zealand and won a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

#87. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

- Director: Phillip Noyce - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 94 minutes

From 1910 to 1970, Australia had an official child-removal policy that took biracial Aboriginal children from their homes and placed them in state-run schools and indentured servitude. " Rabbit-Proof Fence " tells the true story of three children from the Stolen Generation who escape their school and walk some 1,500 miles home, all while being pursued by police officers and trackers. Peter Gabriel provided the soundtrack for the heart-wrenching film.

#86. Love & Mercy (2014)

- Director: Bill Pohlad - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 121 minutes

For years, Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys, struggled with mental illness , even spending a length of time in a controversial 24-hour therapy program. "Love & Mercy" chronicles Wilson's struggles in a way that Wilson himself called "very factual." Paul Dano and John Cusack both play the musician at different points in his life, and Elizabeth Banks gives an inspired performance as Wilson's second wife, Melinda.

#85. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

- Director: George Clooney - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 93 minutes

" Good Night, and Good Luck " demonstrates the immense power for change that journalists are capable of wielding in the United States. Directed by and starring George Clooney, the film is set in the 1950s, when a fear of communism led by Senator Joseph McCarthy was sweeping the nation. It tells the story of heroic reporter Edward R. Murrow and producer Fred W. Friendly, who used their news show to stand up to McCarthy and remove his cancerous lies from the public eye. The film and its message remain incredibly relevant to today's political polarization.

#84. Il Divo (2008)

- Director: Paolo Sorrentino - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 110 minutes

"Il Divo" translates to "The Divine Performer," a fitting title for this 2008 film that explores the life of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who had alleged ties to the Mafia. The story begins in 1992 as Andreotti is elected for the seventh time, then covers his failed presidency bid and bribe scandal, ultimately ending with his trial in 1995. The Guardian called the movie " a macabre masterpiece ."

#83. The General (1998)

- Director: John Boorman - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Martin Cahill was an Irish criminal who managed to pull off two incredibly daring robberies (totaling about $60 million), a feat that turned him into a bit of a folk hero. " The General " tells the story of his life, including his murder by a member of the Irish Republican Army after he became involved in politics. While Cahill (played by Brendan Gleeson) was far from a good man, the 1998 movie will make you admire the way he stuck to his morals, even when they were questionable.

#82. Steve Jobs (2015)

- Director: Danny Boyle - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 122 minutes

Since his death in 2011, there have been several movies and documentaries about Apple co-founder and tech guru Steve Jobs, but this 2015 biopic is among the best . Michael Fassbender brings the turtleneck-loving visionary to life in the film, which covers three different product launches that took place between 1984 and 1998. Unlike many other Jobs films, this movie also focuses on his relationship with his daughter, Lisa, whom he had with ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and refused to support for many years, despite his massive wealth.

#81. Vincere (2009)

- Director: Marco Bellocchio - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 6.9 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Ida Dalser may be, in many ways, one of history's most important women, but her name and memory have largely been forgotten by the general public. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's first wife and the mother of his son Benito Albino, Dasler financed a newspaper in which Mussolini shared and expounded on his political views, garnering support for his fascist platform. Although the film occasionally steps away from the facts of the story, it's still a wonderful primer for those who wish to know more about the rise of the politician and those who shaped him.

#80. Rush (2013)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 74 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 123 minutes

The first sports film on our list, " Rush " chronicles the 1970s rivalry between two of Formula One's best-known drivers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The real Lauda has publicly stated that the film holds true to the reality of their lives, in spite of the fact that it omits the close friendship the men shared later in life. It also received accolades for the accuracy with which it portrays F1 racing and culture.

#79. Control (2007)

- Director: Anton Corbijn - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

Joy Division's late singer Ian Curtis is the focus of this 2007 biopic co-produced by his widow, Deborah. The film chronicles the rise of the band as well as Ian and Deborah's relationship, his epilepsy diagnosis, and the fallout from his affair with journalist Annik Honore. Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, the movie picked up several awards in the festival circuit and took home a British Academy Film Award.

#78. Missing (1982)

- Director: Costa-Gavras - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

In September 1973, American journalist Charles Horman disappeared during the Chilean coup that disposed of then-president Salvador Allende. " Missing " recounts the desperate search Charles' father and wife undertook to learn of his fate and their eventual realization that the United States government had not only aided the coup but had washed their hands of Horman. The Academy Award-winning drama stars Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

#77. Selma (2014)

- Director: Ava DuVernay - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Ava DuVernay directed this historical film that chronicles the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Hosea Williams. Covering a three-month period leading up to the march, the film largely focuses on King's role in the events without discrediting the role the other leaders had in shaping this important piece of American history. The film features the Oscar-winning song "Glory" by John Legend and Common.

#76. The End of the Tour (2015)

- Director: James Ponsoldt - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 106 minutes

" The End of the Tour " tells the famous story of Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky's five-day interview with novelist David Foster Wallace. Based on Lipsky's 2011 book "Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself," the movie is set just after the release of Wallace's epic novel "Infinite Jest," when the duo set off on a road trip. Wallace's estate and many of his living friends objected to the film , saying that it didn't capture the famous writer as he really was.

#75. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (2016)

- Director: Juho Kuosmanen - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 92 minutes

Immensely talented Finnish boxer Olli Maki has a shot at the World Featherweight title in 1962, something he's been training for his entire life. But when the small-town boy falls in love with a local girl named Raija, he begins to question his dedication to the brutal sport. " The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki ," Finland's entry for the 2016 Academy Awards, features a cameo from the retired fighter and won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

#74. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 141 minutes

A runaway commercial success, " Catch Me If You Can " tells the stranger-than-fiction story of con man turned FBI assistant Frank Abagnale. The Steven Spielberg film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is based on the con artist's 1980 book, grossed more than $352 million at the box office. Abagnale himself makes a cameo as the officer who arrests DiCaprio's character on Christmas Eve, 1969.

#73. Inherit the Wind (1960)

- Director: Stanley Kramer - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 128 minutes

While it changes the names of all of the key players, 1960's " Inherit the Wind " is clearly about the Scopes Monkey Trial, which argued the legality of teaching evolution over creationism. Based on the play of the same name, the film starred veteran actors Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly, and Fredric March. In spite of the fact that the storyline of the film varies substantially from real-life events, it's had an outsized impact on the general public's opinion and beliefs about the case, inspiring debate over a biopic's obligation to stick to the hard facts of its topic.

#72. Glory (1989)

- Director: Edward Zwick - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 122 minutes

A stalwart of high school history classes, " Glory " tells the story of the first all-Black regiment in the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Starring big names like Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, the movie was an instant success with critics despite a middling performance at the box office. Historians agree that the film, which is based on Captain Robert Gould Shaw's personal letters, adheres pretty closely to the historical record.

#71. The Damned United (2009)

- Director: Tom Hooper - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 98 minutes

"The Damned United" is another biopic whose adherence to real events is highly questionable . The film is based on a novel loosely inspired by Brian Clough's 44-day tenure as the manager of English football team Leeds United, and the Clough family has alleged that the film bears little resemblance to reality.

#70. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 180 minutes

It's no secret that Wall Street is full of would-be fraudsters and schemers, but few hold a candle to 1990s trader Jordan Belfort, whose company, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in corruption and fraud at never-before-seen levels. Martin Scorsese's smash hit " The Wolf of Wall Street " tells the true story of the unparalleled misconduct laid bare in Belfort's memoir of the same name. An awards season darling, the movie was nominated for five Oscars and won a Golden Globe for star Leonardo DiCaprio.

#69. Pride (2014)

- Director: Matthew Warchus - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 119 minutes

One of history's more unlikely events, the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign is chronicled in the British drama " Pride ." In the 1980s, both the U.K.'s LGBTQ+ community and its coal miners were being threatened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party, a fact that inspired them to join together and fight for their rights, an unlikely alliance that paid off for both groups. This film would make an excellent watch for those interested in lesser-known corners of history.

#68. The Fighter (2010)

- Director: David O. Russell - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 116 minutes

Junior welterweight boxer "Irish" Micky Ward fights his way out from under the shadow of his older, more successful, and troubled brother Dicky Eklund in the sports drama " The Fighter ." The intense flick contains some extraordinary acting, as Mark Wahlberg shines as Micky, while Christian Bale and Amy Adams give Oscar-winning turns as brother Dicky and girlfriend Charlene, respectively.

#67. Frost/Nixon (2008)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

In 1977, three years after he left office, former President Richard Nixon agreed to a single, tell-all interview with British television personality David Frost. It is assumed that Nixon thought he'd be able to outfox the Brit, but he eventually found himself backed into a corner by questions about the Watergate scandal. This 2008 film tells the whole story of the legendary Frost-Nixon interviews and was based on a stage play of the same name, which also starred Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost).

#66. 127 Hours (2010)

- Director: Danny Boyle - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 94 minutes

Academy Award winner Danny Boyle directed "127 Hours," an intense film about a hiker named Aron Ralston who found himself trapped by a boulder in a remote canyon in Utah. Over the course of his ordeal, Ralston examines his life and finds that he is willing to do whatever it takes to escape—even if it means cutting off his own arm. The real-life Ralston (played by James Franco) has said that the movie is incredibly true to his harrowing experience, if a little less gruesome .

#65. First Man (2018)

- Director: Damien Chazelle - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 141 minutes

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. This drama chronicles the decade of Armstrong's life leading to that historical moment, including the loss of his daughter and much of his intense training. Ryan Gosling stars in the film, which was nominated for major awards at the Golden Globes, Academy Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and British Academy Film Awards.

#64. Before Night Falls (2000)

- Director: Julian Schnabel - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 133 minutes

An episodic look at the life of Cuban poet, novelist, and Castro supporter-turned-critic Reinaldo Arenas, " Before Night Falls " was based on the man's own autobiography. An openly gay man, Arenas spent much of his life under careful watch by the government and did several stints in jail before managing to escape to the United States in 1980, where he'd eventually die of AIDS. Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp both have leading roles in this visually arresting picture.

#63. Il Postino (1994)

- Directors: Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 108 minutes

A fictional tale peppered with facts, "Il Postino" follows the friendship that develops between a lowly Italian postman and the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who has been exiled from his home country for political reasons. Massimo Troisi, who played the postman, died of a heart attack the day after the film wrapped and was never able to bask in its critical and commercial success. He was, however, awarded a posthumous Oscar for his work.

#62. Hunger (2008)

- Director: Steve McQueen - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 96 minutes

A dramatic retelling of the hunger strike that took place in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison in 1981, " Hunger " follows the final days and death of Bobby Sands, an IRA member and the first prisoner to die in the strike. By turns unflinching and abstract, the film won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Steve McQueen directed the intense, harrowing picture, with Michael Fassbender starring as Sands.

#61. Henry V (1989)

- Director: Kenneth Branagh - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 137 minutes

Shakespeare's classic historical play " Henry V '' was brought to the screen in this 1989 film. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as the king, the movie chronicles the events of the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt, in which the English continued their Hundred Years' War against the French.

#60. BlacKkKlansman (2018)

- Director: Spike Lee - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 135 minutes

In another stranger-than-fiction tale, African American detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated a Colorado Springs branch of the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s. Wowed by Stallworth's story , Spike Lee set out to bring it to life, casting John David Washington as the young detective, Adam Driver as his Jewish colleague assisting in the sting, and Topher Grace as Grand Wizard David Duke. The finished project was widely praised by critics and won several prestigious awards, including Cannes' Grand Prix and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

#59. Seraphine (2008)

- Director: Martin Provost - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 125 minutes

A self-taught French painter who holds down a day job as a housekeeper and walks the line between genius and mentally ill is the subject of this 2008 French film. Today, Seraphine Louis' works hang in museums around the world, but her life was far from a happy one, and she died in the early 20th century in a mental institution, destitute and alone. This simple, subtle biopic, which stars Yolande Moreau, won seven Cesars (the French equivalent of the Academy Award).

#58. 24 Hour Party People (2002)

- Director: Michael Winterbottom - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 117 minutes

In the 1970s, Tony Wilson established Factory Records , which signed bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays and sparked a musical revolution, eventually leading to the development of the legendary Hacienda dance club in Manchester, England. A blend of real events, newsreel footage, urban legends, and completely fictional tidbits, this movie expertly tells the raucous story of a man, city, and movement that made up the rules as they went along.

#57. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

- Director: Marielle Heller - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.1 - Runtime: 106 minutes

Melissa McCarthy stepped away from her typical comedic roles in " Can You Ever Forgive Me? " She plays Lee Israel, a failing writer who tries to revitalize her career by selling forged letters from dead celebrities. While the movie certainly has funny moments, it's a true crime tale that features an unlikable heroine, a gamble that paid off when McCarthy and co-star Richard E. Grant were nominated for their performances at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

#56. The Elephant Man (1980)

- Director: David Lynch - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Set in Victorian London, " The Elephant Man " chronicles the relationship that formed between a surgeon named Dr. Frederick Treves and John Merrick, a severely disfigured man who earns his living as a freak-show performer called the Elephant Man. Adapted from two different books, one written by Treves himself, the story garnered praise for the way it handled disability and difference. It also inspired the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling after industry insiders complained that the film's incredible work wasn't given enough recognition.

#55. Gandhi (1982)

- Director: Richard Attenborough - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 191 minutes

The life of civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi has been portrayed in numerous ways via several media since his death in 1948, but perhaps never as movingly as in this 1982 biopic. The story begins with Gandhi being thrown off a South African train in 1893 and concludes with his assassination some 55 years later. Ben Kingsley played Gandhi and won an Academy Award (one of eight the film took home) for his efforts.

#54. Milk (2008)

- Director: Gus Van Sant - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 128 minutes

The life of an openly gay activist who becomes the first LGBTQ+ person elected to public office in California is the subject of " Milk ." Using archival footage of Harvey Milk's life, the movie covers the time period from Milk's 40th birthday until his shocking assassination in 1978. Sean Penn's performance as the title character was awe-inspiring and earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

#53. The Long Day Closes (1992)

- Director: Terence Davies - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 85 minutes

Terence Davies' autobiographical film follows a boy named Bud as he comes of age in 1950s Liverpool, fearing the ever-present eye of the Catholic Church and realizing both his love for cinema and his homosexuality. The film doesn't follow a straightforward narrative but rather jumps back-and-forth through time, infusing each moment with precisely chosen pieces of popular music and cinema.

#52. Lincoln (2012)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 150 minutes

The final four months of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's life are explored in detail in Steven Spielberg's 2012 historical smash "Lincoln." Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the gentle, gangly leader, it primarily focuses on Lincoln's determination to abolish slavery and pass the 13th Amendment. Sally Field co-stars as Mary Todd Lincoln, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the 16th president's son, Robert. The movie was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning two, including Best Actor for Day-Lewis.

#51. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

- Director: Terry George - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 121 minutes

Tackling tough topics like genocide, violence, and political corruption, " Hotel Rwanda " is set during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when members of the Tutsi ethnic group were hunted down and murdered by armed militias. The movie brings to life the true story of a hotel manager named Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu who offers shelter to over 1,000 Tutsis in the Hotel des Mille Collines. While the Academy Award-winning film finishes on a relatively happy note, real life wasn't so kind: In late 2020, the real Rusesabagina was charged with "terrorism, complicity in murder, and forming an armed rebel group" by a Rwandan court.

#50. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

- Director: Jean-Marc Vallée - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 117 minutes

Ronald Woodroof was a womanizing, drug-using, homophobic electrician from Texas living a carefree life when his doctor announced that he had HIV/AIDS and would likely die in 30 days. After researching his illness, Woodroof uncovered an experimental drug that would potentially prolong his life and established the Dallas Buyers Club, whose mission was to import the drug from Mexico so that it could be easily accessible to everyone who needed it. Along the way, Woodroof (played by Matthew McConaughey in an Oscar-winning performance) became a compassionate friend and advocate for the legal rights of those with the disease.

#49. Captain Phillips (2013)

- Director: Paul Greengrass - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 134 minutes

In 2009, for the first time in 200 years, a U.S. container ship was hijacked by a group of Somali pirates some 145 miles off the Somali coast. This thriller, inspired by those events , stars Tom Hanks as the American captain of the ship and chronicles the tense relationship that develops between him and the pirate captain who holds him hostage, played by newcomer Barkhad Abdi. While Hanks' character is hailed as a hero in the film, the real-life crew of the ship argues that this wasn't the case in reality.

#48. Fruitvale Station (2013)

- Director: Ryan Coogler - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 85 minutes

" Fruitvale Station " tells the true story of Oscar Grant, a Bay Area resident and young Black man who was killed by Oakland Police officers on New Year's Eve 2008. His murder would inspire protests and unrest in the California town, events that fall outside the scope of this film but testify to the heated controversy of the incident. Michael B. Jordan stars in the movie, which made its debut at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and collected a number of prizes there and elsewhere.

#47. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

- Director: Paul Schrader - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 120 minutes

Inspired by the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima , this biopic freely weaves fact, fiction, and portions of Mishima's own writing to create a stunning picture of the artist's life and death. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas worked as executive producers on the film, which earned director Paul Schrader a special prize at Cannes.

#46. The Wind Rises (2013)

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 126 minutes

The first animated movie on this list, " The Wind Rises " follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of several of Japan's fighter planes during World War II. The anime film by Studio Ghibli became Japan's highest-grossing film in 2013, bringing in $116.1 million at the domestic box office. It was widely appreciated outside of Japan as well, winning Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and other animation prizes.

#45. Boys Don't Cry (1999)

- Director: Kimberly Peirce - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 118 minutes

Brandon Teena was a trans man from rural Nebraska who was passionately in pursuit of his true self and true love before becoming the victim of a vicious hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. " Boys Don't Cry " is a harrowing depiction of Teena's fate starring Hillary Swank and featuring Chloe Sevigny as Teena's girlfriend, Lana. While the movie was critically acclaimed, several people with links to the case, including the real Lana (who has been alleged to have been a part of the hate crime) have spoken out against it, saying that the on-screen story doesn't match the facts.

#44. Capote (2005)

- Director: Bennett Miller - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 114 minutes

Philip Seymour Hoffman won multiple awards, including an Oscar, for his portrayal of author Truman Capote in this 2005 biopic . The events of the film center around the time period in which Capote was writing "In Cold Blood" and include the friendship he developed with Perry Smith, one of the killers who is on death row. The movie marked Bennet Miller's directorial debut.

#43. The Madness of King George (1994)

- Director: Nicholas Hytner - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 110 minutes

It is believed that King George III suffered from mental illness, a malady highly misunderstood in 1788 but that drove him to act erratically and rendered him unfit to rule a country. " The Madness of King George " focuses on the monarch's decline as well as the troubled relationship he shared with his son, the Prince of Wales. Rupert Graves and Helen Mirren both lent their talents to the acclaimed British production.

#42. Ford v Ferrari (2019)

- Director: James Mangold - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 152 minutes

In "Ford v Ferrari," American car designer Carroll Shelby and fearless British driver Ken Miles come together under the Ford Motor Company banner with hopes of defeating the dominant Ferrari racing team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. The movie, which tells the twisty story of the most bitter rivalry in auto racing history, stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale as Shelby and Miles, respectively.

#41. The Insider (1999)

- Director: Michael Mann - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 157 minutes

An industry insider appears on a "60-Minutes" expose on Big Tobacco, risking his own safety as well as the safety of his CBS producer in " The Insider ". Accurate in its broad strokes, the film demonstrates the influence of journalism as well as the power of those who choose to stand up for what's right. Director Michael Mann martialed an abundance of star power for this intense drama, casting Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Christopher Plummer in leading roles.

#40. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

- Director: Michael Apted - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Based on country music star Loretta Lynn's biography, " Coal Miner's Daughter " spans from Lynn's birth into poverty and marriage at 13 to her emergence as one of the genre's leading voices. Sissy Spacek, who plays Lynn, accompanied the singer on tour in order to better embody the country queen's mannerisms and demeanor—a move that paid off when she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

#39. Richard III (1955)

- Director: Laurence Olivier - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 161 minutes

Another adaptation of a Shakespeare play, " Richard III " famously relates how and why Richard, Duke of Gloucester, stole the crown from his brother, King Edward IV. One of three films directed by Laurence Olivier to bring Shakespeare's work to the screen, the Criterion Collection deems it "ravishing" and "visually inspired."

#38. Mr. Turner (2014)

- Director: Mike Leigh - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 6.8 - Runtime: 150 minutes

The story of the last 25 years in the life of the talented, eccentric Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner (played by Timothy Spall) is explored in this drama. The New York Times described Mike Leigh's portrait as "loving" and "unsentimental," one that "patiently and thoroughly demolishes more than a century's worth of mythology about what art is and how artists work."

#37. Argo (2012)

- Director: Ben Affleck - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 120 minutes

No movie emphasizes the power of Hollywood quite like "Argo," which tells the story of a harebrained CIA scheme that sought to rescue six American diplomats from Iran (during the Iran hostage crisis) under the guise of shooting a science fiction movie. Based on the real-life accounts of the CIA operative Tony Mendez in his book "The Master of Disguise," the movie stars Ben Affleck, who also directs. 

#36. Moneyball (2011)

- Director: Bennett Miller - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 133 minutes

Professional sports are as much games of money as they are of talent, which means that the poorest teams are often the least competitive. One exception is the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball team. " Moneyball " tells the truly impressive story of A's general manager Billy Beane, who uses statistical data to scout and pick players, creating an aggressively competitive team despite having the lowest salary constraints in Major League Baseball.

#35. Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

- Director: Steven Zaillian - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 109 minutes

" Searching for Bobby Fischer " focuses on Josh Waitzkin, a 7-year-old chess prodigy who loses his love for the game under a ruthless and strict coach, then finds it again with a much more relaxed tutor. Based on a book written by Waitzkin's father, the movie struck Roger Ebert as "a film of remarkable sensitivity and insight" and was nominated for an Academy Award for its Best Cinematography.

#34. Funny Girl (1968)

- Director: William Wyler - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 151 minutes

Loosely based on the life and career of Broadway star Fanny Brice and her relationship with Nicky Arnstein, "Funny Girl" was the highest-grossing film of 1968 . Barbra Streisand, in her feature film debut, won an Oscar for her portrayal of Brice.  

#33. The Tale (2018)

- Director: Jennifer Fox - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 114 minutes

Jennifer Fox's semiautobiographical " The Tale " explores long-buried, darker aspects of her relationships with two of her childhood coaches, which came to light as she worked on a documentary about child rape victims. Laura Dern stars as Fox in the movie, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival before receiving a wider release on HBO.

#32. Topsy-Turvy (1999)

- Director: Mike Leigh - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 160 minutes

The musical " Topsy-Turvy " depicts the relationship between Victorian-era theatrical partners Sir Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert. After their show "Princess Ida" flops, the duo consider going their separate ways but agree to complete at least one more production, "The Mikado," which ends up becoming one of their greatest successes. An unexpectedly delightful period piece, the movie explores the difficult reality of the creative professions.

#31. Downfall (2004)

- Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 156 minutes

Set during WWII's Battle of Berlin, " Downfall " recounts Adolf Hitler's final days, spent in a bunker miles below the city. Based on a memoir by Traudl Junge, a secretary for Hitler, the movie brings Hitler's mental decline, which Junge observed firsthand, to life in a way few others have ever been able to. The movie sparked a serious conversation about the moral and ethical questions involved in portraying Hitler, one of the most monstrous villains in world history, with even a hint of humanity.

#30. The Miracle Worker (1962)

- Director: Arthur Penn - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 106 minutes

Annie Sullivan, a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl," manages to teach the deaf, blind, and mute Helen Keller how to communicate in " The Miracle Worker ." An instant critical success in 1962, both Anne Bancroft, who played Annie Sullivan, and Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller, took home Academy Awards for their performances. The movie was adapted from the Broadway play of the same name, which also starred the same actresses.

#29. All the President's Men (1976)

- Director: Alan J. Pakula - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 138 minutes

The dramatic events surrounding Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's unveiling of the Watergate scandal lie at the center of " All the President's Men ." The award-winning political thriller was based on the 1974 book of the same name written by the two journalists, portrayed by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, respectively.

#28. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

- Director: Arthur Penn - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 111 minutes

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway bring America's most notorious crime couple to life in this 1967 telling of the Bonnie and Clyde story. A landmark film and one of the first of the New Hollywood era, the movie became famous for the groundbreakingly realistic way it depicted violence and sex, something that wasn't done in cinema at the time. Upon its release, Roger Ebert even predicted that it will come to be seen as the "definitive film of the 1960s."

#27. Shine (1996)

- Director: Scott Hicks - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 105 minutes

Geoffrey Rush's breakout role was as pianist David Helfgott in the Australian drama "Shine." Rush's depiction of the musician, who was afflicted by schizophrenic disorder and spent years living in institutions, won him an Oscar and launched a successful, decades-long career. While the film was a critical success, Helfgott's real-life siblings were more divided in their reception of it, with one actively campaigning against it and the other two happy with its portrayal of their sibling and his tumultuous family life.

#26. Serpico (1973)

- Director: Sidney Lumet - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 130 minutes

In " Serpico ," a New York City cop blows the whistle on the corruption that runs rampant within the NYPD, which prompts an investigation by the Knapp Commission. Al Pacino plays Frank Serpico , who in real life experienced ostracization and hate from those both inside and outside the force, and saw his act as shameful rather than heroic.

#25. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

- Director: Frank Lloyd - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 132 minutes

One of the biggest hits of the 1930s, " Mutiny on the Bounty " may not be historically accurate, but it sure is fun to watch. The movie retraces the classic tale of the HMS Bounty, whose first mate (played by Clark Gable) launches a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) on an 18th-century voyage from Tahiti. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1935.

#24. American Splendor (2003)

- Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 101 minutes

A blend of documentary, animation, and live action, as well as fact and fiction, " American Splendor " relays the complicated story of Harvey Pekar, the creator of the titular comic book series. In spite of its complicated-sounding setup, the film is a mesmerizing, absorbing watch full of delightful details. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar and Hope Davis his wife, Joyce—except when the real-life couple steps in for various scenes.

#23. The Queen (2006)

- Director: Stephen Frears - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 103 minutes

Beginning with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, " The Queen " depicts Elizabeth II's struggle to publicly react to the news appropriately, as she realizes just how drastically the culture of her country has shifted, leaving her without a clear role. Helen Mirren won an Oscar and received exorbitant praise for her performance in the leading role, with the Queen herself praising her work and inviting her to dinner .

#22. In the Name of the Father (1993)

- Director: Jim Sheridan - Stacker score: 90.2 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 133 minutes

The Guildford Four were a group of men who were wrongly convicted of the politically motivated 1974 Guildford pub bombings that killed several people. " In the Name of the Father " explores this complicated story and the way it impacted the lives of the four men, as well as those of others connected to them. Daniel Day-Lewis turns in an impressive early performance as one of the accused, Gerry Conlon, whose autobiography " Proved Innocent " provides the basis for the film.

#21. Reversal of Fortune (1990)

- Director: Barbet Schroeder - Stacker score: 90.2 - Metascore: 93 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 111 minutes

A courtroom drama, " Reversal of Fortune " follows the real-life case of Claus von Bulow, a wealthy husband accused of trying to murder his socialite wife by giving her an overdose of insulin. Told from the perspective of the husband's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who struggles with his own questions of the husband's innocence, the film's smart script was derived primarily from Dershowitz's memoir. The film stars Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Ron Silver.

#20. Spartacus (1960)

- Director: Stanley Kubrick - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 197 minutes

Hailed as an intellectual epic, " Spartacus " features a hero who is denied a typical victory and is instead consoled with the promise that his ideas will survive in his stead. The down-ending movie is about a Thracian slave who leads a violent revolt against the Roman Empire but ends up paying dearly for his actions. Although a huge moneymaker for Universal Studios and a critical success, director Stanley Kubrick hated the film and never included it in his canon.

#19. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

- Director: Michael Curtiz - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 126 minutes

George M. Cohan was one of Broadway's biggest stars, a playwright, composer, actor, dancer, and singer who wrote his own shows in the earliest years of the 20th century. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a musical that honors the performer's life, though it strays pretty far from the truth despite Cohan himself briefly serving as a consultant.

#18. The Favourite (2018)

- Director: Yorgos Lanthimos - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 119 minutes

A multiple award-winner and a box-office smash, "The Favorite" follows the rivalry between two cousins, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and Abigail Masham, a lady's maid, who are vying for the position of Queen Anne's court favorite. While some of the film's historical accuracy has been questioned, including the sexual and romantic relationships that exist between the women, the broad strokes of the film are certainly true to life. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone star in the period black comedy.

#17. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

- Director: John Ford - Stacker score: 91.3 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 100 minutes

The second film on the list about Abraham Lincoln, "Young Mr. Lincoln" focuses on the early years of the 16th president's life, rather than his final months. The first collaboration between John Ford and lead Henry Fonda, the movie focuses on a definitive court case (the "Almanac Trial") in which the novice lawyer finds himself wrapped up, laying the groundwork for the philosophy and morality which would guide him as one of American history's most important figures.

#16. Quiz Show (1994)

- Director: Robert Redford - Stacker score: 91.3 - Metascore: 92 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 133 minutes

Robert Redford directed the docudrama set in the 1950s about a young lawyer who discovers that quiz shows like "Twenty-One" are being fixed and begins to investigate, focusing on two former contestants, a working-class Jewish man from Queens and a member of one of America's leading literary families. A critical success, the movie was a commercial failure when it was released in 1994.

#15. The King's Speech (2010)

- Director: Tom Hooper - Stacker score: 91.8 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 118 minutes

"The King's Speech" tells the story of the friendship that existed between King George VI and his speech therapist, who helped the king overcome his stutter so that he could face his subjects with confidence. Earning nominations for almost every existing award, the star-studded film was far and away one of the biggest hits of 2010.

#14. In Cold Blood (1967)

- Director: Richard Brooks - Stacker score: 91.8 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 134 minutes

Based on Truman Capote's novel of the same name, "In Cold Blood" follows two drifters who murder an entire family in a robbery gone wrong. Described as a filmmaking masterclass, the movie boasts "clinically precise editing," according to the Criterion Collection, as well as evocative black-and-white cinematography and authentic, unshowy performances.

#13. The Pianist (2002)

- Director: Roman Polanski - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 8.5 - Runtime: 150 minutes

Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist and composer, wrote his life story in "The Pianist," which became the basis for this Roman Polanski film. As the lead in this incredibly intense story, lead actor Adrien Brody said in 2017 that he was still recovering from the emotional toll of the story, 15 years after its release. Still, the award-winning movie is an important watch for those who seek to understand just how much the Holocaust and its aftermath shaped the world.

#12. Persepolis (2007)

- Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 96 minutes

"Persepolis" is the story of an outspoken teenage girl named Marji who comes of age during the Iranian Revolution. Simple in an elegant way, the film was based on a series of graphic novels Marjane Satrapi wrote about her life. Making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, "Persepolis" was a co-winner of the Jury Prize.

#11. Patton (1970)

- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 172 minutes

Famous and controversial WWII tank commander Gen. George S. Patton is the subject of this 1970s biopic, which remains among the most iconic movies ever made. George C. Scott took on the role of Patton and won an Academy Award for it (one of seven the picture took home). The film was in the works for several years before production went underway, as the United States Department of Defense was not keen on signing off on the project.

#10. Amadeus (1984)

- Director: Milos Forman - Stacker score: 93.4 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 8.3 - Runtime: 160 minutes

The premise of "Amadeus" hinges on a fictional rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri. Though the beef between the two is contrived, the details of Mozart's life that are woven into the film are, by and large, true. Accuracy aside, the film was quickly regarded as a classic and ended up winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

#9. Raging Bull (1980)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 93.4 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 129 minutes

Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" tells the story of prizefighter Jake LaMotta's rise and fall. The athlete's obsessive rage and animalistic appetite led him to incredible victories within the ring but destroyed almost every aspect of his life outside it. While initially a bit of a critical and commercial flop, the movie has come to be considered Scorsese's magnum opus.

#8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

- Directors: Julian Schnabel, Laura Obiols - Stacker score: 94 - Metascore: 92 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 112 minutes

In "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a massive stroke that leaves him with locked-in syndrome, a condition where almost all the muscles in his body are paralyzed except for his left eye. The French film, based on Bauby's memoir, was called "a poignant reflection on what it means to be alive" by Empire's Alan Morrison .

#7. The Social Network (2010)

- Director: David Fincher - Stacker score: 94 - Metascore: 95 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 120 minutes

Before Facebook became a dominant force in our lives and culture, monitoring our every move, it was a way for college students to connect and make new friends. "The Social Network" tells the story of the platform's early years, including the not-so-honorable moves of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg). A critical and commercial success, the film was named one of the best films of 2010.

#6. The Irishman (2019)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 94.5 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 209 minutes

Scorsese strikes again with "The Irishman," a gangster movie based on the book "I Heard You Paint Houses" about former mafia hitman Frank Sheeran. The film brings together some of the gangster genre's biggest heavyweights—Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel—who earned a host of accolades for their collective work. The film was released on Netflix in late 2019.

#5. My Left Foot (1989)

- Director: Jim Sheridan - Stacker score: 96.2 - Metascore: 97 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 103 minutes

Christy Brown was an Irishman born with cerebral palsy and was only able to control a single limb, his left foot. Despite his substantial physical disabilities, Brown learned how to paint and write with his foot, providing an unlikely outlet for his creativity. Daniel Day-Lewis brings the cantankerous artist to life in this Oscar-nominated film based on Brown's memoir.

#4. Goodfellas (1990)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 96.7 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 8.7 - Runtime: 146 minutes

The final Martin Scorsese picture on our list and one of the best-loved gangster films of all time, "Goodfellas" chronicles the true-life story of Henry Hill, a small-time mobster turned informant. Starring frequent Scorsese collaborator Rober De Niro as well as Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, the movie is based on crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy" and is widely considered one of the highest artistic peaks of Scorsese's career.

#3. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

- Director: Steve McQueen - Stacker score: 96.7 - Metascore: 96 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 134 minutes

Solomon Northup was a New York-born free Black man who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and spent 12 years enslaved on plantations in Louisiana before being released. "12 Years a Slave," a realistic and violent depiction of Northup's experience, was based on his memoirs. The award-winning movie did what many before it failed to do: it demolished, once and for all, the idea that slavery was anything but a horrific, unjust, and unfair practice whose sins remain in America to this day.

#2. Schindler's List (1993)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 100 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 8.9 - Runtime: 195 minutes

A success on every level, Steven Spielberg's Holocaust masterpiece "Schindler's List" is, at its heart, two parallel character studies. On the one hand, there's Amon Goeth (played by Ralph Fiennes), a purely evil psychopath, and on the other Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a greedy businessman turned unlikely humanitarian. Haunting and powerful, the film insists that goodness and truth can prevail, even in some of humanity's darkest moments.

#1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

- Director: David Lean - Stacker score: 100 - Metascore: 100 - IMDb user rating: 8.3 - Runtime: 228 minutes

The best biopic of all time? This 1962 epic chronicling the life of British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, who's tasked with serving as a liaison between Prince Faisal and the British government during their fight against the Turks. Earning 10 Oscar nominations, the movie is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential films in cinematic history . Still, there are always haters: Lawrence's brother A.W. reportedly hated the film so much that he refused to let David Lean use the title of T.E.'s memoir, " Seven Pillars of Wisdom. "

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10 great autobiographical films

As Joanna Hogg dramatises her own experience as a young filmmaker with The Souvenir, we take a look back at 10 other great cinematic autobiographies.

The cinema screen is a window, but it can also be a mirror. Every filmmaker takes inspiration from the world around them; just a few have the honesty, audacity and/or ego to turn their life stories into art. As  Joanna Hogg  releases her starkly autobiographical new work  The Souvenir  – and in the wake of  Pedro Almodóvar ’s equally self-examining Pain and Glory (2019) – we take a look at some of the most notable films taken directly from a filmmaker’s own experience.

Dramatised autobiography in early cinema was relatively rare – the first audiences wanted spectacle, not everyday reality. And even when filmmakers did draw on their own histories these tended to be heavily stylised, as with  Jean Vigo ’s groundbreaking  Zéro de conduite  (1933), a deeply misunderstood film in its time.

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But three decades later Vigo’s masterpiece would prove a vital influence on one of the most widely seen autobiographical movies,  Les Quatre Cents Coups .  François Truffaut ’s frank evocation of his own childhood arrived right on the cusp of the Me Generation, joining popular works of art, music and literature in taking inspiration from the self; attempting to make the personal universal.

In the decades since, autobiographical dramas and documentaries have only increased in popularity – for younger filmmakers they’re a direct route to self-expression; for more experienced directors they can be the perfect cap on a storied career. And while these films can fall prey to indulgence, autobiography has produced more than its share of masterpieces. Here are 10 of the very best.

Zéro de conduite (1933)

Director: Jean Vigo

Opening with white titles over a soundtrack of schoolkids bellowing like animals, Jean Vigo’s 40-minute epic is looser and more free-spirited than almost any other film of its era. But Zéro de conduite (or Zero for Conduct, the mark given by teachers for bad behaviour) is also more intimate and personal than was fashionable at the time, drawing directly on the young writer-director’s years at a French boarding school and basing the four central characters on his friends and himself.

Depicting childhood as a time of anarchistic rebellion against repressive authority, Vigo’s film was immediately controversial – one review compared it to “lavatory flushing”, while the French Ministry of the Interior banned it for 12 years, citing the film’s potential for “hindering the maintenance of order”. Vigo would create one more extraordinary film – the 1934 classic L’A talante – before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 29.

My Childhood (1972)

Director: Bill Douglas

On the evidence of his unflinching trilogy of autobiographical dramas –  My Childhood ,  My Ain Folk  (1973) and  My Way Home  (1978) – it’s a marvel that Scottish filmmaker  Bill Douglas  survived at all, let alone went on to a successful career in cinema. Shot in the grainy, austere monochrome of wartime news footage and told with the simplicity of a religious parable, My Childhood follows 10-year-old Jamie, the child of an absentee father and a mentally damaged mother, growing up in the coalfields of Newcraighall near Edinburgh (later films would see Jamie consigned to a childrens’ home, before finding solace in friendship and self-expression).

This is autobiography as expiation, a chance for Douglas to confront and exhume the grim spectres of his past. But these stories are universal too, and powerfully political: taken together, the trilogy is both a compassionate call to action and a lament for all the world’s abandoned children.

American Graffiti (1973)

Director: George Lucas

Barely a decade had elapsed between the events depicted in  George Lucas ’s wistful  second feature  and the film’s production. But already, the early 60s had come to seem like the distant past, a pre-Vietnam, pre-revolutionary era of innocence and freedom (at least for straight, white American boys).

Loosely fictionalising his own high school graduation night, Lucas recreates the drag-strip culture of Modesto, California in 1962, where diner waitresses wear rollerskates, the Beach Boys are permanently blasting from tinny car stereos and the worst trouble you could possibly get into is a dust-up with a greaser gang. Shot on a shoestring but a massive hit with audiences, the film single-handedly sparked a wave of baby-boomer nostalgia that led to everything from Happy Days to Showaddywaddy. Its success also gave Lucas a blank cheque for his next project, a little space movie for kids.

Mirror (1975)

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Widening the concept of autobiography to include members of his own family – his poet father Arseny Tarkovsky, his mother Maria Vishnyakova – and ultimately the entire Russian populace in the 20th century,  Andrei Tarkovsky ’s most oblique and wondrous film is aptly named. Here the idea of the lens as a reflective surface reaches its apotheosis – but this mirror is a broken one, the film a shattered series of reflective fragments tied together with strands of poetry and haunting images of a dying man.

The result is unique and gripping as Tarkovsky unites the personal and the political, shifting from colour to monochrome, from the present to the past, from dream to reality. Of all the autobiographical films on this list,  Mirror  most perfectly evokes the actual experience of memory – its unpredictability, its ungraspable beauty, its poignancy.

The Big Red One (1980)

Director: Samuel Fuller

Independent maestro  Samuel Fuller  drew on his experiences as an infantryman in the Second World War for this abrasive episodic  epic . Named for the emblem of the US First Infantry, the film follows a platoon of American soldiers from the relative innocence of the North Africa campaign through the battlefields of Sicily, Normandy and the Rhineland to the liberation of the concentration camps.

Carelessly re-edited for its initial release and only restored three decades later, it’s an unforgiving and often unsettling watch, flipping from hardboiled humour to heroic action to abject horror, caught somewhere between admiration for the men who fought, regret for their sacrifice, respect for the achievements of the US military and outright disgust at humanity’s ruthlessness. It also contains some of the most surreal and striking scenes in cinema, from a pitched battle in an active mental ward to the birth of a baby in the belly of a marooned tank.

The Long Day Closes (1992)

Director: Terence Davies

Taking inspiration from the great Bill Douglas,  Terence Davies  is another British filmmaker whose best work is inspired by his personal history. From his breakthrough feature  Distant Voices, Still Lives  (1988) to Liverpudlian love-poem  Of Time and the City  (2008), Davies mined his childhood as a working-class boy from a tight-knit Catholic family for every ounce of pathos.

A loosely structured companion piece to Distant Voices,  The Long Day Closes  is a more evocative, experiential film than its predecessor, immersing us in its young hero’s sensual world; what he sees, touches and especially what he hears (this is a film filled with music, from grand opera to film musicals to singalongs in the pub). Davies knows every inch of these streets, every thread of every gown, every note of every tune – and the result isn’t so much autobiography as recreated reality.

The Alcohol Years (2000)

Director: Carol Morley

Am I the person I believe myself to be? That was the question posed by  Carol Morley  as she embarked upon  The Alcohol Years , a brutally honest documentary in which she explores her own misspent youth with the aid of friends from the time, many of them rediscovered via a series of personal ads placed in the Manchester press. Morley wanted to know – needed to know – if she was as much fun to be around as she thought she was at the time or, as she suspected, just a messy drunken nightmare.

The process of discovery is what drives the film – this is autobiography as detective work, as Morley pieces together a period of her own past that she’s managed to almost entirely forget. It’s also a fascinating depiction of Manchester in the post-industrial, pre-Hacienda 80s – a city that, like Morley herself, has fought to escape its past.

This Is England (2006)

Director: Shane Meadows

Shane Meadows  had flirted with autobiography before – both  TwentyFourSeven  (1997) and  A Room for Romeo Brass  (1999) were inspired by his Midlands childhood – but  This Is England  was more direct than either. The main character’s name is a slight giveaway: Shaun Fields is a lonely suburban adolescent who finds friendship with a gang of good-natured skinheads, only to be drawn into a subculture of white nationalism and mob violence.

What makes This Is England fascinating is that Meadows didn’t stop there, spinning off three additional long-form TV series in which the characters – initially based loosely on real people – took on lives of their own, the focus shifting until his alter-ego Shaun became almost a side-player in his own story. The result is something far more ambitious and affecting than simple autobiography – an epic but still fiercely personal examination of working class lives in the 1980s.

Persepolis (2007)

Directors: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi

Autobiographical animation is relatively rare, but in 2007-08 a pair of films – French-Iranian coming-of-age tale  Persepolis  and Israeli war memoir  Waltz with Bashir  – turned traumatic memories into expressive animated art. Of the pair, Persepolis is perhaps the more approachable, recounting the story of rebellious, middle-class Iranian adolescent Marji as her family are uprooted and driven into exile by the Islamic revolution.

Based on co-director  Marjane Satrapi ’s own comic book, the film utilises the same monochrome graphic style – but for added realism, Satrapi would act out every scene for her team of animators, giving them a physical framework to work from while ensuring that the film remained as directly autobiographical as possible. The result drew inevitable condemnation from the Iranian government and protests in Tunisia, plus, bizarrely, complaints from American parents, who found its depiction of religious oppression too harrowing for their precious offspring.

The Beaches of Agnès (2008)

Director: Agnès Varda

Reinventing and revitalising the autobiographical documentary,  Agnès Varda ’s late-period films are playful, poignant and richly imaginative, almost a genre unto themselves.  The Beaches of Agnès  is as much a junk-shop collage as a documentary, mixing up old photos, home footage, movie images and digicam travelogue to examine the director’s own past, from childhood holidays in Belgium to (modest) fame as a photographer, artist and new wave filmmaker.

In the hands of a less skilful, more self-important director – as opposed to a self-described “little old lady, pleasantly plump” – this might have been insufferable. But Varda is a joy to spend time with, roving the thrift markets of Paris and setting up a mirrored art-show on the beach, revisiting the tiny port where she and her family sheltered on a houseboat during the war, while generously opening up her overstuffed memory-box and inviting us to rifle inside.

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10 Best Movies That Are Based on Directors’ Own Lives

Contemporary cinema has transformed itself from being just an art form to a full-fledged academic discipline. This has primarily happened subject to cinema’s unique ability to recreate reality better than any competing art form. The sixties and the seventies of the past century saw the evolution of Film Theory in the form of multiple concepts and constructs. The discipline made an honest attempt at understanding not only the psychoanalytical elements governing cinematic expressions but there was also a conscious effort to unravel the backgrounds that have inspired movies through the ages. One of the theories that came up during the mentioned churning period was the Auteur Theory . The said theory harps on a film being the result of a filmmaker’s personal creative vision. No wonder then that the filmmakers try and impose their view of the world through their movies. Consequently, some of the films turned out to be autobiographical in nature. At different points in cinematic history, auteurs have tried their hands at telling their own stories through their movies.

We at The Cinemaholic tried digging into the history of such movies and came up with a list of the 10 best movies That Are Based on Directors’ Own Lives. It is needless to mention here that the list has been prepared in conjunction with a host of parameters, the primary being critics’ views and audience perceptions. Please understand that any qualitative evaluation of movies is quintessentially subjective and doesn’t necessarily have to be unanimous for unanimity often leads to standardization of art forms, something that could be globally fatal to the creative visions of artists. Let us look at the list then!

10. Short Term 12 (2013)

A movie that won multiple hearts, Destin Daniel Cretton’s avant-garde venture ‘Short Term 12’ is based on the auteur’s personal experiences of working with a group home housing troubled teenagers. Having drawn the requisite inspiration from his own short film of the same name, Cretton was richly applauded by critics worldwide for the film’s depicted realism. The movie also managed to bag a lot of awards across multiple platforms. The performance of Brie Larson, who plays the role of the home’s young supervisor, was immensely praised.

9. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)

Louis Malle’s critically appreciated autobiographical movie ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants’ narrates the story of a Catholic boarding school in occupied France during the Second World War and its raid by the Gestapo to catch hold of three hiding Jewish students. The film was based on the childhood events of Malle and was massively praised for its portrayed humanism and realism. The movie rightfully clinched the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1987.

8. Lost in Translation (2003)

A rare reel marvel, Sofia Coppola’s deeply humane romantic comedy ‘Lost in Translation’ chronicles a unique bond between an aging American actor and a young woman whilst in Tokyo. A movie that has managed to garner a dedicated following, it landed Coppola with the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2004. The movie deals with a number of complicated sub-themes such as estrangement, disillusionment and betrayal. Anyone with an iota of idea about solitude will be able to connect to the film’s central conjecture. It was later revealed by the filmmaker herself that most of the events shown in the film were inspired by her personal experiences in Tokyo.

7. The Tree of Life (2011)

Rightly cited as one of the ten greatest movies of all time by renowned film critic Roger Ebert, Terrence Malick’s venture ‘The Tree of Life’ tries to comprehend the meaning and purpose of life in way that is both unique and effective. Punctuated by scenes of vivid childhood memories and the origin of life on earth, the movie has the potential to change the way a person perceives his/her life. It straight away divided the critics into two distinct segments. One group lauded the movie for its thematic richness and the other despised it for being decidedly ambitious. It bagged the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and has been listed by BBC as one of the 100 greatest American films ever made. The film is said to be inspired from Malick’s own childhood. He, too, like Jack in the film, had to deal with untimely death of his younger brother.

6. Annie Hall (1977)

Roughly categorized as a romantic comedy, ‘Annie Hall’ could be considered to be Woody Allen’s magnum opus. Named as the movie with the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America , ‘Annie Hall’ narrates the story of a New York comedian’s love life and his unique takes on various critical issues including sexuality, feminism, modernism, psychoanalysis and Jewish American Identity. In a way, the comedian shown in the film could be aptly described as Allen’s alter ego. The movie succeeded in bringing home four (4) Academy Awards – those in the categories of Best Picture , Best Director , Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Original Screenplay .

5. Boyhood (2014)

One of a kind, Richard Linklater’s ‘Boyhood’ is a unique cinematic feat. The filming for the movie took place over a period of twelve years and realistically tracked the evolution of a child into a young adult. Considered by some to be autobiographical due to the plot’s similarities with the filmmaker’s real life, ‘Boyhood’ was universally lauded for its thematic richness and visual realism. The script of the movie was not pre-written and was developed during the production process itself based on the changes that the auteur saw in each of the actors. Having been nominated for six (6) Academy Awards , the film finally won one in the category of Best Supporting Actress .

4. The Mirror (1975)

Distinctly autobiographical in nature, ‘The Mirror’ is a moving tale of the various emotions punctuating the consciousness of a forty-something dying poet. The film, arguably Andrei Tarkovsky’s best work, makes a sublime effort at redrawing the memories of a person. The movie is also considered to be an excellent commentary on the then existing Soviet society and politics. Known for its non-linear structure and unique cinematography, ‘The Mirror’ has influenced a generation of filmmakers from all across the globe.

3. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

One of the finest pieces of work from the coffers of the maverick Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, ‘Fanny and Alexander’ traces the life of two siblings in a rich Swedish family in Uppsala in the 1900s. Although Bergman himself didn’t admit to the movie having any autobiographical elements, there are parts of the movie that bear uncanny resemblances to the filmmaker’s life. The uncut 312-minutes version of the film is one of the longest in cinematic history and was actually planned as a four-part television movie. Nominated for six (6) different Academy Award categories including the Best Director , it finally managed to bring home four (4). The movie evoked both love and hatred when released and is considered to be a global cinematic masterpiece.

2. The 400 Blows (1959)

‘The 400 Blows’ is essentially about juvenile and adolescent delinquency that is often driven by societal and parental neglect. Not only did this film put the nascent French New Wave on a firm footing but also projected François Truffaut as the brand new face of contemporary cinema. Distinctly autobiographical in nature, Truffaut’s own childhood was troubled and on similar lines. The film flows like a river and takes the audience along a journey of hope, despair, empathy and even sheer anger. A truly sincere and deeply personal piece of work, Truffaut dedicated it to his spiritual father and internationally acclaimed film theorist André Bazin. It is now considered to be one of the finest movies of all time.

1. Amarcord (1973)

A stylized comedy drama film by the acclaimed Italian auteur Federico Fellini, ‘Amarcord’ could be considered to be a direct cinematic jibe at Mussolini and the Catholic Church. The movie tells the tale of an adolescent boy growing up in Fascist Italy in the 1930s. Arguably Fellini’s best work, the film received almost universal acclaim on release. Having been nominated for three (3) Academy Awards , ‘Amarcord’ finally walked away with the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film .

Read More: The 10 Best Movies About Loneliness, Ranked

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The 15 Best Biography Movies About Actors and Actresses

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Biography movies (also known as biopics) come in all kinds of flavors, but most of them tend to be focused on musicians, politicians, soldiers, and geniuses. What about actors?

Even though Hollywood loves making movies about itself, the majority of them are fictional. If you dig around a bit, however, you'll find several great biography films about real actors and actresses.

Here are my picks for the best biographical movies that give a peek into the Hollywood industry, where famous actors toil behind the scenes with work, love, heartbreak, family, and addiction.

15. Mommie Dearest (1981)

Directed by Frank Perry

Starring Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest

Biography, Drama (2h 9m)

6.6 on IMDb — 48% on RT

A quick Google search might show you that Mommie Dearest is considered one of the worst films ever made, but hear us out! For this movie to be labeled so extremely is proof of its lasting impact.

In fact, Mommie Dearest is so bad that it's good—if you watch it as a comedy rather than a drama—even if lead actress Faye Dunaway still regrets taking the part, haunted by the soul of Joan Crawford who's "just hanging around... as if she couldn't rest."

While Mommie Dearest doesn't show Crawford's whole life, it does show the part where she becomes an abusive, controlling mother. And while her daughter Christiana has said that Joan deserved to go to jail, even she found Frank Perry's depiction over the top...

14. Blonde (2022)

Directed by Andrew Dominik

Starring Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale

Drama, History (2h 47m)

5.5 on IMDb — 42% on RT

Everybody was excited for the release of Blonde . The crisp black-and white shots, the vintage square ratio, and the illustrious Ana de Armas promised a stylish biopic of the legendary Marilyn Monroe.

Although director Andrew Dominik didn't quite meet expectations, Blonde is still a refreshingly unconventional biography that's held together by visual prowess and keen acting from Armas.

Critics were mainly divided on Blonde 's fictionalization of true events. Although it certainly kept things interesting, some found the filled-in gaps of Monroe's memoirs to be exploitative.

13. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Starring Geoffrey Rush, Charlize Theron, Emily Watson

Biography, Comedy, Drama (2h 2m)

6.9 on IMDb — 69% on RT

Peter Sellers was an English actor known for his caricature style of comedy, often embodying more than one role at a time (which he did in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove ).

Sellers is most famous for portraying the clumsy French detective in The Pink Panther movies. His specific techniques made him a master of comedic timing, parody, and improvisation, although we won't condone his use of brownface in The Party .

Years later, Geoffrey Rush embodied Peter Sellers in Stephen Hopkins's TV movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers . It might not capture the entirety of Peter Sellers's creative genius, but it does give us a curious look behind closed doors.

12. Mahanati (2018)

Directed by Nag Ashwin

Starring Keerthy Suresh, Dulquer Salmaan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu

Biography, Drama (2h 57m)

8.4 on IMDb — 100% on RT

There's more to Indian cinema than just Bollywood. Mahanati is much closer to the narrative arcs we see in Western biopics: a rise to fame, a complicated love life, then alcoholism, illness, bankruptcy, and fall.

However, Nag Ashwin doesn't present us with just another rise-and-fall story. Instead of reducing actress Savitri to her struggles, she's celebrated and enlivened through popping colors and an acclaimed central performance from Keerthy Suresh.

Mahanati was a dazzling success, not just in India but across the globe (even if the runtime is a tad lengthy). The film isn't perfect, but the good parts were great enough to earn it multiple awards.

11. Life (2015)

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Starring Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Joel Edgerton

Biography, Drama (1h 51m)

6.0 on IMDb — 64% on RT

Director Anton Corbijn offers a small snippet into the life of James Dean, who was basically the male equivalent of Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s.

The first James Dean biography movie on our list, Life centers on Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson), a photographer for LIFE Magazine. We get to see how his iconic photoshoot of James Dean came about, with Dean himself played by Dane DeHaan.

Like those actual photos—which are cleverly woven into the film— Life is an artistic sliver of Dean's life, with poetic narrations and a bang-on performance by DeHaan as the sensitive, soft-spoken, chain-smoking rebel without a cause.

10. My Week With Marilyn (2011)

Directed by Simon Curtis

Starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh

Biography, Drama (1h 39m)

6.9 on IMDb — 83% on RT

My Week With Marilyn depicts one segment of Marilyn Monroe's glamorous life: the time when she was visiting London with her famous playwright husband Arthur Miller.

She was there to film The Prince and the Showgirl but kept forgetting her lines and leaving the set. She couldn't connect to her character or her husband, so she confided in fresh-faced Oxford graduate Colin—one of many men who got to spend a week with Marilyn Monroe.

Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne star as the unexpected couple, taking in the British sights alongside Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Emma Watson, and Dominic Cooper.

9. Elvis (2022)

Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Starring Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge

Biography, Drama, Music (2h 39m)

7.3 on IMDb — 77% on RT

Elvis Presley was obviously more of a musician than an actor, but he starred in more films than pretty much anyone else on this list. After all, he was first and foremost a performer (which is why he was taken in by circus huckster Colonel Tom Parker).

After breaking racial barriers and rocketing to stardom, Elvis naturally transitioned to Hollywood and churned out an impressive 31 movies that started out as fun but gradually ended up soulless.

Austin Butler embodies the King of Rock in Baz Luhrmann's biopic that's even more glittery than Presley's outfits. We see the light fade from his eyes as he fake-surfs through various movie productions, pill-popping his career away to a hotel prison sentence.

8. Frances (1982)

Directed by Graeme Clifford

Starring Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Kim Stanley

Biography, Drama, Romance (2h 20m)

7.2 on IMDb — 67% on RT

Frances Farmer was one of those celebrities who was more famous for her private life than her professional one. The American actress appeared in a string of movies during the 1930s, but her hospitalization was the main thing to reach headlines.

Jessica Lange gives a driven performance as Frances, who was a controversial figure since childhood. As a kid, she wrote anti-God essays. As an adult, she refused to play the Hollywood game.

Frances cheats, drinks, refuses to wear makeup on screen, and is eventually committed to Kimball Sanitarium after her abusive mother becomes her legal guardian.

7. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

Directed by Rob Cohen

Starring Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner

Action, Biography, Drama (2h)

7.0 on IMDb — 73% on RT

Bruce Lee is the champion of martial arts movies. The actor/filmmaker moved from British Hong Kong to Seattle at 19 years old to open his own martial arts school before entering the film industry.

Bruce Lee was nicknamed Dragon (or "Little Dragon" when he was young) since he was born in the hour and year of the Chinese zodiac Dragon. His dual identity is explored in Rob Cohen's biography, and thankfully Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story goes beyond skin-deep.

Jason Scott Lee stars as the chiseled karate icon, delving into his Hollywood career and his relationship with Linda Lee Cadwell, all of it flourished with elements of mysticism.

6. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017)

Directed by Paul McGuigan

Starring Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Vanessa Redgrave

Biography, Drama, Romance (1h 45m)

6.7 on IMDb — 81% on RT

"We never expected Gloria Grahame in our kitchen, necking a bacon butty, asking for tommy sauce." Absolutely true! We wouldn't expect the Oscar-winning starlet of Hollywood's Golden Age to be staying in a humdrum area of rainy Liverpool.

Whether or not she really did scarf down bacon butties at the local boozer, we can't be sure. However, we do know that Grahame (played by Annette Bening) spent a lot of her final years in Liverpool.

Initially there for work, she strikes up an unexpected relationship with an amateur actor 30 years younger (Jamie Bell). In Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool , director Paul McGuigan shows us how age is just a number.

5. Man on the Moon (1999)

Directed by Miloš Forman

Starring Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Paul Giamatti

Biography, Comedy, Drama (1h 58m)

7.4 on IMDb — 64% on RT

Andy Kaufman was a very different kind of actor. The "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion" purposefully went out of his way to annoy people. Indeed, there were no Oscar ceremonies for him—but there were quite a few wrestling matches (with women only).

In Man on the Moon , Andy Kaufman is played by Jim Carrey, who famously stayed in character and went around annoying everyone on set. A whole documentary— Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017)—was even made about Carrey's behavior.

Andy Kaufman was initially a stand-up comedian who made people laugh by being terrible. His Tony Clifton character was particularly grating, and he later featured in the sitcom Taxi with Danny DeVito (who plays Kaufman's manager in Man on the Moon .)

4. Stan & Ollie (2018)

Directed by Jon S. Baird

Starring Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson

Biography, Comedy, Drama (1h 38m)

7.2 on IMDb — 92% on RT

Laurel and Hardy were an infamous comedy duo of the silent film era, mixing with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Their slapstick gags were beloved around the world, with Stan Laurel playing the clumsy man-child and Oliver Hardy the mean bully.

By the 1950s, this type of cinema was dwindling. The pair were starting to age and—having spent so much time together—their friendship even started taking a toll. Clutching at straws, they embarked on a less-than-easy UK musical hall tour.

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly flesh out the men in Stan & Ollie , moving with humor and humility. Jon S. Baird's biography doesn't try to be too heavy. It's simply sincere.

3. James Dean (2001)

Directed by Mark Rydell

Starring James Franco, Michael Moriarty, Valentina Cervi

Biography, Drama (2h)

7.1 on IMDb — 93% on RT

James Franco's depiction of another actor named James is what effectively put him on the map. Mimicking such a specific personality as James Dean? A tightwalk situation that, thankfully, worked out.

Dean's elusive and cool exterior occasionally breaks away to the chaos and anger underneath in Mark Rydell's biopic. Nobody believed Dean could make it big, but he proves them all wrong.

Dean's own indifferent father likely fueled his emotive performances in East of Eden (1955) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which Franco recreates seamlessly here in James Dean .

2. Judy (2019)

Directed by Rupert Goold

Starring Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock

Biography, Drama, Music (1h 58m)

6.8 on IMDb — 82% on RT

Actress Judy Garland starred in hits like A Star Is Born (1954) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), but she remains most famous for playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Most people already know that Judy Garland had a hard life, but few of us really understood how bad it was until we watched Judy . Heaps of horror stories have since come out about the production of The Wizard of Oz , and that's where all the trouble began for Garland.

For starters, MGM forcing her to take drugs as a teenager is likely what propelled Garland into early-life substance abuse.

While Garland's troubles are at the center of Rupert Goold's drama, Judy switches between the start and end of Garland's life (played by an unrecognizable Renée Zellweger).

1. Chaplin (1992)

Directed by Richard Attenborough

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin

Biography, Comedy, Drama (2h 23m)

7.5 on IMDb — 60% on RT

Charlie Chaplin is a name everyone's heard of. Even if you took the title off Chaplin 's poster, you'd know what this film was about! The silhouette of a bowler-hatted tramp is recognizable anywhere.

Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for an Oscar for his honorable portrayal of this timeless figure. Looking eerily similar to the real Chaplin, Downey takes us on his literal rags-to-riches journey. (Chaplin went from homelessless to being one of the richest men in the world.)

Chaplin's character of The Tramp was revolutionary for many reasons—mainly for blending pathos and humor during the Keystone days—but he wasn't always so innocent in real life.

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The 10 Worst Sci-Fi Movies Based on Great Books, Ranked

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The Big Picture

• Sci-fi films often fail to capture the essence of the beloved novels they are based on, resulting in disappointing adaptations.
• Examples like 'The Giver' and 'Dune' show how crucial it is for filmmakers to understand and honor the source material.
• Mediocre storytelling, lackluster visuals, and missed opportunities plague many sci-fi book-to-movie adaptations, leaving fans wanting more.

Sci-fi is a tricky genre to get right: it accounts for some of the best films of all time as well as the worst. Even when filmmakers have strong source material to work with, these movies can still misfire spectacularly, whether it's because of production problems, limited budgets, or simply a lack of vision. For this reason, some of the most beloved sci-fi novels have been translated into cinematic garbage.

Indeed, there is no shortage of great novels that have been butchered by their screen adaptations. From unfaithful interpretations to oversimplified storytelling, these movies serve as a reminder that translating a great book to the screen requires more than just a big budget and special effects; the filmmakers must have a deep understanding of the source material. With this in mind, here are the ten most disappointing film adaptations of good sci-fi books.

10 'The Giver' (2014)

Directed by phillip noyce.

Based on Lois Lowry 's acclaimed novel, The Giver tells the story of a dystopian society where emotions and memories are suppressed to maintain order and conformity. The protagonist, Jonas ( Brenton Thwaites ) is chosen to inherit the role of Receiver of Memories, discovering the dark truths behind his seemingly perfect world. He's joined in the supporting cast by talents like Jeff Bridges , Meryl Streep , Alexander Skarsgård , and Taylor Swift .

With performers like these and a visually deft director like Phillip Noyce , The Giver seemed like it would be fantastic . But unfortunately, the movie glosses over the book's philosophical undertones in favor of a more action-oriented narrative. The result is a film that feels superficial and disconnected. Even the aesthetics are kind of a mess, with the movie shifting awkwardly between black-and-white and color. In short, The Giver movie sands down all the rough edges that made the book intriguing, producing a generic and mainstream snooze-fest.

Not available

9 'Dune' (1984)

Directed by david lynch.

David Lynch 's take on Dune recounts Frank Herbert 's famous tale of Paul Atreides ( Kyle MacLachlan ) navigating the treacherous politics and deadly landscapes of Arrakis. It's very quirky and unique, entertaining in its own way, but it falls short of the novel's scope. Plus, Denis Villeneuve 's masterful adaptation showed how could great this story could be if executed well, making Lynch's Dune look even weaker by comparison. An epic sci-fi odyssey is reduced to melodrama and lame fight scenes.

The screenplay here is messy and poorly structured, wasting time on of digressions before rushing to a unsatisfying conclusion. Flimsy special effects and an odd aesthetic make it all a little ridiculous and laughable , rather than dramatic and immersive. Lynch's storytelling techniques are usually weird in a fascinating way, but here it feels amateurish and ill-fitting. All told, the gulf between the quality of the novel and the mediocrity of the movie is pretty huge. A massive wasted opportunity.

Dune (1984)

A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.

8 'Total Recall' (2012)

Directed by len wiseman.

The original Total Recall packs a punch, nicely translating Philip K. Dick 's short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale to the screen. With Paul Verhoeven at the helm and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, that movie made for a genuine '90s sci-fi gem. Not so for the Colin Farrell-starring remake, which lacks the humor and characterization of its source material.

It's about a factory worker (Farrell) who discovers that his memories may be implanted and his true identity hidden. But, unlike the first one, which balanced action with clever psychological twists, the remake focuses heavily on special effects and action sequences, losing the mind-bending essence of Dick's story . The visuals are impressive, to be sure, but the story and dialogue are all rather boring. The film always feels at a distance from the viewer, never connecting emotionally. In short, director Len Wiseman reduces a madcap adventure to a joyless slog.

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7 'Mortal Engines' (2018)

Directed by christian rivers.

Based on Philip Reeve 's novel, Mortal Engines envisions a post-apocalyptic world where cities are mobile, devouring smaller towns for resources. The story revolves around Hester Shaw ( Hera Hilmar ), a young woman seeking revenge against Thaddeus Valentine ( Hugo Weaving ), a powerful figure responsible for her mother's death. Along the way, the movie rips off better films like Star Wars , The Matrix , and Mad Max .

With solid source material and Peter Jackson producing, Mortal Engines looked promising, but the movie is very underwhelming. Despite an intriguing premise and a cool steampunk aesthetic, the plot quickly becomes clichéd. The doomsday devices, climactic duels, and "shocking" revelations (especially around the main character's true parentage) are all things the viewer has seen before. The film makes several changes from the book, none of them good. Clunky dialogue and a lack of character development are the final nails in the coffin. The finished product is as mechanical and soulless as the hungry cities that roam the countryside.

Mortal Engines

6 'the time machine' (2002), directed by simon wells.

H.G. Wells 's The Time Machine is a cornerstone of sci-fi literature, pioneering several time travel tropes and laying a blueprint that has been emulated countless times since. The book was turned into a decent film in 1960, but the same cannot be said for the 2002 version. Directed by Wells' great-grandson Simon Wells , it centers on Dr. Alexander Hartdegen ( Guy Pearce ), a scientist who builds a time machine to save his fiancée from a tragic fate, only to find himself 800,000 years in the future.

Wells attempts to bring the classic tale to modern audiences, but the movie is simply a mess, both visually and narratively. Some of the effects (especially the appearance of the monstrous Morlocks) are shoddy, while the story's third-act swerve into action-thriller territory is a head-scratcher. Despite the high production values (this was a collaboration between DreamWorks and Warner Bros.), The Time Machine rapidly loses its edge and becomes incomprehensible.

The Time Machine (2002)

5 'the darkest minds' (2018), directed by jennifer yuh nelson.

The Darkest Minds takes place in a dystopian future where a mysterious disease kills most of the world's children, leaving the survivors with superpowers. The main character is Ruby Daly ( Amandla Stenberg ), a teenager with mind control abilities, who joins a group of superpowered teens on the run from a government. This is essentially a run-of-the-mill foray into young adult sci-fi, a pale imitation of movies like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner.

The Darkest Minds is endlessly derivative , repurposing plots from other movies into a generic hodgepodge. It's a cheesy teen romance with postapocalyptic elements, peopled with one-dimensional characters and beset by pacing problems. In this regard, the movie is an example of a common trend, where a particular type of story becomes popular and inferior imitators quickly jump on the bandwagon. Hardcore fans of this subgenre may enjoy it, but general viewers are likely to be bored.

The Darkest Minds

4 'johnny mnemonic' (1995), directed by robert longo.

This cyberpunk action flick was penned by sci-fi icon William Gibson ( Neuromancer , The Difference Engine ), adapting his own short story. Keanu Reeves leads the cast as the title character, a data courier who must deliver a package of information stored in his brain before it kills him. The concept is cool, but the execution is decidedly lackluster.

The main character is unlikable and frankly boring, the story is a retread of Blade Runner and Total Recall, and the plot lacks logic. Worst of all, Gibson's thought-provoking ideas are jettisoned, replaced with mindless action and flashy gimmicks that would have been impressive in 1995 but have aged poorly. As a result, the 96-minute film feels longer than it really is. That said, The Wachowskis have cited Johnny Mnenomic as a partial inspiration for The Matrix , so the movie could be viewed as a disastrous first pass at ideas that would be realized more effectively in the years to come.

Johnny Mnemonic

3 'the 5th wave' (2016), directed by j blakeson.

The 5th Wave depicts a world devastated by an alien invasion, with humanity on the brink of extinction. The plot focuses on Cassie Sullivan ( Chloë Grace Moretz ), a teenage girl searching for her younger brother while navigating the perils of an Earth besieged by five waves of increasingly deadly attacks. She must face down otherworldly threats, armed with just her wits - and an assault rifle.

Yet again, clichés and a predictable plot undermine an interesting premise. Moretz does her best, but the movie is just too silly to take seriously. The fact that Moretz always looks perfectly put-together and made up, despite living in the woods and battling extraterrestrials, doesn't help. Not to mention, the audience barely ever gets to see the aliens! They are teased for so long, only to be shown via quick and incomplete glimpses. Perhaps this was because the filmmakers knew that their CGI was underwhelming.

The 5th Wave

2 'fahrenheit 451' (2018), directed by ramin bahrani.

Ray Bradbury 's Fahrenheit 451 (the title refers to the temperature at which paper burns) is a dystopian classic that explores themes of censorship, knowledge, and the power of literature. The 2018 adaptation attempts to modernize the story but struggles to capture the novel's essence. It's set in a future where books are banned, and "firemen" are tasked with burning them. The protagonist, Guy Montag ( Michael B. Jordan ), begins to question his role in this oppressive society and ultimately rebels against it.

The storytelling is heavy-handed, and Bahrani makes several changes from the book which just don't work. For example, he introduces a MacGuffin in the form of the OMNIS, a device designed to preserve all human knowledge and art by encoding it into DNA. This adds nothing to the story and overly muddies the themes. Basically, this adaptation fails to understand the appeal of the book. The strong performances from Jordan and Michael Shannon are not enough to save it.

Fahrenheit 451

1 'the island of dr. moreau' (1996), directed by john frankenheimer.

Another abysmal H.G. Wells adaptation, The Island of Dr. Moreau centers on Edward Douglas ( David Thewlis ), a castaway who discovers that Dr. Moreau ( Marlon Brando ), a mad scientist, has been conducting experiments to turn animals into humans on a remote island. There are interesting ideas at play here, but the movie is an unmitigated disaster , in part due to its troubled production process. Brando, for example, showed up inconsistently and refused to learn his lines.

The film's tortured creation is documented in the film Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau , which is actually worth checking out. Production probems aside, the story itself is unfocused, relying on pulpy elements like diabolical laboratories, mind control devices, leopard/human hybrids and a miniaturized clone (it would inspire Mini-Me in Austin Powers ) rather than geniune drama. "This is just satanic!" Douglas exclaims at one point. The audience's thoughts exactly.

The Island of Dr. Moreau

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