Trailers can be very deceiving. Take, for example, the one for The Holdovers. It doesn’t sell the film well, and yet it’s one of the best Christmas movies around. The same could be said of Song Sung Blue, a biopic of a married couple who became a Neil Diamond tribute act. It doesn’t do the…
Tag: biopic
The Smashing Machine
Mixed Martial Arts is a sport I have little idea about, apart from the fact that it involves beating the living daylights out of your opponent. So a film about one of the first names of the sport didn’t initially grab me. Yet while Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine is a biopic of Mark Kerr,…
A Complete Unknown
Musician biopics usually follow the same pathway. Troubled singer/performer who has a hard upbringing, leading to an angst-ridden career that may involve drinks and or drugs, sometimes a little abuse towards the opposite sex. A Complete Unknown, the biopic about Bob Dylan, refuses to follow that line. Instead, it covers a small period in his…
Better Man
Imagine the scene. You have decided to make a film about the early life and career of Robbie Williams. You are pitching the idea of the troubled singer to studio executives, and you are going through the motions of the story, but you leave the most critical part till last. You don’t want Robbie to…
Back To Black
You wait ages for a musician biopic; two come along almost simultaneously. We had Bob Marley: One Love, which failed to capture the true spirit of the reggae star, and now we have Back to Black, the story of Amy Winehouse, the powerhouse singer whose life was cut so short. Both stars had documentaries covering…
Priscilla
You seem to wait ages for an Elvis biopic, and then two come along quickly. Actually, that’s not exactly true, for the second release, Priscilla, is more about his former wife than about the King. Yet, suppose Baz Luhrmann’s barn-storming 2022 film was about the showman. Sofia Coppola’s film is about the private life, or…
The Beanie Bubble
There seems to be a current trend in looking back at commerce from the past that we have connected with. We had Air, about the Nike trainer; Tetris, about the computer game and Blackberry, about the mobile phone. Now we have The Beanie Bubble, a tale of the Beanie Babies phenomenon, the bean-stuffed toys that…
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan has become as big a name as the movies he directs. You know that when you see one of his films, you will get quality, a filmmaker who produces thought-provoking, often head-scratching tales. After his last movie, the complicated Tenet, we now get a biopic, of sorts, in the story of the Father…
Elvis
I felt trepidation before entering Baz Luhrmann’s epic biopic, Elvis. Luhrmann is not known for subtle filmmaking. After the first 10 minutes of a movie that is 20 minutes shy of three hours, I was already feeling bludgeoned into submission by the relentless editing, full-on visuals and deafening soundtrack. Then something happened. A moment in…
Respect
Director: Liesl Tommy Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Audra McDonald, Marlon Wayans, Tituss Burgess, Marc Maron, Kimberley Scott, Mary J. Bligh Written by: (also story) Tracey Scott Wilson and (story) Callie Khouri Running Time: 145 mins Cert: 12A Release date: 10th September 2021 Biopics of legends in music are a hard thing to pull off….
Dream Horse
Director: Euros Lyn Starring: Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, Owen Teale, Nicholas Farrell, Joanna Page, Siân Phillips, Peter Davison Written by: Neil McKay Running Time: 113 mins Cert: PG Release date: 4th June 2021 For years, British cinema was a staple for costume dramas and period pieces. But, since the late 90s, we have found that…
The Mauritanian
Director: Kevin Macdonald Starring: Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shailene Woodley, Zachary Levi Written by: Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, (and screen story) M.B. Traven, (based upon the book “Guantánamo Diary”) Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Larry Siems Running Time: 129 mins Cert: 15 Release date: 2nd April 2021 Each year a theme seems to run…
Stu Loves Film 