Film and music have been intrinsically linked since they were able to add sound to movies in the 1920s. The right composition can elevate a good film to great whilst some music videos develop more hype than the song itself (shoutout to Paula Abdul dancing with an animated cat or Christopher Walken floating around an abandoned hotel). Stars of the charts and the big screen turn into pillars of pop culture, with some talented enough to succeed at both. Ordinary people rising up to become icons, releasing platinum records and taking a ton of drugs, these are the stories the public want to see – ‘cause we all just wanna be big rockstars after all. A peek behind the curtain, an inspiration or a lesson, an underdog tale, the film writes itself.
So they did, expanding the mythos on already huge superstars or telling an unheard story through cinema. There are so many films surrounding each genre of music, some more accurate than others, that it’s hard to know if they belong on the centre stage of Glastonbury or in somebody’s garage. Therefore, in preparation for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (June 24th 2022), I look into which music biopics hit the right notes and which fall flat, which encapsulates the essence of the performer and which are an out of tune cover band. Either way, the show must go on…