10 Reasons Why Most Biopics Are Terrible Movies
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that most biopics are not that great. Yup, that even includes some of your favorites.
Think about all of the biopics you’ve seen. How many of them were actually good movies? How many of them did you only enjoy because you’re a fan of the person who was being portrayed?
I know that I recently wrote about how important it is to not be dismissive when it comes to “slave movies” or films depicting Black history. But, biopics, on the other hand (mainly, those depicting entertainers), might need to go to sleep... for good.
In my experience, a good biopic is an anomaly, and is usually only good based on a set of lucky circumstances. Ray, the Ray Charles biopic, worked because Ray Charles had a remarkable life story, and also because Jamie Foxx is a generational talent who happens to be able to sing and mimic even the smallest details of a person’s body language and speech.
Malcolm X worked largely due to Spike Lee, the film’s source material, and a guy by the name of Denzel Washington.
Straight Out of Compton, was a fun, well-done movie. I believe the quality of this movie was connected to a few things: 1) the fact that some of the members of the NWA (Ice Cube & Dr. Dre) were heavily involved 2) F. Gary Gray, the director, was…
