“Music is a powerful tool if you use it the right way, and that was his tool,” he said. “It’s not supposed to explain literally Kurt’s last days but more poetically.” Van Sant also confirmed that Last Days closes a trilogy that includes Gerry and Elephant, films that are “bound by a [similar] style and subject matter.” Audiences and critics didn’t much love Last Days — it doesn’t feature any of Nirvana’s huge hits that not only catapulted the band and its front man to superstardom but helped define the ‘90s grunge generation — but many singled out the searing lead performance by Michael Pitt, who plays a Cobain-esque musician named Blake who is fresh from rehab and fraught with emotional entanglements.

Jena Malone and Marc Maron co-star in director Gabriel Range’s feature. Directed by Curtis Hanson, the film doesn’t refrain from detailing the gruesome hardships and struggles the rapper faced that would ultimately inspire his edgy music. Based on the sheer amount of biographical films about real artists, it's basically a subgenre; we just can't get enough of seeing our favorite actors transform into our favorite artists and learning the stories behind the music.

It will tell you about her addiction to drugs. Foxx won an Academy Award for best actor, as well as a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award. André Benjamin portrays Hendrix, with Hayley Atwell, Imogen Poots and Ruth Negga rounding out the cast. The best musician biopics not only celebrate rock, pop, hip-hop, and R&B legends' work but reveal what led to their rise, insight into their interior world, and, at times, their inevitable fall.

While some serve as a visual representation of an artist’s musical catalog, à la Rocketman or I’m Not There, others, like Prince’s Purple Rain or Bette Midler’s The Rose, can be the catalyst for an artist’s next big hit.

Further lifted by Eminem’s passionate and ultra-frank performance, 8 Mile significantly raised hip-hop’s global profile and, thanks to its Oscar-winning spin-off hit, “Lose Yourself,” it not only recouped its expensive budget ($40 million), but generated whopping box office receipts believed to have topped $240 million.

20: Backbeat

Director Iain Softley’s Backbeat (1994) delved into The Beatles’ pre-fame Hamburg era, when The Fab Four were The Fab Five with the ill-starred Stu Sutcliffe on bass.

The Quintanilla family worked closely with Lopez as she prepared for her role, by offering to let the actress (making her film debut) to stay in their home. The movie features two timelines, with Paul Dano playing younger Brian Wilson and John Cusack playing the older version of the musician. Offering an authorized biography of the successful hip-hop group, Cube and Dre detail their journey from being aspiring teens to passionately working to make it in the then-white dominant industry.

Directed by Sidney J Furie of The Ipcress File fame, the film follows the jazz star from her traumatic youth through her rise to fame. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN)

The latest: Bob Dylan goes electric in the Timothee Chalamet-starring A Complete Unknown, directed by Walk the Line‘s James Mangold.

Get ready for a Fresh new sound with tonight’s headliner: Rotten Tomatoes’ best music biopics ever!

Music has been a crucial component of the movies since the beginning, back even when they were supposedly ‘silent.’ So naturally we started making movies about those makers of melodies.

Synopsis: The film explores the life and music of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), seen through the prism of his complicated relationship [More]

Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh

Directed By: Baz Luhrmann