Famous biographical movies

Hollywood has always loved a biopic – and not just Hollywood.

It all makes sense—somehow—on the screen, and it’s both wildly entertaining and tinged with tragedy for people who know Larson’s fate. Her chief rival, trailer park roughneck Tonya Harding. 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.

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A rare animated biopic, this 2013 stunner from Japanese legend Hayao Miyazaki (of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke fame) is an interesting companion piece to this summer’s hottest biopic, Oppenheimer.

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. Part of the reason it’s so intense is that it really does feel grounded and real, and then the knowledge that the events depicted here actually happened (to some extent) only adds to the already challenging nature of it all.

24 'Better Man' (2024)

It’s recent in the overall scheme of things, sure, but Better Man also feels like it could become a classic (of the cult or maybe even normal variety) once enough time has passed.

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. Fun fact: his co-writer Andrei Konchalovsky went on to direct Tango & Cash. 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.

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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.

It’s a very dark sports-focused biopic, but I, Tonya is also quite stylish and funny at times, albeit in a relatively bleak way.

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Here, the biopic turns into a horror movie (with one of the most uncomfortable but appropriate musical scores of the last decade), as we follow former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (played by a never better Natalie Portman) in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s assassination in 1963.

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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. 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.

A hidden life no more. 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.

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.