Music Biopics Released from 2000-Present Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling Music Biopics released from 2000-present in honor of the release of Bob Marley: One Love. 

Music Biopics from 2000-Present Ranked:

18.Maestro (D+)

17.Elvis (D+)

16.Miles Ahead (C)

15.Chevalier (C)

14.Love & Mercy (C)

13.Florence Foster Jenkins (C)

12.All Eyez on Me (C+)

11.The United States vs. Billie Holiday (C+)

10.I Wanna Dance with Somebody (C+)

9.Bohemian Rhapsody (B-)

8.Cadillac Records (B)

7.The Dirt (B)

6.Notorious (B)

5.Walk the Line (B+)

4.Ray (B+)

3.Get on Up (B+)

2.Rocketman (B+)

1.Straight Outta Compton (A)

Top Dog: Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Despite its convenient glossing over of Dr. Dre's 1991 assault of Dee Barnes and decision to dump the majority of the blame for the group's breakup on Jerry Heller and the late Eazy-E, N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton remains an excellent film that runs circles around nearly all of its peers in the music biopic subgenre. F.Gary Gray's energetic direction establishes a sense of narrative propulsion that never quits, its ability to form a coherent narrative despite covering so much time is extremely impressive and the quartet of lead performances (O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Paul Giamatti) are all exceptional pieces of acting that succeed in making all of these larger-than-life cultural icons feel like real, layered human beings.               

Bottom Feeder: Maestro (2023)

Awards bait doesn't get much more shameless or obnoxious than Bradley Cooper's wretched Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Cooper and Carey Mulligan reduce the iconic composer/conductor and his wife Felicia's life together to a 2-hour mine for awards clip material with their distractingly cartoonish, tryhard performances that completely overshadow anything the film is trying to say about their relationship and how it was affected by Bernstein's towering career in music.         

Most Underrated: Get on Up (2014)

The late Chadwick Boseman gave what just might've been the finest performance of his career as James Brown alongside the similarly terrific Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Nelsan Ellis-who sadly predeceased Boseman-in this criminally under-the-radar flick from Tate Taylor (The Help, The Girl on the Train). Boseman is charismatic enough to embody Brown's big, brash personality and fearless enough to explore his extensive history of domestic, verbal and substance abuse while its non-linear narrative style does a great job of examining how Brown became the entertainer and human being he was without ever feeling rote.     

Most Overrated: Elvis (2022)

I was tempted to put Maestro here on account of all of the Oscar nominations it just received, but the reception outside of critical circles and awards voters has been pretty muted for the most part. Elvis, on the other hand, was one of the most successful movies of 2022, earned a bunch of Oscar noms and was also a movie that drove me insane, making it much a more fitting selection. As stylish, distinct and well-shot/edited as Elvis is, Baz Luhrmann's relentless love affair with his own filmmaking style, Austin Butler's hilariously committed yet ultimately cheap impersonation of Elvis and its steadfast refusal to engage with the more unsavory elements of Elvis' life made it every bit as hollow as the more conventional music biopics Hollywood tends to put out.             

Another Underrated Movie Just Because I Want to Highlight It: Rocketman (2019)

Electing to turn Elton John's life story into a jukebox musical that blends the fantastical with the real is the type of inspired creative swing that we need to see more of in this genre. Not only does it do wonders for spicing up the traditional rise-fall-rise structure of these movies, but it's also an incredible representation of who John is as an artist. On top of that, John himself being humble enough to allow the filmmakers to showcase his personal demons on screen allows the film to feel refreshingly authentic and Taron Edgerton's vulnerable, spirited performance as John is some true powerhouse shit that should've earned him an Oscar nomination.