MUSIC
This list isn't about musicals but about the music that has shaped our lives. Movies about music are the stories and dreams behind the tunes which drive, relax and fill-in the void of our everyday lives. Please let me know if you have any other movies you would like to add.
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37 titles
- DirectorMichael LehmannStarsBrendan FraserSteve BuscemiAdam SandlerThree band members hoping for a big break head to a radio station to play their demo tape and wind up holding everyone hostage with plastic guns when the head D.J. refuses to play them.
- DirectorCameron CroweStarsBilly CrudupPatrick FugitKate HudsonA high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorCraig BrewerStarsChristina RicciSamuel L. JacksonJustin TimberlakeA God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, looks everywhere for love, never quite finding it.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiDan AykroydCab CallowayJake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
- DirectorSteve RashStarsGary BuseyDon StroudCharles Martin SmithThe story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsRobert ArkinsMichael AherneAngeline BallJimmy Rabbitte, an unemployed Dublin boy, decides to put together a soul band made up entirely of the Irish working class.
- DirectorWalter HillStarsRalph MacchioJoe SenecaJami GertzA wannabe blues-guitar virtuoso finds an old blues player and hopes he can teach him a long-lost song by legendary musician Robert Johnson.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsVal KilmerMeg RyanKyle MacLachlanThe story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band The Doors and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison, from his days as a UCLA film student in Los Angeles, to his untimely death in Paris, France at age 27 in 1971.
- DirectorAllan MoyleStarsAnthony LaPagliaDebi MazarMaxwell CaulfieldTwenty-four hours in the lives of the young employees at Empire Records when they all grow up and become young adults thanks to each other and the manager. They all face the store joining a chain store with strict rules.
- DirectorJim McBrideStarsDennis QuaidWinona RyderJohn DoeThe life and career of wildly controversial rock 'n' roll star Jerry Lee Lewis.
- DirectorJohn Cameron MitchellStarsJohn Cameron MitchellMiriam ShorStephen TraskA gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/band-mate who stole her songs.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJohn CusackIben HjejleTodd LouisoRob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.
- DirectorSang-il LeeStarsYasuko MatsuyukiEtsushi ToyokawaYû AoiYoung women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.
- DirectorLuis ValdezStarsLou Diamond PhillipsEsai MoralesRosanna DeSotoBiographical story of the rise from nowhere of early rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens who died at age 17 in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsTim RothPruitt Taylor VinceMélanie ThierryA baby boy discovered on an ocean liner in 1900 grows into a musical prodigy, never setting foot on land.
- DirectorStephen HerekStarsRichard DreyfussGlenne HeadlyJay ThomasA frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher.
- DirectorFrank OzStarsJim HensonFrank OzDave GoelzKermit and his friends go to New York City to get their musical on Broadway only to find it's a more difficult task than they anticipated.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
- DirectorRichard CurtisStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanBill NighyNick FrostA band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves.
- DirectorTaylor HackfordStarsJamie FoxxRegina KingKerry WashingtonThe story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
- DirectorFrançois GirardStarsCarlo CecchiJean-Luc BideauChristoph KonczA red-colored violin inspires passion, making its way through three centuries over several owners and countries, eventually ending up at an auction where it may find a new owner.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsJack BlackMike WhiteJoan CusackAfter being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band.
- DirectorStephen KijakStarsSara KestelmanArnie PottsJarvis CockerA documentary on the influential musician Scott Walker.
- DirectorScott HicksStarsGeoffrey RushArmin Mueller-StahlJustin BrainePianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.