#Biopics

[marzipanandminutiae]

a real historical woman in a fiction movie: "oh Hardjaw McHotbod, I love you so much, you manly masculine man!"

the actual woman: ...and she lived with her female partner for forty years, raising Persian cats and preserving old buildings, after which they were buried together under one tombstone. she once said "wow, sure is interesting how I've never been attracted to a single man ever!"

[whatcannotbesaid-shallbewept]

In theory, this is the most exciting thing I've heard about the new Beatles biopics.

In practice, I simply do not believe the four writers will be equally talented.

So. Now we have an exciting prospect on our hands. Instead of all the movies being Bohemian Rhapsody redux - maybe only a couple will be bad. Lots to think about.

[camille-bee]

Ok, so i needed a few days to mull this over but if you are a fan of musicals. bipiocs and a bit of fantasy? Surrealism?

Better man is the movie to watch.

I love biopics. Selena and walk the line are the only biopics i truly love though.

Add Better Man to that list. My sister who mostly falls asleep during movies actually stayed awake.

I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about the music, the cinematography, the choreography, the directing, the costumes and sets!!! The actor behind the ape and the actual Robbie williams.

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS MOVIE TO HAVE SO MUCH PSYCHOLOGICAL LAYERS!!

There's this scene in the movie, he was kicked out/left the band and he puts up a front that he doesn't give a fuck but when he gets to the car he breaks down. He's dangerously driving on the road and he's singing 'if i ever hurt you, your revenge will be so sweet because I'm scum...I can't stop lying because I'll just disappoint you' etc.... so simple and yet, it hard so hard because you could feel the self hatred, self destruction and his cry for help all at once. The cinematography in that scene was insane, I didn't blink throughout that scene.

Robbie williams really tore himself open in this movie. This wasn't a biopic about making himself look good, he was just telling his story.

Even though he was a cgi ape, he was so human.

So if you have the chance to watch it...do it.

10/10

[greatsaladavenue]

Two things about the upcoming Beatle Biopics I'd like to know, more than who'll be cast or anything else is it's said director Sam Mendes annouced that Sony Pictures had approved plans for biopics of each individual member of the band. through the eyes of each of its members; Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison but two are dead and wont have say in anything so it's not gonna be fair. They should have only made a biopic of Paul and Ringo and the other would be called based on.

My other thing is, we will propably, given how greedy Apple is, have to buy tickets for four movies. But are they gonna be released at the same time or one at the time? Or are we gonna be forced to buy four tickets to see them all.

[fearlessechoes]

I saw a post recently about badly described movies, and got a great idea! What if someone does this for classic rock movies?

So, everyone, try to describe your favorite classic rock movie badly!

This includes documentaries, any (inaccurate) biopics, movies adapted from a band’s work (e.g. Tommy, Quadrophenia or The Wall), concert movies (e.g. Woodstock, Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii etc.), and also movies starring/created by classic rock artists (e.g. A Hard Day’s Night)

Example: 4 British men save the world by having a psychedelic journey and realize that love is all you need

Do your worst!

[keeptheemptinessaway]

Gia, Michael Cristofer (1998)

Cinematography: Rodrigo Garcia | USA

[burningvelvet]

have any of you seen byron 2003? i've always been too afraid to watch it and am looking for opinions/reviews...

[fansplaining]

Episode 210: The RPF Tipping Point

On Episode 210, “The RPF Tipping Point,” Elizabeth and Flourish welcome back Grace and the Fever author Zan Romanoff (@zanopticon) to talk about her new podcast, On the Bleachers, on Taylor Swift, football player Travis Kelce, and the pop-culture firestorm their relationship (???) has sparked. Topics discussed include the backlash against the ripped-from-the-headlines romance novel Roughing the Princess, the fuzziness between RPF, biopics, celebrity profiles, and social-media narratives, and how Zan—who’s written plain old RPF in addition to meta fiction about celebrities and fans—thinks about her own work in light of these thorny boundaries.

Click through to our site to listen or read a full transcript!

[maeofthenoldor]

Recently I watched a video by antiheroines on “Female Biopics: The Good And The Bad” and I hated it so much, so let’s talk about it.

In the video she talked about three biopics; Priscilla, Spencer and Blonde. When she said that she didn’t know anything about the women depicted in these films, and then didn’t bother to do any research, I knew this video was going to go downhill. I was quite a fan of antiheroines due to their usually in-depth videos, so it was quite jarring for her to dismiss Priscilla, a biopic based off a book that the real Priscilla herself wrote, as a watered down version of a fan fiction trope. The lack of research really shines through here.

But I gave it the benefit of the doubt, since this video seemed to veer into more of an opinion peice, and everyone is entitled to have their own. But when I got to her review of Blonde, I laughed in the ignorance of the review. For a channel that wrote a video on “female revenge” to have loved the mockery that was Blonde was shocking. For someone who talked of the exploitation of female suffering to turn around and like the biopic that made Marylin Manroes pain a spectacle above all else felt like some distasteful joke.

Even worse, antiheroines so unabashedly tried to justify her opinion that she accidentally gave herself somewhat of a superiority complex by saying “if your easily triggered by these kind of topics, you should look up these warning before hand, I personally don’t need warnings, when I can close my eyes and look away” as if the only reason people disliked the movie was because they were “triggered” by it. She also says “I was able to seperate the art from the artist” which was so ignorant because even if the movie was not about Marlyin Manroe it is so clearly trauma porn.

She says that “she likes things that traumatize you” well congratulations, you like trauma porn. This is when someone shares a story of trauma without considering its impact, which she clearly did when making the video. Trauma porn is designed not for the marginalized group, but for the non-marginalized group to watch and indulge in, and then be entertained by it. Antiheroines said that none of the scenes felt like they were sexualizing Marilyn Manroe (they were) but the closeups of the actors horrified face in the most intimate places were not? Those are meant to be arousing, to those who enjoy seeing the pain of women, and proves that you like watching the trauma of fictionalized versions of real women. She says that she wants a movie “where everything that could go wrong goes wrong” and I think that really sums up who she is as a person. Trauma porn is a way for non-marginalized people to feel better about themselves, and though I am speculating about her identity here, I think her liking this movie is really telling of that.

She says that she will read the book the blonde movie is based off of, and makes a weird comment that she trusts it as fact because it is written by a woman. The book is by Joyce Carol who even as a woman was profiting off a fictionalalized market for female suffering. Don’t read the book, it fabricated to maximize the pain of public figure who needs to be laid to rest.

Overall I decided to share this rant, even though it is niche and differs from my usuals posts because it serves as a reminder that women can uplift female trauma porn, to be cautionary of antiheroines videos and a lesson in ignorance. If you’re a video essayist, or an analysis or whatever, always ALWAYS do your research so you do not perpetuate harm.

[theomenmedia]

A New BTS Featurette For Netflix's Senna Is Out Now!

Dive into the life of a legend with Netflix's "Senna"! Catch the behind-the-scenes magic that's revving up for a November premiere.

Check out the featurette right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/revving-up-for-senna-netflix-s-inside-look-at-a-legend-s-life

[whatcannotbesaid-shallbewept]

The biopic epidemic is bad for a number of reasons (awful Pacing, misinfo, general boringness) but the worst thing about them, is how empty they feel.

I love Llewyn Davis and Tick Tick Boom. Before those movies I didn't care about the early 60s folk scene, or a failed musical from the 80s. But those movies made me care.

Those movies were full of passion. Made by people who were obsessed with the topics they were making a movie about. And it showed!

But all these new age biopics (Especially music biopics) are supposedly about artists who were extremely passionate about their craft - but you feel none of it. None of them made me care.

The Biopic Epidemic has turned into a machine - put in a person's life, a barely serviceable movie comes out.

They can't lean too hard into comedy, because then the Oscars won't pay attention. They can't be about anything "frivolous" from the subjects lives, because the Oscars only give awards to movies about Important Topics.

How do serious drama movies adapt to a market full of IP, superheroes and franchises? You make a serious drama movie about something recongnisable.. like a brand. Doesn't matter if that brand is Elvis or Pop Tarts - it just has to be something people recognise.

So these movies can't be "too serious" or go too deep into any one topic, because they have to be scientifically precise brand of milquetoast to appeal to Awards and the general public.

So all the movies end up feeling the same.

No central conflict, no emotional core, no defining info beyond what you'd find on a Wikipedia article.

The bohemian rhapsody and Whitney Houston biopic might as well be the same movie with different actors. They didn't make me care about either of them.

I don't understand why I'm supposed to be excited for a Bob Dylan or Beatles biopic that will feel exactly the same as every other biopic I've watched.

These are unique people, with endlessly fascinating lives and characters. But no matter what, the movie won't feel any different from the last music biopic.

[thesobsister]

ABBA, "Waterloo"

Their debut on the world stage at Eurovision '74 with an utter banger of a tune.

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"

My favorite of their uptempo numbers, and one of the ace tunes of the disco era.

The video, as with so many of the band's, was directed by Lasse Hallström, who would go on to big-screen fame as director of, inter alia, My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules, and Chocolat. He also wrote and directed a biopic of Hilma af Klimt, released in 2022, that I have to check out.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

True Stories Left Out Of Biopics To Make The Person Look Better

Gandhi - the film assumes that Mahatma Gandhi was morally pristine because he was starving all the time. Not the case. As it turns out, the brave, peaceful hero of Colonial India was actually kind of a pervert. As a 'test' of his piety and purity, he would sleep next to young girls - including his grand-niece - and force himself not to touch them or become aroused. This disrespect for women fell in line with his documented assertion that menstrual blood is a "manifestation of the distortion of a woman's soul by her sexuality." Oh and he also believed that Black people are sub-human.

The Miracle Worker -  A 1962 film about tutor Anne Sullivan teaching Helen Keller about friendship etc.  Helen Keller is considered to be one of the most heroic people of all time, and for good reason: though blind and deaf from a young age, she went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts and inspire people across the country through lectures and writings. Despite her own disadvantages, however, she still didn't believe that other disadvantaged people should be allowed to coexist with normal citizens. In the early 20th century, as the international public began to embrace eugenics - AKA the process of filtering out undesired traits from the gene pool through breeding and genetic experiments - Keller was one of the first to write: "It is the possibility of happiness, intelligence and power that give life its sanctity, and they are absent in the case of a poor, misshapen, paralyzed, unthinking creature.” She also added that allowing a "defective" child to die was simply a “weeding of the human garden that shows a sincere love of true life”...

A Beautiful Mind - A biopic on John Nash, this beautiful, heartfelt movie about overcoming mental illness and finding true love was also about a  man who hated Jewish people and inappropriate advances. Although John Nash and his wife deny any allegations that he slept with men, the records prove otherwise. Several of his male friends from young adulthood have gone public about Nash's awkward passes at them. There's also plenty of proof that Nash had ill feelings towards Jewish people, but he has since blamed those actions on being crazy.

The Iron Lady - The 2011 biopic about Margaret Thatcher aka the Iron Lady seemed to fall to include Thatcher's toxic attitudes towards non-whites and non-straights. According to close associates of the Iron Lady she stubbornly stigmatized LGBT people in legislation and encouraged Australia to block immigration from Asia. 

‘Straight Outta Compton' - Left Out Dr. Dre's History Of Assault

[afrotumble]

Denzel Washington and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

People who deserve Biopics about them, but we probably will never get...

Carl Linneaus- lived a life trying to institute a system of Latin but died a tragic death where he forgot all of his work. This begs, BTW, for a frame story with his daughter narrating the beginning and end of it. Disability, genius, and nerdiness.

Messy Bisexual 2nd Baron, John Hervey.

Apparently had sex with the Crown Prince? Frederick, Prince of Wales, but also fell out with him. Oh c'mon, give me some of that messy bisexual energy.

If Lord Byron can be shown in a risque relationship with his half-sister on BBC, then John Hervey can certainly be shown having sex with Frederick.

Might be cheeky, but call it The Baron of Macaroni?

Louis Braille... There's a literal book, but no Biopic? You've gotta be kidding me. You're not joking? Sure it's not uplifting, but c'mon, clearly there is something that can be pulled out for a happy ending.

Not even for the Genius series on HBO?

Benjamin Lay

I mean... if you can convert an entire religion to your side by simply chaining yourself outside of church every Sunday to become abolitionists and then also find yourself a wife who also has Dwarfism and get her to do the same and then go on to having talks... like awesome sauce. Peter Dinklage in the lead role? Just saying. This so deserves to have something.

William Cavendish (the Duke of Devonshire), his wife Georgiana, and Lady Elizabeth "Bess" Foster

Laughing my butt off. They'd never do this one, but I'd so watch it. So many pearl clutchers would come out and someone would yell from the back something like historically inaccurate. Haha. And then it's 100% true. I dare you to do it during Trump's presidency. Christians will scream no, while it's quietly popular among them. Like how the sudden spike in DLs during the conventions shot up.

I have my picks for Korean historical characters... but I'm not saying since I hope to write about them, but let's start here.

[cruesuffix]

Everyone knows biopics are fabricated to a degree. That’s how the industry works but I don’t think there’s anything that terrible in the movie that portrayed these women in a bad light because the book takes that spot

And you have to remember the film was made for the fans and the movie trying to get made since like 2000s

yes obviously we all know biopics are fabricated, it would be real boring if it stayed true to real life story. i’m not saying this movie painted any of the wives/girlfriends in a bad light, just that it’s highly inaccurate. like, personally i would have loved more input from the people who were around the band throughout their careers, but i understand why that wasn’t so. i just personally would have liked that. and, the movie to me was more for the new fans (i technically was still newish, i bought the book before the movie ever came out, and while i had read it and all that, i wasn’t much of a fan until much later). i’ve seen a lot of older fans talk about how much they disliked the film, so i can say that this wasn’t a movie targeted towards older fans, or fans that already knew a lot about the band beforehand. that’s why i would tell newer fans to just read the book and skip the movie altogether if they wanted a more accurate detailing of the band and their lives. i still love the movie, but it’s simply because of that fictionalized aspect of it, not because it’s accurate and a complete retelling of their lives.

(plus, i am glad it took that long actually…could you imagine ‘The Dirt’ 2000’s version? It would be god awful!!)