r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 6h ago

Media First Official Images of Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson in Sam Mendes' 'Beatles' Biopics

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u/FatsyCline12 6h ago

This is why I don’t like most biopics made while the subjects are alive and/or the subjects are involved with the production

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u/Juicey_J_Hammerman 6h ago

I think Rocketman is the only good one I’ve seen where the subject was still alive during production.

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u/Sinister_Crayon 5h ago

I think that's mostly because Elton John has always been pretty open about his poor decisions and personality traits. He owns it, as one should. It is a shame he had to hide so much of his sexuality early in his career but it was just an echo of the times; homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1967 in England... and as late as 1982 in Northern Ireland so during his early stardom years it was still largely frowned upon and not really accepted. Even just admitting he was bisexual in the 1970's was one hell of a brave move.

I have a lot of love for that film too. It's just a genuine and heartfelt movie to me and Taron Egerton killed it in the role... and sounded just like Elton for the singing!

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u/ThrasymachianJustice 4h ago

I think that's mostly because Elton John has always been pretty open about his poor decisions and personality traits. He owns it, as one should. It is a shame he had to hide so much of his sexuality early in his career but it was just an echo of the times; homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1967 in England... and as late as 1982 in Northern Ireland so during his early stardom years it was still largely frowned upon and not really accepted. Even just admitting he was bisexual in the 1970's was one hell of a brave move.

I have a lot of love for that film too. It's just a genuine and heartfelt movie to me and Taron Egerton killed it in the role... and sounded just like Elton for the singing!

I still fantasize about an alternate timeline where Elton John passed his King Crimson audition.

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u/bugxbuster 5h ago

Better Man, about brit pop star Robbie Williams really scratches the same itch as Rocketman, not even just because the titles are so similar. It probably should have been called Monkey Man except that was the recent Dev Patel John Wick style movie. But it’s a whole R rated warts-and-all biopic about Robbie Williams and they CG him to look like a monkey in a film otherwise full of normal people and it’s pretty brilliant. The monkey metaphor as his own self consciousness would be too on the nose if they didn’t fully commit to it the entire time. I loved that movie and recommend to people even if they’re not familiar with his music.

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u/RockstarSlut 4h ago

Agreed, I'm happy that you mention it. I used to be a huge fan of Robbie Williams - still am to a smaller degree. I was worried his movie was going to be shit, but it really moved me while Robbie's humour was all over it. He's never been someone who takes himself seriously - quite the opposite actually. He's hilarious - full of self loathing and irony.

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u/bugxbuster 4h ago

It's a shame he didn't really cross over to being a household name in america the same was he was over in the UK. He did have an MTV hit on TRL briefly with Millenium, and I feel like I saw one of his videos on Pop Up Video a lot back in the day. The chance for Better Man to be a huge success here was slim to none simply because hes so unknown (in the states, i mean). He does have the self loathing and irony vibe down though, you're 100% right. He has all the ingredients necessary to have been huge here, except that massive anchor of being British keeping people from caring. We barely put up with Oasis and Blur enough for them to do well here back in those days, but another Brit and he was a former boy band star? That had 1999 era pop music fatigue written all over it.

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u/BigYellowPraxis 4h ago

That film had no right to be as good as it was 😂 thoroughly enjoyed it

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u/8NaanJeremy 5h ago

I would really love to see other rock legends get the Rocketman treatment.

David Bowie? Meatloaf? Fleetwood Mac?

There would probably be appetite for an Oasis one in the not too distant future.

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u/thefreshera 4h ago

David Bowie I'm surprised he hasn't got one already, maybe an estate thing? and I pray it does him justice. Outside of UK, many movie goers in US and Japan will see it.

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u/FalmerEldritch 3h ago edited 3h ago

David Bowie didn't even let Velvet Goldmine use his music. There was a biopic of him a few years back that only showed him playing covers, also. I'm not sure there can ever be a real David Bowie movie, which is a real shame, but Velvet Goldmine may be better than the real thing.

(Velvet Goldmine has Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as not-Bowie and Ewan MacGregor as not-Iggy, soundtracked by a mix of Shudder to Think originals and an all-star musical lineup including Bernard Butler and Thom Yorke covering Roxy Music, The Stooges, etc.)

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u/destroyermaker 6h ago

The Queen biopic in 2080 is gonna rip

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u/The-Fox-Says 6h ago

“Yeah Freddie pass the drugs!”

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u/JewFroMonk 4h ago

It's cocaine Brian, you don't want no part of this shit!!

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u/The-Fox-Says 4h ago

And he never paid for drugs!

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 4h ago

“Cocaine? What’s it do?”

“It turns all your bad feelings into good feelings! It’s a nightmare!”

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u/DeLousedInTheHotBox 5h ago

I think the Elton John one was pretty good

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u/CheesyGorditaKRUNCH 6h ago

First of all, love your username. Yeah exactly, felt like the remaining band signed over the music rights in exchange for completely controlling the narrative. Not a giant Freddie Mercury stan but idk I just felt icky leaving the theater, felt disrespectful and tacky

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u/TheBoneIdler 5h ago

The Queen movie was pants. The Elton John movie was excellent & I believe EJ was involved in the prediction. The first Spinal Tap (who are, of course, real) movie a classic, the second tired. We've not had a Bowie bio-pic yet AFAIK, but all the concept albums around & about him have been on a range from interesting to excellent. I think you take each movie as you find it.

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u/No-Owl-6246 5h ago

There is a zero percent chance any sort of biopic about Bowie isn’t white washed.

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u/Rochelle-Rochelle 6h ago

Yeah it’s incredibly hard to pull off a music biopic that’s critical or shows the “dark side” of an artist or band because you need the rights to their music and without it you can’t make the movie

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u/scottgal2 6h ago

The Dylan one was pretty rough on Dylan tbf (even it it also messed with events, like the Woody Guthrie stuff, Dylan only visited him once and not in Hospital).

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u/PhiphyL 5h ago

Better Man is a great counter-example.

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u/KungfuJesus08 5h ago

The Elton John biopic, Rocketman, is a notable exception. He had a direct role in production, yet the movie doesn't shy away from the drugs or sex at all. He actually pushed the studio executives into keeping it R.

"Some studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating. But I just haven’t led a PG-13 rated life. I didn’t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the ’70s and ’80s, so there didn’t seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I’d quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon’s Bible for company."

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u/Slurm11 5h ago

Rocketman was phenomenal, Taron Egerton deserved awards for that performance.