The 10 Greatest Rock Biopics

The rock biopic never goes away. Its popularity waxes and wanes, and not everyone will agree on what the great ones are. Just look at the love-it-or-thumb-your-nose-at-it phenomenon that was “Bohemian Rhapsody” — or at Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which seems, thus far, to be a movie that audiences have embraced more than critics have. What we can all agree on, perhaps, is how much we cherish this form. When it’s great, the rock biopic delivers a kick of excitement that’s singular in its grandeur. These movies are all about art, they’re about fame, they’re about sex and drugs, they’re about conducting the electricity of rock, soul, funk, punk and hip-hop, they’re about an actor not just playing but becoming a pop star, and in that sense they’re about music as save-your-soul, walk-on-the-wild-side, stairway-to-heaven religion. Here are the 10 rock biopics we think are most worthy of worship.