The Best Movies About Fictional Pop Musicians | Wealth of Geeks

Movies and pop music belong together. Both media understand the power of spectacle, the ability to turn intimate moments into mass media.

By that same token, both media struggle with the outsized demands of their respective forms, which sometimes lose small and human moments amidst all of the excesses.

As a result, movies about fictional pop musicians — those who perform rock, rap, R&B, and other popular forms of music — make for some of the most interesting and enjoyable stories ever to hit the screen. 

1. That Thing You Do! (1996)

Everyone knows the story of the Beatles, a quartet of mop-tops who took America by storm. But for every set of Liverpool lads who change pop music history, there are scores and scores of artists who peak with a single hit track. Tom Hanks chronicles one such career with his directorial debut That Thing You Do!, the story of fictional pop musicians called the Wonders, who score a hit with the titular song.

While the main cast makes the rise and fall of the Wonders entertaining, Tom Everett Scott as drummer Guy and Steve Zahn as guitarist Lenny in particular, that standout scene occurs at the end of the first act, when excitement overtakes the band the first time they hear their song on the radio. 

2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

The tension between persona and “true” identity drives many movies about fictional pop musicians. Writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, adapting his stage with Stephen Trask, uses that tension to explore gender identity with Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Mitchell stars as Hedwig, a German trans woman whose botched gender affirmation surgery leaves her exploring possibilities beyond simple binaries. Mitchell’s fiery and vulnerable performance matches the movie’s irreverent punk music by Trask, making for a movie as moving, immediate, and challenging film as the best pop song. 

3. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Like That Thing You Do!, Inside Llewyn Davis follows a fictional pop musician in the shadow of a legend. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis stars Oscar Isaac as the titular troubadour, a man whose self-destructive narcissism undercuts his obvious talent.

The Coen Brothers lend their signature wit to the story — see the cheesy song “Please Mr. Kennedy,” which Isaac sings with Adam Driver and Justin Timberlake. But the power comes in Isaac’s subtle and rich performance of an artist who never reaches his full potential. 

4. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

For all the energy and poetry involved in pop music, the genre can also be ridiculous. No movie captures that ridiculousness of fictional pop musicians better than the legendary mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner.

The movie follows the three surviving members of the heavy metal band Spinal Tap — played by sketch comedy heroes and co-writers with Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Sheerer — as they tour on the release of their next album. Although the fictional pop musicians never recognize the absurdity of their art (“This one goes up to 11”), This is Spinal Tap takes a knowing look at the self-importance of the genre. 

5. Beyond the Lights (2014)

In addition to explorations of gender identity, the tension between the celebrity persona and the private self makes for a thrilling romance, as demonstrated in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Noni Jean, an English pop star surrounded by paparazzi and her domineering mother (Minnie Driver). When unassuming police officer Kaz (Nate Parker) talks Noni down from a ledge, the two forge a bond under constant threat from their respective parents and career plans. Prince-Bythewood builds verisimilitude with strong songs written by pros such as Diane Warren, and uses it to tell a sweet story about the power of music to bring people together in the face of colossal expectations. 

6. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Many rock satires have tried to match This is Spinal Tap, but Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping comes close. Like its predecessor, Popstar pokes fun at the excesses of the pop lifestyle, all embodied in air-headed Conner4Real (Andy Samberg), who faces mortality for the first time after his second solo album flops.

However, Popstar moves beyond mere parody, thanks to the emotional truth in the script by Samberg and his childhood friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, the latter of whom directed. The trio draws from their own complicated feelings about Samberg’s rise to stardom, allowing Popstar to feel as sweet and vulnerable as it is ridiculous.

7. Once (2007)

For as much as movies about fictional pop musicians like to focus on the sole musician making a name for themselves, music never occurs in isolation. At the very least, it involves an audience, if not other contributors.

The Irish romance movie Once turns that collaborative aspect into a love story between a busker dubbed Guy (Glen Hansard) and a Czech immigrant called Girl (Markéta Irglová). The two have obvious chemistry, which comes out not in physical affection between them, but in the music they make together. That on-screen ease stems in part from the fact that Hansard and Irglová perform together as The Swell Season and also from the gentle direction from John Carney, Hansen’s former bandmate in The Frames. 

8. Green Room (2016)

Every touring musician has their horror stories about life on the road, but none can match the nightmare shown in Green Room, written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier.

When punk band The Ain’t Rights takes a desperate last-minute gig, they’re shocked to discover a club filled with racist terrorists. Things get worse after they witness a murder, and have to stay alive against hate-filled aggressors. Saulnier balances his own experiences in the punk scene with a tense, relentless story, anchored by strong performances by Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, and Patrick Stewart, as the hate group leader, Darcy. 

9. Pitch Perfect (2012)

With its infectious energy and soundtrack of remixed top 40 hits, it’s easy to dismiss Pitch Perfect as a light bit of feel-good bubblegum. But like the pop songs that Beca (Anna Kendrick) and the other members of the Barden Bellas perform, Pitch Perfect has much more going on.

Director Jason Moore and screenwriter Kay Cannon, adapting the book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin, embrace the cheesiness of the competitive acapella scene with unashamed glee. At once sweet and silly, Pitch Perfect defies any viewer to refrain from tapping their feet during any of the numbers, no matter how ridiculous the performances might seem. 

10. Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Beyond its catchy hooks and intoxicating beats, pop music matters because it creates connection and helps people imagine a world outside their own, even if they never meet the people making the music.

That connection drives Todd Haynes’s tour-de-force Velvet Goldmine, about journalist Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) investigating the reclusive gender-bending musician Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As Stuart retells Slade’s story, he recalls his own process of coming out in a blue-color 1970s town. Beyond the allusions to real musicians such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed, Velvet Goldmine illustrates the power of pop music to alleviate loneliness and provide strength where it’s otherwise unavailable.  

11. Purple Rain (1984)

Many of the movies about fictional pop musicians draw from real-world performers and events, but few have the mythological power of Purple Rain, directed by Albert Magnoli and co-written by Magnoli and William Blinn. In his film debut, Prince plays the Kid, a fictionalized and larger-than-life version of himself.

The Kid seeks to leave his humdrum Minneapolis existence via his band the Revolution and an alluring woman called Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero). Magnoli and Blinn’s adherence to standard biopic tropes sometimes frustrates viewers, but Prince remains in control of his mesmerizing screen presence, especially when his amazing songs kick in. 

12. Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

Audiences at the time dismissed Josie and the Pussycats as a fluffy, forgettable comedy when it hit cinemas in 2001. Over time, however, viewers understood the smart, satirical mind under its bubble-gum interior.

When writers and directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan brought the Archie Comics characters to live-action, they gave readers more than a trio of pretty fictional pop musicians in cat outfits. Instead, they wrote a clever and hilarious send-up of the music industry, in which the Pussycats become unwitting pawns in a corporate plot to control young minds via commercial pop music. To its credit, the biting humor of Josie and the Pussycats does not come at the cost of the central friendship, thanks to likable leads Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson. 

13. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Why do studios still make biopics after Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story? Director Jake Kasdan dismantled the tropes that drive the genre, taking primary aim at Walk the Line and Ray, savaging everything from 40-somethings playing teenagers to unconvincing anti-drug messages.

Kasdan and his co-writer Judd Apatow work in references to everything from Brian Wilson to the Doors, giving plenty of room for star John C. Reilly to flex his impressive comic chops. Despite its non-stop jokes and excellent stars, Walk Hard flopped in theaters and remains a cult hit. Maybe that’s why people still make music biopics. 

14. Sing Street (2016)

Although John Carney’s Once contained sweet moments, it also stayed in the perspective of fictional pop musicians in their mid-thirties, after life had started to pass them by.

With Sing Street, Carney looks at pop music through an Irish boy trying to make sense of his feelings. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo stars as Conor, a kid who falls in love with music he discovers via his older brother (Jack Reynor). As Conor and his band write songs (derivative of Hall & Oates, the Cure, and other acts his brother plays for him), he pursues older girl Raphina (Lucy Boyton), an aspiring model with her own big dreams of leaving their working-class town. Sing Street has all the energy and optimism of a kid learning the power of music, but Carney cannot help but infuse some hints of disappointment to come. 

15. Hustle & Flow (2005)

Hustle & Flow protagonist DJay (Terrance Howard) comes from a very different perspective than most of the fictional pop musicians on this list, and not just because he spends his days committing a variety of crimes. DJay begins his musical journey in middle age when he reunites with old friend Key (Anthony Anderson) and starts rapping.

Writer and director Craig Brewer keeps DJay’s age and history at the center of the movie, letting Howard (in an Academy Award-nominated role) play up the weight and depth of his character. Hustle & Flow also benefits from a strong soundtrack, including the Oscar-winning track “Its Hard Out Here For a P-mp” by Three 6 Mafia. 

16. A Mighty Wind (2003)

In A Mighty Wind, Spinal Tap reunites — sort of. Michael McKean and Harry Shearer join Christopher Guest, who also directs and co-writes A Mighty Wind, as members of folk group the Folksmen, a far cry from their rocking old days.

A Mighty Wind takes aim at the 60s folk scene by documenting a concert featuring several big acts, including the Folksmen and the over-stuffed act the New Main Street Singers. Guest and co-writer Eugene Levy, joined by an army of gifted sketch comedians, have tons of fun at the expense of the fictional pop musicians’ outsized egos. But the real power of the movie comes from the sweet story of Mitch and Mickey, erstwhile lovers played by Levy and Catherine O’Hara.  

17. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains understands the appeal of punk music to disaffected kids in lousy situations. So when teenager Corrine Burns (Diane Lane) gets the chance to open for a lame hard rock act on tour, she grabs her band the Stains, which consists of her sister Tracy (Marin Kanter) and cousin Jessica (Laura Dern), and hits the road.

Writer Nancy Dowd (working under the pseudonym Rob Morton) draws from her own knowledge of the punk scene, which allows director Lou Adler access to performers such as Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the S-x Pistols and Paul Simonon of the Clash. That level of realism elevates Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stage beyond escapist fantasy about fictional pop musicians into a gritty coming-of-age tale. 

18. Ricki and the Flash (2015)

For his final narrative feature, director Jonathan Demme joined Juno writer Diablo Cody for Ricki and the Flash, the story of an aging rockstar (Meryl Streep) who tries to reconnect with the family she left behind.

Demme and Cody do not avoid the bitterness that Ricki’s ex-husband (Kevin Kline) and children (Mamie Gummer and Sebastian Stan) still carry towards her. However, their unfailing optimism and forgiveness drive the movie, building to a blistering cover of “My Love Will Not Let You Down” by Bruce Springsteen, the perfect climax to any rock movie. 

19. The Blues Brothers (1980)

The greatest joke in the Saturday Night Live spin-off film The Blues Brothers is neither the extended car pile-up sequence nor any scene with a vengeful Carrie Fischer. Rather, it’s the idea that fictional pop musicians Jake and Elwood Blues (played by John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, respectively) deserve the most attention in a movie that features Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Lee Ho-ker, Aretha Franklin, and other legends.

To his credit, Ackroyd, who co-wrote the film with director John Landis, understands the absurdity of the premise and uses the Blues Brothers as connective tissue between amazing performances. The end result plays something like a concert film interrupted by slap-stick sequences, a combination that earns The Blues Brothers its vaunted status. 

20. We Are the Best! (2013)

The primary appeal of punk music lies not in its energy or aggression, but in its accessibility. Anyone can join a punk band, regardless of their ability to play music.

For two of the three girls in the Swedish movie We Are the Best!, directed by Lukas Moodyson and based on the graphic novel Never Goodnight by his wife Coco Moodyson, punk allows them to resist their sport-obsessed high school and find their own way. 13-year-olds Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) like the idea of punk more than the execution, at least until they convince religious multi-instrumentalist Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) to join them. The trio just makes one song, the cantankerous “Hate the Sport,” but it serves their purpose of expressing themselves in the loudest possible manner. 

21. The Commitments (1991)

The third Irish movie on this list comes from director Alan Parker, who had already made the off-beat musical Bugsey Malone and the surrealistic Pink Floyd adaptation The Wall. Adapting the novel by Roddy Doyle, who co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Clement and Ian La Frenais, The Commitments follows a group of working-class lads who seek stardom by forming the titular soul group.

Whatever similarities The Commitments might have to other “big dreamer in a small town” movies on this list, Parker and his collaborators set the film apart with its choice of musical genre. A strong ensemble cast (which includes Once’s Glen Hansard as a member of the group) keeps things hopeful and fresh, despite the dour circumstances. 

22. Airheads (1994)

For every story about a group that makes it big, there are hundreds of tales about bands that couldn’t break into the industry. That fundamental fact lends Airheads a degree of pathos, despite its outrageous plot.

Written by Rich Wilkes and directed by Michael Lehmann, Airheads stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler as members of the Lone Rangers, a hard rock band on the brink of giving up. In a desperate final act, the fictional pop musicians break into a radio station and force the DJ to play their album. The move makes them into instant heroes, but not for their music, a melancholy note underpinning an otherwise broad comedy full of pratfalls. 

23. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

On the one hand, “rock star” isn’t even the most impressive job assigned to Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller), who also counts science, neurosurgery, and test piloting among his many skills. The comedy The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, written by Earl Mac Rauch and directed by W. D. Richter, adds the accolades as part of its riff on pulp heroes such as Doc Samson, perfect characters who can do almost anything.

On the other hand, Richter does shoot the concert scenes with an energy that allows the film to drop its winking humor for a moment, making the fictional pop musicians as cool as the movie tells us they are. 

24. Wild in the Streets (1968)

Watching Wild in the Streets almost five decades later, it’s hard to believe anyone took the movie about fictional pop musicians seriously. Screenwriter Robert Thom, adapting his own short story “The Day It All Happened, Baby!,” has an interesting satirical idea with rock star Max Frost (Christopher Jones) becoming President on an anti-adult platform, but director Barry Shear has no faith in the material.

Shear interrupts the movie with freeze frames, voice-over, and one of Shelley Winters’s most manic characters, combined with some of the worst music played by any band, real or imagined. Despite these shortcomings, Wild in the Streets has a clever critique of the relationship between politics and pop stardom, a self-consuming connection that never serves the public good.