A few years ago, Trystan wrote her top 5 biopics list, and she recently suggested I do the same since I loooooove them! The problem with that is the biopics I love either 1) help me understand someone I only vaguely knew anything about and actually fill in the much larger bigger story, or 2) are super cheeseball 1980s-TV-movie-type productions. And despite my love of biopics, I hate films/series that 3) try to cram too much timespan into too short of a run time. So with all those caveats, here are my semi-randomly list of five biopics that do either 1 and/or 2 and DON’T do 3! (Also, I’m Dealing With A Lot Right Now, so this really IS a haphazard list. Don’t judge me!)
Get On Up (2014)
Growing up white and middle class in suburbia, I saw James Brown as just this old guy who got really sweaty when he performed and I Did Not Get Him. So I really enjoyed this biopic starring the legendary Chadwick Boseman as Brown. Although the film was more episodic than linear, I got a sense of his VERY poor beginnings and how his artistry developed. Plus, some great comedic lines!
Little Gloria (Vanderbilt) … Happy at Last (1982)
Okay, so REALLY I want to include Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) as my top Cheeseball Made-for-TV-Movie biopic. But I’ve written about it too many times! So instead, Gloria Vanderbilt. As a child, I thought she was just a jeans brand. I probably didn’t even consider that there was a REAL Gloria, and I certainly didn’t connect her to The Vanderbilts. So learning about the custody dispute that marked her childhood, plus seeing shockingly good 1920s costumes (granted, that were harder to see on bad video) made for a Good Time for Kendra.
Mrs. Wilson (2018)
Alright, this is on the list for a SUCK YOU IN IT’S SO JAW-DROPPINGLY INTERESTING plot. Actress Ruth Wilson plays her own real-life grandmother, who finds out she isn’t the only Mrs. Wilson after her husband dies. I thought the costumes were unshinyably good, while Sarah applauds how they achieve “that balance between ‘normal people wearing normal clothes’ and ‘make it interesting.'” But seriously. This is based on a true story. OF THE LEAD ACTRESS’S GRANDMOTHER. Watch it!
Emily (2022)
Trystan may scream that I’m putting this Emily Brontë film on the list, given that she is a HUGE Brontë fan and thought the film was more fantasy than biopic. But as someone who LOVED Jane Eyre as a teen and could never get through Wuthering Heights, and knew little to nothing about the Brontës, I at least enjoyed sticking my toe into the waters of their lives?
Chief of War (2025)
Anyone who read my glowing review knows how much this miniseries about real-life Hawaiian warrior chief Ka’iana knocked my socks off, both from a plot/historical accuracy angle AND from a “holy shit they did some RESEARCH people!” angle. It’s the kind of real historical story that truly fascinates me — what indigenous pre-Contact (or only-recently-contacted) cultures were ACTUALLY like, not the post-Contact “they were all living in the dirt” BS we’ve been fed; PLUS what it was like for those cultures to come into contact with Europeans, and how much communication/miscommunication took place. And people, we really need to see more quality non-Western costumes on screen! So please, if you haven’t, give Chief of War a watch. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
What’s your top biopics, and what’s your criteria for them?
