The top ten rock biopics
From the London Times Online-
By Kevin Maher-
The soul of the pre-punk rocker Ian Dury comes spitting, stamping and barking back to life in the astonishingly vivid Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.
The former Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis (Gollum), complete with calipers, deadpan vocal intonation and fulminating rage, inhabits Dury to startling effect in this preeminent rock biopic.
Obeying the unwritten tenets of a genre that is beloved of music fans and Oscar voters alike, it depicts Dury’s harrowing childhood (he contracted polio at 7), his triumph over adversity, his brief salvation in the musical spotlight and his subsequent battle with the boozy demons.
The fact that all rock biopics — from Coal Miner’s Daughter to Control — share this same chromosomal structure is unsurprising.
Part of the form’s appeal is its familiarity, and indeed its belief in the transformative power of music.
Plus it is an endlessly replenishing genre, with biopics about Jimi Hendrix, Iggy Pop and Keith Moon (the latter a long-mooted project with the comedian Mike Myers) all rumoured.
Most importantly, the rock biopic, more than any other movie genre, is a showcase for a thundering central performance.
The character arcs are huge, while the opportunity to portray a selfish and cruelly degraded character and yet still emerge for a celebratory chorus in the final reel is impossible for any actor to resist. Here are ten of the best . . .
1 Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison: The Doors (1991) The ultimate performance. Kilmer spent a year, pre-shoot, in character, wearing Morrison’s clothes and perfecting his dulcet tones. Of this eerily all-consuming turn, the critic Roger Ebert famously gushed: “Not just a case of casting, but of possession.”
2 Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis: Great Balls of Fire! (1989) A stunning act of rebranding from Quaid. With floppy fringe and knockout smile, Quaid recasts “The Killer” as a dreamboat. The alcoholism and relationship with his 13-year-old cousin are balanced by a giddy, piano-walloping turn.
3 Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious: Sid and Nancy (1986) Oldman was treated in hospital after losing too much weight in preparation for Sid’s slide into heroin addiction. His performance, nonetheless, is an aggressive combination of punk postering and drug-addled despair.
4 Angela Bassett as Tina Turner: What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) Though she doesn’t sing any of Turner’s tracks, Bassett’s wild-eyed presence is pure Tina. Her dignity, unbowed in the face of Laurence Fishburne’s fiercely abusive Ike, provides the film with its heart.
5 Gary Busey as Buddy Holly: The Buddy Holly Story (1978) A rare case of the movie glamming down its subject. Busey brings his, ahem, distinctive looks and tough gravel voice to the portrayal of Holly. His conviction is galvanising, and the sense that Holly’s music can change lives is palpable.
6 Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash: Walk the Line (2005) The sensitive Phoenix was an unlikely choice to play the tough country bruiser. Yet his rendition of Cash’s songs and his depiction of the singer’s tumble into substance abuse was utterly convincing. The actor checked himself into rehab once filming was completed, and retired soon after.
7 Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) Thanks to coaching from fragile Lynn herself, Spacek unleashes a pitch-perfect version of the honky tonk crooner facing the dark side of fame — pills, breakdowns and clashes with stage husband Tommy Lee Jones.
8 Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles: Ray (2004) Foxx wore prosthetic lenses during the shoot that rendered him blind for up to 14 hours a day. He learned Braille, studied Charles in person and played all the piano scenes in the movie himself. Naturally, he won an Oscar.
9 Sam Riley as Ian Curtis: Control (2007) The initial rise and downward spiral of Curtis, from music-loving civil servant to suicidal rock star, is charted with sombre intensity by Riley. Curtis’s eccentric stage rhythms and epileptic fits are the tragic flipsides of a mesmerising physical turn.
10 Ian Hart as John Lennon: Backbeat (1994) Hart’s second turn as Lennon (after the 1991 drama The Hours and Times) catches the icon in his Hamburg days, evolving from duck-tail to mop-top. The suggestion that he harboured homoerotic desires for the fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe, was scandalous to some.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is on general release from Friday
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