Music backdrop

Music movies

Stories where rhythm and melody take center stage, including biographies of legends and dance-filled spectacles.

Subgenres include: Narrative Musical, Jukebox Musical, Concert Film.

281. 24 Hour Party People

24 Hour Party People
Comedy Drama Music Satire Entertainment Industry Drama
7.3
20021h 57minUnited Kingdom, United States
Director: Michael Winterbottom

Overview

Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.

Themes

Artists control, Ownership tensions, Subculture emergence, Finances strain, Media exposure, Industry risk

Available on

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Video
Apple TV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

282. Rock Star

Rock Star
Music Drama Comedy Narrative Musical Entertainment Industry Drama
6.3
20011h 45minUnited States
Director: Stephen Herek

Overview

A wannabe rock star who fronts a Pennsylvania-based tribute band is devastated when his bandmates kick him out of the group he founded. Things begin to look up for Izzy when he is asked to join Steel Dragon, the heavy metal rockers he had been imitating for so long. This film is loosely based on the true story of the band Judas Priest.

Themes

Creative independence, Relationship problems, Ambition of rock star, Fame and heavy metal, Bandmates loyalty, Mentorship versus exploitation

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

283. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Comedy Music Drama Narrative Musical Dark Comedy
7.7
20011h 35minUnited States
Director: John Cameron Mitchell

Overview

Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'.

Themes

Gender identity negotiation, Exploitation within performance economy, Outsider status and belonging, Fame and personal cost, Ownership of creative work, Artistic integrity under pressure

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

284. Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge!
Drama Romance Music Passionate Romance Narrative Musical
7.6
20012h 8minAustralia, United States
Director: Baz Luhrmann

Overview

A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.

Themes

Duke leverage, Courtesan agency, Nightclub constraint, Tuberculosis stigma, Bohemian aspiration, Dance hall spectacle

Available on

Netflix
Amazon Video
Apple TV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

285. Save the Last Dance

Save the Last Dance
Drama Family Romance Music Family Drama
6.2
20011h 53minUnited States
Director: Thomas Carter

Overview

After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.

Themes

Friendship under strain, Romance amid conflict, Mentorship and responsibility, Family loss and resilience, Neighborhood belonging and tension, Artistic ambition under constraint

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
MGM+ Amazon Channel
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

286. Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot
Drama Comedy Music Coming-of-Age Drama Dance-Centered Music Film
7.7
20001h 51minFrance, United Kingdom
Director: Stephen Daldry

Overview

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Themes

Class inequality, Pursuit of dreams, Mentorship and sacrifice, Working class solidarity, Identity and stigma, Generational loyalty

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

287. Almost Famous

Almost Famous
Drama Music Coming-of-Age Drama Backstage & Showbiz Music
7.9
20002h 4minUnited States
Director: Cameron Crowe

Overview

In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.

Themes

Loyalty and betrayal, Coming of age on tour, Groupie culture and desire, Fame and exploitation, Creative ambition under pressure, Mentorship and gatekeeping

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

288. Duets

Duets
Comedy Drama Music Buddy Comedy Entertainment Industry Drama
6.1
20001h 52minUnited States
Director: Bruce Paltrow

Overview

Duets is a road-trip comedy which revolves around the little known world of karaoke and the whimsical characters who inhabit it. All roads lead to Omaha, site of a national karaoke competition where this motley group of singers and stars come together for a blow-out sing-off.

Themes

Economic precarity on tour, Belonging via performance, Competition as social glue, Drug-based anxiety coping, Family seeking reconciliation, Risk and violence on tour

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

289. Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman
Family Fantasy Comedy Animation Music
6.6
20001h 17minUnited States
Director: Kathi Castillo

Overview

As Alvin struggles with nightmares involving werewolves, the school play of Jekyll & Hyde is in jeopardy when the lead, Alvin, is suspended. In an attempt to boost his confidence, the principal suggests Theodore, who's suddenly going through some canine changes.


290. The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried
Romance Drama Music War Romantic Epic
6.1
20001h 36minFrance, United Kingdom
Director: Sally Potter

Overview

A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.

Themes

Displacement and longing, Persecution and danger, Forbidden romance across borders, Renaming and assimilation pressure, Survival through performance, Art as refuge

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.