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.

Marguerite

1. Marguerite

Comedy Drama Music Entertainment Industry Drama Narrative Musical
6.9
20152h 7min

Overview

Paris in the 1920s. Marguerite Dumont is a wealthy woman with a passion for music and the opera. For years, she has performed regularly for a circle of guests. But Marguerite sings tragically out of tune and no one has ever told her. Her husband and her close friends have always encouraged her in her illusions. Things become very complicated the day she gets it into her head to perform in front of a genuine public, at the Opera.

Themes

Artistic pretension and hypocrisy, Bourgeois expectations and performance, Deception and social image, Gendered artistry and expectations, Surrealism in performance, Teacher-student dynamic in singing

Available on

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

Born to Be Blue

2. Born to Be Blue

Drama Music Entertainment Industry Drama Music Biopic
6.8
20151h 37min

Overview

Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.

Themes

Public image vs reality, Romance as disruption, Addiction and comeback, Institutional pressure and control, Self-discipline and practice, Technique erosion

Available on

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

We Are Your Friends

3. We Are Your Friends

Drama Music Romance Comedy Entertainment Industry Drama
6.2
20151h 36min

Overview

Young Cole Carter dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed, a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend, jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.

Themes

Loyalty and betrayal, Ambition under mentorship, Risk of party culture, Work-life balance in art, Friendship fractures under pressure, Fame pursuit vs romance

Available on

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

Straight Outta Compton

4. Straight Outta Compton

Drama Music History Historical Drama Music Biopic
7.8
20152h 27min

Overview

In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.

Themes

Freedom of speech, Police harassment, Racial tensions, Power struggles in music industry, Artistic expression under threat, Fame and group dynamics

Available on

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

Descendants

5. Descendants

Family Adventure Fantasy TV Movie Music
6.3
20151h 52min

Overview

A present-day idyllic kingdom where the benevolent teenage son of King Adam and Queen Belle offers a chance of redemption for the troublemaking offspring of Disney's classic villains: Cruella De Vil (Carlos), Maleficent (Mal), the Evil Queen (Evie) and Jafar (Jay).

Themes

Deception and manipulation, Belonging and identity, Coming of age, Appearance versus self-worth, Peer pressure and popularity, Family legacy vs independence

Available on

Disney Plus
Amazon Video
fuboTV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Ricki and the Flash

6. Ricki and the Flash

Comedy Drama Music Family Drama Narrative Musical
6.0
20151h 40min

Overview

Meryl Streep stars as Ricki Rendazzo, a guitar heroine who made a world of mistakes as she followed her dreams of rock-and-roll stardom. Returning home, Ricki gets a shot at redemption and a chance to make things right as she faces the music with her family.

Themes

Absent parenting consequences, Fame vs family duty, Romantic betrayal, Financial precarity, Family hostility and acceptance, Generational tensions

Available on

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

Overview

A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.

Themes

Addiction and rehabilitation, Fame exposure and decline, Media attention and judgment, Troubled relationships and instability, Creative pressure and risk, Archival imagery and memory

Available on

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

Love Live! The School Idol Movie

8. Love Live! The School Idol Movie

Animation Music Comedy
7.0
20151h 39min

Overview

Although μ's, the defending champions of the school idol tournament, plans to dissolve their group after the graduation of their senior members, they receive news that leads them to holding a concert event! The 9 girls continue to learn and grow in this new and unfamiliar world. What is the last thing that these girls can do as school idols? With the clock ticking, what kind of meaning will the μ's members find in performing the most exciting live performance?


Soaked in Bleach

9. Soaked in Bleach

Music Drama Documentary Crime
7.3
20151h 40min

Overview

Twenty years ago, Kurt Cobain was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head. The world was told it was a suicide, but evidence would lead many people to believe it might be otherwise. The film investigates the possibilities that exist that Kurt Cobain's death might not have been a suicide, that the Seattle Police Department rushed their verdict, and the global media perpetuated lies and misinformation fed to them by Courtney Love that created the belief in many that Cobain killed himself—but when revealed to be lies—lead many to now question what happened.


Love & Mercy

10. Love & Mercy

Drama Music History Psychological Drama Music Biopic
7.4
20152h

Overview

In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson stops touring, produces "Pet Sounds" and begins to lose his grip on reality. By the 1980s, under the sway of a controlling therapist, he finds a savior in Melinda Ledbetter.

Themes

Romance under scrutiny, Creative autonomy under pressure, Guardianship and control, Ownership rights conflict, Mental health under fame, Therapeutic manipulation

Available on

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