The 25 Best Biography Movies of the 21st Century
1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. The Pianist
4. BlacKkKlansman
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
6. The Aviator
7. Downfall
8. A Beautiful Mind
9. Into the Wild
10. The King's Speech
11. Persepolis
12. Green Book
13. The Pursuit of Happyness
15. Fruitvale Station
17. The Revenant
18. The Intouchables
19. The Big Short
20. The Social Network
21. 127 Hours
22. 12 Years a Slave
23. The Theory of Everything
24. Dallas Buyers Club
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10 best autobiographical movies, ranked according to rotten tomatoes.
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Steven Spielberg's name will be back on the tip of everyone's tongue this awards season, with his new film The Fabelmans set to release on November 23. Spielberg's upcoming movie is unique from the rest of his masterpieces because it serves as a semi-autobiographical story of his own life, with a fictional character embodying a young aspiring director dealing with his parents' failed marriage.
The Fabelmans has received rave reviews since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, but Spielberg is far from the first filmmaker to illustrate his own life for material. Semi-autobiographic films are surprisingly common, whether a filmmaker recaptures a youthful memory or the hardships they faced during a cultural shift.
Amarcord (1974) - 87%
Federico Fellini was one of Italy's great auteurs, and Amarcord is one of his most acclaimed movies, having won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, alongside two nominations Fellini received for Best Director and Original Screenplay. The story is a series of vignettes about the eccentric inhabitants of a small town in Fascist Italy, told from the point of view of Titta, a young teenager.
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Fellini himself grew up in similar circumstances in the town of Rimini (near the movie's setting) and based Titta in part on a childhood friend, Luigi "Titta" Benzi (via The New York Times ). Perhaps, the adolescent perspective explains why so many characters are childishly obsessed with sex, such as young Titta and Uncle Teo.
Almost Famous (2000) - 89%
Almost Famous is a story of young would-be music journalist William Miller, who adventures with the band Stillwater. Considering Cameron Crowe had written for Rolling Stone as a teenager, he created the leading characters based on his own life, which makes his comedy-drama his most personal film (via Indiewire ). Although Stillwater is a fictional band, they are probably based heavily on real bands like The Eagles or Led Zeppelin.
Not only is Almost Famous is an engaging coming-of-age story and nice tribute to the rock bands of the '70s, it's one of the ultimate "plotless" hang-out movies . The viewer gets to know the band just like William, and seeing guitarist Russell Hammond betray him is genuinely heartbreaking after so much fun.
The Big Red One (1980) - 90%
The Big Red One is a highly underrated World War II movie about five soldiers in the eponymous 1st Infantry Division. The film has some impressive battle sequences and great performances from actors like Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill, but what makes it stand out is that director Samuel Fuller used his own wartime experiences as a basis for the story.
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Like the Sergeant and his squad, Fuller served in the "Big Red One" and even participated in the liberation of Falkenau concentration camp (via RogerEbert.com ). The liberation sequence is the movie's most heartbreaking, as it is nearly dialogue-free and shows Sarge helpless to save a suffering child, illustrating the graphic tragedies of the war.
Lost In Translation (2003) - 95%
Lost in Translation was a critical darling and a surprise hit with audiences, grossing over $118 million worldwide against a $4 budget (via Box Office Mojo ). The movie showed Sofia Coppola's directorial talents, Scarlett Johansson as a then-upcoming star, and Bill Murray's dramatic chops, as some fans still want a sequel to follow up on that infamous cliffhanger.
The movie also has some loosely autobiographical elements, with Coppola having spent a lot of time in Japan (via Departures ), presumably leading to the same kind of culture shock that Bob experiences. In addition, Coppola wrote Lost in Translation before her divorce from Spike Jonze, who may have served as a basis for Charlotte's husband John.
American Graffiti (1973) - 96%
Before he cemented his legacy as a pop-cultural icon with Star Wars , George Lucas' magnum opus was American Graffiti , a beloved teen comedy that has left a huge impact on many of the coming-of-age movies that followed it. In one of his best-directed movies, Lucas was innovative in creating the film's structure and authentic teen narrative, as he came up with the film's premise based on his own teen years.
American Graffiti is set in Lucas' hometown of Modesto, California, and John Milner's love of drag-racing is the one thing the director shared growing up, which also nearly ended up killing him (via SlashFilm ). The fact that much of the film is inspired by real-life also gives it an air of melancholy, particularly how the epilogue shows that two protagonists are doomed to early deaths.
Persepolis (2007) - 96%
Based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is a coming-of-age film based on young "Marji's" life after the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi co-wrote and directed the movie herself, along with fellow French graphic novelist Vincent Paronnaud.
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The movie adaptation was critical acclaimed and was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. From youthful rebellion to growing up under an oppressive regime, Marji's story is told with a powerful voice, giving a firsthand account of the struggles that came along during a cultural change.
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1988) - 97%
Since so many great filmmakers lived through World War II, it makes sense that they would integrate the deadliest conflict in human history into their works. Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants is the French filmmaker's take on the subject, following a young boy who discovers that his school's headmaster is sheltering Jewish children.
Au revoir les enfants was inspired by the actions of real-life Catholic priest Père Jacques, who happened to be the headmaster of Malle's own boarding school (via Film School Rejects ). Knowing this makes his film counterpart, Père Jean, immensely sympathetic, and the movie's ending, in which he is unable to save the titular enfants , becomes even more of a tearjerker.
The 400 Blows (1959) - 99%
The 400 Blows may have been François Truffaut's feature debut, but viewers can already see a filmmaker in the making of becoming one of the French New Wave's essential figures . The movie is a slice-of-life look at Antoine Doinel, a rebellious boy who is misunderstood and mistreated by all the adults in his life.
Truffaut put a lot of himself into Antoine, having been a troublemaking kid who never knew his biological father and a difficult relationship with his adoptive parent (via The Criterion Collection ). This makes Antoine's arguments with Julien and the latter's subsequent abandonment of him feel more realistic than a typical coming-of-age movie.
Lady Bird (2017) - 99%
Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut, Lady Bird follows Christine "Lady Bird" MacPherson, a nonconformist teenage girl who doesn't fit in with her peers and has to contend with well-being but an overbearing mother. The film received critical acclaim, with high praise going to Saoirse Ronan's performance, as well as Gerwig's direction.
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Lady Bird was a labor of love for Gerwig, who spent many years writing the script and was inspired by her own teen years growing up in Sacramento. At the New York Film Festival, she stated "Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know" (via IndieWire ).
Fanny And Alexander (1983) - 100%
The story of a brother and sister whose lives are turned upside down when their mother marries an abusive tyrant of a bishop, but Fanny and Alexander was Ingmar Bergman's cinematic swan song. The movie's three-hour running time and slow pacing mean it's not for everyone, but admirers like Sam Mendes consider it one of their favorite movies .
For inspiration, Bergman drew from his experiences with his own father, a member of the clergy who was described as having a "volatile" personality (via The Independent ). The scene in which the ghost of Bishop Vergerus taunts Alexander by saying he will never be free reads very differently knowing this context, like an acknowledgment from Bergman himself that he could never fully rid himself of his father's influence.
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