One of Hollywood's favorite movie genres at the moment is the biopic. It seems like a new one is announced every day, and there's always a new one in theaters or on a streaming service at any given point. In 2021 alone, there was Being the Ricardos, King Richard, Respect, Spencer, and Judas and the Black Messiah, among countless others. Oftentimes, these movies are Oscar favorites as well, and tend to get a lot of attention during awards season, even if they're less than stellar (looking at you, Bohemian Rhapsody).
This begs the question, what is it about this genre of film that attracts filmmakers so much? At this point, it seems like studios are much more willing to greenlight any generic biopic than a new and original story, and most of these biopics really do feel the same. It's an interesting genre when the movies are few and far between, but when a new biopic is being released every month, it really starts to feel as though Hollywood is running out of ideas.
If a biopic is done well and in an interesting way, it can be a totally valid story and feel original in its own way. Something like I, Tonya or Marie Antoinette are good examples of biopics that are stylized and tell their stories in an unconventional way, which makes them feel more original than a by-the-book retelling of some famous person's life. And sure, plenty of celebrities have had really interesting lives, but when so many biopics are getting made one right after the other, it becomes hard to separate them in one's mind as distinct stories.
The musical biopic in particular has had a major boom in recent years, with every musician imaginable getting a movie made about their life and struggles. Again, some are quite good and manage to tell the story in a compelling way (such as Rocketman’s use of musical numbers or the ever-classic Walk The Line), but others fall a bit flat and just feel like an outlet for an actor to do their best impression of the person they’re portraying rather than getting to the actual heart of the story. This isn't to knock every biopic performance, in fact, many actors embody their character so fully that it nabs them a well-deserved Oscar nomination, but it's those performances that have a lot of heart and passion that are the most memorable.
Biopics are even getting made about very recent events and people who are still alive and active in their careers. It seems like every time a major world event happens, there’s a studio that swoops in and wants to instantly option it for a movie before the dust has even had time to settle. Biopics inherently feel more interesting when they’re somewhat historical, as it feels like the viewer is actually learning about a period of a famous figure’s life rather than watching a movie about some pop culture event they watched in real time on the news. Movies like Amadeus, Schindler’s List, or Bright Star manage to feel more artistic and compelling not just because of the quality of filmmaking, but because of the element of them taking place in distant history.
Of course, not every biopic needs to be about someone who died 50+ years ago, but when an announcement gets made that a Weird Al Yankovic biopic is getting made when he’s still a somewhat relevant cultural figure, it just feels like there needs to be a bit of distance for a biopic to work. All of that being said, a majority of the biopics that are put out are actually quite good, or at least serviceable, there are just way too many of them. It’s so easy to get exhausted with the genre as a whole when there’s a constant output of content that feels quite similar.
One of the interesting exceptions to the biopic fatigue is the fake biopic, which parodies the tropes that are typically found within these films. Movies like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and This Is Spinal Tap (which also employs more of a mockumentary style) are some of the most well-known examples of this subgenre, as they subvert the typical elements of the biopic while also being pretty good biopics in their own right, despite the fact that they’re not actually about real people. It’s interesting that Hollywood hasn’t tapped into this niche more often, as it seems to be one of the more successful biopic avenues, but maybe they value the genre too much to make fun of it.
The real question is, why do so many biopics get made? Perhaps it’s because people who work in the entertainment industry love to tell stories about what they know, and they connect with the celebrities about whom they make these biopics. They can relate to the struggles that they face within the industry and see themselves reflected in that, and they probably figure that most audiences would be able to find some universal element of the characters to relate to as well, even if they’re in a very different life situation. Artists love to tell stories about other artists, and there’s something particularly exciting about getting to tell a story that isn’t well-known, and help someone who may not have been recognized in their time (or who was unfairly maligned) regain some of their reputation.
Biopics certainly have their place, and they’re not all bad. In fact, most are well-made, but the fact that there are too many of them is just causing burnout amounts the viewers and making these studios look lazy because they would rather tell a story that could be easily Googled by the audience than create something new and original. It doesn’t seem like the onslaught of biographical movies is going to stop anytime soon, but they might soon find out that it is very possible to have too much of a good thing.