I love biographical films of famous people and real events. One of my favorites ever is Coal Miner’s Daughter starring Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. I also love reading biographies though, more often than not films take artistic license where biographies are much closer to fact. With that said, reading a biography on a person you admire can be daunting if she or he turns out to be a horrible person. At least in film, you can convince yourself that because it’s only “based on a true story”, if your idle is shown in a bad light, you can chalk it up to artistic license and skewed perspective. Either way, there’s something fascinating about dramatic depictions of real life people. It gives you a peek into a “real” life, and can give you solace if you see someone famous (or not so famous) go through the same stuff you’ve gone through and it also just humanizes “stars” as people and nothing more. Besides, the best drama is always the non-fictitious kind.

So, here are some of my favorite “based on a true story” films; or “biopics”:

• Coal Miner’s Daughter starring Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. I didn’t even know who Loretta Lynn was at the time and don’t much care for country. But, watching the movie, I felt for Lynn and applauded Spacek.
• Boys Don’t Cry starring Hilary Swank. The movie was so raw, so painful too watch so engrossing. Probably because of the story line, but mostly because of the truth behind it. That people could be so cruel and any one person can be so naive. It’s moving and Swank was perfect.
• Sweet Dreams starring Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline. I really like Patsy Cline and think Jessica Lange is one of the best actresses of all time. Sweet Dreams is a moving tribute to both Cline as a singer and Lange as an actress.
• The Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker. Perhaps the best biographical film and character study in recent years. Whitaker was simply phenomenal.
• In The Name of The Father and My Left Foot both starring Daniel Day-Lewis are both amazing biographical films with exceptional performances by Day-Lewis.
• The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio truly amazed me in his depiction of the eccentric Howard Hughes. His mannerisms were poignant. Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of Katherine Hepburn was just uncanny. Fabulous film altogether.
• Passion of Joan of Arc. This silent 1928 film is still a moving depiction of the very interesting and troubled woman known as Joan of Arc. The directing was somewhat revolutionary at the time with intimate closeups of Joan. Despite its religious base, it’s a very lovely film.
• Marie Antoinette directed by Sofia Coppola. It’s just a stunning and singular interpretation of a tale told so many times. Though I wouldn’t have chosen Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette, somehow she fit and the film was just beautiful.
• Goodfellas is one of my all time favorite mobster films and just happens to be based on a true story.
• Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor is a great film perfectly acted and directed. What makes this film stand out among the best biopics is that although I did not know about or care about the person the film is based on (Beatrix Potter, author of Peter the Rabbit and other children’s books), it made me care about her afterward.