Please, enough with the lazy Hollywood biopics
Do we really need retelling of the late chef Anthony Bourdain's life when so much of it has been written about and broadcast for all to see?
AS A FILM CRITIC, the fatigue sets in faster than most. Whenever I read biopic in a movie’s press release, there’s now a sense of something passable being served up; more slapdash sameness that makes us groan, reaching for anyone nearby to vent to: “another-one?!” It’s a feeling I remember from the height of the Marvel franchise.
Biopic fatigue is even worse when I actually admire the figure on screen. When news broke about Tony, based on chef and author Anthony Bourdain’s early life – and starring the talented Dominic Sessa – I realised that no one was exempt from Hollywood’s cash-in impulse, nor was it too soon after their passing. With the superhero genre out with a whimper in 2023 (or going indie, as Esquire’s Henry Wong smartly puts it) the industry has been yearning for a new winning formula.
That’s where the biopic comes in. It does it all: a story that can be quickly adapted with iconic heroes, ups, downs, music, sex, trendy retro outfits, and people at parties singing popular musical numbers we’re all meant to sing-along to. Even a middling script can pull some magic out of Amy Winehouse or Bob Dylan’s life – or just let the soundtrack do the work. Sure, Batman has a built-in fanbase. But so does Janis Joplin.
Anyway, did you ever ask for an Anthony Bourdain biopic? Especially when his life was so recently authentically and brilliantly out there? I didn’t. Did you ever ask for: Michael (on Michael Jackson); Deliver Me From Nowhere (on Bruce Springsteen); Who’s that Girl (on Madonna); The Piano Man (on Billy Joel); Frank Sinatra, Carole King, Fred Astaire, James Baldwin, Nat King Cole, Bruce Lee, Boy George, and not one, but four movies about The Beatles – billed as a “Four-Film Cinematic Event”?
These are greenlit and ready to be served (Google any name with “biopic” and something will pop up). Some of them will be fine, but because of how the industry is abusing the genre – and how rapidly they’re churned out – I’m skeptical.
Few, like Bradley Cooper’s Maestro on Leonard Bernstein, feel as though they’re made because the filmmaker has a real interest in the subject. Others, like the punishing Blonde on Marilyn Monroe, have been accused of being exploitative. Most are worse: safe, corny, and unnervingly glossy – digging into the Netflix anatomy of The Crown, a polished period-drama template which has dominated how biopics are made for the last decade.
Actually, go back and watch The Crown. Then put on Michael Mann’s Ferrari (nothing like his great, textured Muhammad Ali biopic), Bohemian Rhapsody, Amy, or A Complete Unknown. If you move between scenes from any of the above, somehow, stylistically, they exist in the same cinematic universe, even if they’re set in different eras. The recent breed of biopic has a safe but artless gloss; where the past is too clean, everyone’s clothes are superbly ironed, and even hardcore rockers’ faces look Instagram-filtered and unworn. Herein lies the fundamental cause of Biopic Fatigue.
What’s next? I half-expect the crossovers to begin: Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan making a cameo for Jeremy Allen White’s Springsteen film. It’ll be like those reveals at the end of The Avengers, but nothing will come of it. Not to matter. The actor-of-the-moment doesn’t want to play Thor anymore, anyway, he wants to be John Lennon or Michael Jackson. But I have a theory that the biopic can also be a poisoned chalice for stars at the top of their game . . .
I also see more experimental and contemporary takes like Robbie Williams’ Better Man. Marketing, sure. But gone are the days of the celebrity book tour. It’s all about the biopic now.
But I don’t think this will last. Critical and audience reactions have been rather dull. Better Man wasn’t a bad movie but it tanked at the box office, and neither Amy or One Love received the attention their subjects warrant. Meanwhile, a movie like Sinners – an original story not based on an icon – is thriving. Biopic fatigue may be setting in quicker than anyone expected. As with the superhero genre, the answer is obvious: be original.
This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.
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