Best Music Movies of 2016

1.

La La Land

6.6

8.0/10

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

2.

Sing Street

6.5

8.0/10

A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes.

3.

Trolls

5.5

6.5/10

Lovable and friendly, the trolls love to play around. But one day, a mysterious giant shows up to end the party. Poppy, the optimistic leader of the Trolls, and her polar opposite, Branch, must embark on an adventure that takes them far beyond the only world they’ve ever known.

4.

Bo Burnham: Make Happy

5.2

8.4/10

Combining his trademark wit and self-deprecating humor with original music, Bo Burnham offers up his unique twist on life in this stand-up special about life, death, sexuality, hypocrisy, mental illness and Pringles cans.

5.

Supersonic

4.9

7.9/10

From award-winning director Mat Whitecross and featuring extensive unseen archive footage, Supersonic charts the meteoric rise of Oasis from the council estates of Manchester to some of the biggest concerts of all time in just three short years. This palpable, raw and moving film shines a light on one of the most genre and generation-defining British bands that has ever existed, and features candid new interviews with Noel and Liam Gallagher, their mother, and members of the band and road crew.

6.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

4.9

7.8/10

The band stormed Europe in 1963, and, in 1964, they conquered America. Their groundbreaking world tours changed global youth culture forever and, arguably, invented mass entertainment as we know it today. All the while, the group were composing and recording a series of extraordinarily successful singles and albums. However the relentless pressure of such unprecedented fame, that in 1966 became uncontrollable turmoil, led to the decision to stop touring. In the ensuing years The Beatles were then free to focus on a series of albums that changed the face of recorded music.

7.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

4.9

6.7/10

When his new album fails to sell records, pop/rap superstar Conner4real goes into a major tailspin and watches his celebrity high life begin to collapse. He'll try anything to bounce back, anything except reuniting with his old rap group The Style Boyz.

8.

David Brent: Life on the Road

4.4

6.3/10

A camera crew catches up with David Brent, the former star of the fictional British series, "The Office" as he now fancies himself a rockstar on the road.

9.

Lemonade

4.4

8.2/10

The second "visual album" (a collection of short films) by Beyoncé, this time around she takes a piercing look at racial issues and feminist concepts through a sexualized, satirical, and solemn tone.

10.

High Strung

4.4

6.4/10

When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.

11.

One More Time with Feeling

4.3

8.3/10

Documents the writing, recording and performing of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree.

13.

Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary

4.3

8.1/10

The 25th Anniversary performance – filmed at London's Prince Edward Theatre in 2014 – of the epic musical tale of a young Vietnamese bar girl, Kim, who falls in love with Chris, an American GI. But their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

14.

Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids

4.1

7.9/10

For Justin Timberlake it's the final two dates of his 20/20 Experience World Tour at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Surrounded by the 25 band members of The Tennessee Kids and featuring show-stopping performances from one of the highest-grossing tours of the decade, the film is a culmination of the singer’s 134 shows and 2 years on the road.

15.

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

4.1

7.5/10

Thorsten Schütte’s film is a sharply edited and energetic celebration of Zappa through his public persona, allowing us to witness his shifting relationship with audiences. Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into the musician’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

17.

A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits

3.9

5.8/10

A contemporary musical version of the classic Cinderella story in which the servant step daughter hope to compete in a musical competition for a famous pop star.

18.

Rock Dog

3.9

5.9/10

When a radio falls from the sky into the hands of a wide-eyed Tibetan Mastiff, he leaves home to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician, setting into motion a series of completely unexpected events.

20.

Gimme Danger

3.7

7.2/10

No other band in rock'n'roll history has rivaled The Stooges' combination of heavy primal throb, spiked psychedelia, blues-a-billy grind, complete with succinct angst-ridden lyrics, and a snarling, preening leopard of a frontman who somehow embodies Nijinsky, Bruce Lee, Harpo Marx, and Arthur Rimbaud all rolled into one. There is no precedent for The Stooges, while those inspired by them are now legion. The film will present the context of their emergence musically, culturally, politically, historically, and relate their adventures and misadventures while charting their inspirations and the reasons behind their initial commercial challenges, as well as their long-lasting legacy.