The Best Movies Based on True Stories in 2019
The Best Movies Based on True Stories in 2019
Once you’re finished watching an entirely fictionalized film, that’s it—the story’s over. But when entertainment has its roots in real life, you can engage with a story even after its film adaptation's credits role, through books, documentaries, articles, and interviews. So if you’re looking for engrossing, fact-based films to get caught up in, check out some of the best based-on-a-true-story movies of 2019.
Rocketman
Taron Egerton won a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of Elton John in this 2019 biopic musical. The film focuses on John's fight for sobriety after a career marked by hard partying and substance abuse. The film has also been praised by Esquire for its realistic depiction of a gay sex scene.
Fighting With My Family
Lots of families have a business, say, Mom's dentistry practice or Grandpa's hardware store. Britain's knight family are in a pretty unique field, however—they're all professional wrestlers. Written and directed by The Office’s Stephen Merchant and produced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Fighting with My Family stars Midsommar’s Florence Pugh as real life WWE-star Paige, and chronicles her rise from a working-class wrestling clan. Game of Thrones’s Lena Headey and Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost co-star as her parents, Julia "Sweet Saraya" Knight and Patrick "Rowdy Ricky" Knight, and The Rock’s there, too—playing himself, of course.
The Farewell
The Farewell is arguably the most powerful film out this year so far. Awkwafina helps anchor a poignant family drama about a girl who returns to China to say goodbye to her grandmother, who is unaware that she only has a few weeks to live. The film gives a thoughtful glimpse into a heartbreaking story that reaches across cultures and taps into the deep love that can only be found in family.
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Ray & Liz
Britain knows its way around a bleak cinematic portrait of working-class life, and Ray & Liz marks the newest entry to that great and grim tradition. Photographer Richard Billingham gained acclaim in the late ’90s for his stark portraits of his chain-smoking mother, Liz, and alcoholic father, Ray. Their desperate, constrained lives are the subject of his first feature film, which pairs scenes from his neglectful, deeply impoverished childhood with depictions of his parents in their older years.
Trial By Fire
In Texas in 1991, three little girls died in a house fire. Their father, 23-year-old Cameron Todd Willingham, an unemployed mechanic, was convicted of setting the fire and murdering his daughters, and sentenced to die. He was executed in 2004, but the case would earn national recognition five years later thanks to an article in The New Yorker by writer David Grann. The piece revealed that Willingham’s conviction was based on junk arson science and a jailhouse informant who later recanted. The film, which takes its title from the name of Grann’s article, stars Unbroken’s Jack O’Connell as Willingham, and the always wonderful Laura Dern as playwright Elizabeth Gilbert, who became one of the condemned men’s staunchest defenders.
Stockholm
"Stockholm syndrome," the phenomenon in which some kidnapped people can grow to identify with their abductors, is probably one of the most famous psychological terms. But the events that gave it its name aren't as well known. In 1973, armed robbers took hostages during a botched bank heist in Stockholm, Sweden. During the course of the standoff with police, the four bank employees held hostage began to feel more aligned with their captors than with the authorities working to rescue them—and after the siege ended, one employee would even have a romantic relationship with one of the gunmen. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Mark Strong as the triggermen, with Noomi Rapace playing a bank employee.
Hotel Mumbai
In 2008, terrorists attacked Mumbai in 12 assaults over the course of four days, leaving 163 people dead and more than 300 injured. One of the sites targeted was the city’s iconic luxury hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which was seized by gunmen. This film, which stars Dev Patel as a Taj waiter and Armie Hammer as an American guest, takes place during the siege and tells the story of the hotel guests’ and staff’s fight for survival.
From heist films to musical biopics, some of the year's best movies are based on real-life events.