Best Modern Rock Movies

Aside from the obviously classic rock & roll films, recent decades have yielded a number of surprising and well-made rock movies. From the cult rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap to the postmodern Dylan tribute I'm Not There, here (in no particular order) are seven great rock & roll movies you must see.

I'm Not There

(2007, Todd Haynes, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere)

Amazing writing, acting, and direction tell the tale of Dylan's many lives and facets through (six) separate characters. Cate Blanchett's portrayal of the rude tweaker Dylan (under the pseudonym Jude Quinn) from the 1965-1966 Don't Look Back era is particularly memorable, and the late Heath Ledger gives a great performance as Robbie Clark, whose story is that of Dylan's marriage and personal life.

Favorite moment: Edie Sedgwick and Dylan's onscreen doppelgangers bring all the bittersweet static electricity of love lost and lost lovers caught in self-destructive spirals.

Last Days

(2005, Gus Van Sant, Michael Pitt)

Gus Van Sant's fictionalized take on the physical and mental state of (a rock star who can only be Seattle grunge god) Kurt Cobain shortly before his death is quiet and contemplative. Michael Pitt plays the private, luminous, and confused protagonist losing the last of himself in heroin as strange and burnt-out grungesters roam through his house. Dark humor turns bittersweet and sad as the Kurt-like character greets callers clothed in his wife's slip and an overcoat, obviously sedated and barely cognizant.

Favorite moment: Pitt, who is a real-life musician with a band of his own, creates an interesting and period-authentic musical moment with a guitar loop, a mic, and a drum kit, summoning the last remnants of artistic passion as we all count down to the end of his life.

SLC Punk

(1998, James Merendino, Matthew Lillard)

This goofy, colorful flick examines the mid-nineties microcosm of suppressed youth who just want more liquor in their beer, more glue in their hair, and more hard in their rock. Depending on where you're from and what music you loved growing up, you will likely relate to this tale of passionate fans who live and breathe their desire to be hardcore, even as some of them finally come of age enough to settle for selling out. If you've ever had Rancid wake-up calls or anarchist scribblings on your living room wall, this blast from the past with an all-punk soundtrack is a must-see.

Favorite moment: There are so many in this film. The straightedge dude kicking ass at the hardcore show, the stolen car floating in the Great Salt Lake, the bad acid trip, the rural liquor store adventure... Be prepared for lots of through-the-nose laughs and perhaps a couple tears.

Almost Famous

(2000, Cameron Crowe, Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson)

In this beautifully made film, director Cameron Crowe looks back on his time as a teenage rock journo with the Who, the Eagles, the Allman Brothers, and others. Classic rockers of the mid-seventies lay waste to the Rainbow Bar & Grille and the Hyatt House on Sunset Strip along with their groupie cohorts, among them the famous Penny Lane. Part buddy movie, part romance, part coming-of-age movie, and part thinly-veiled rockumentary, this flick is all rock & roll.

Favorite moment: During a tense moment, the disgruntled and coming-down or hungover bandmates break into Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" on their tour bus.

This Is Spinal Tap

(1984, Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer)

One of the most-loved rockumentaries of all time, this Rob Reiner classic had some fans fooled into believing the fictional band Spinal Tap was a real group. An easy mistake to make; many real-life hard rockers, such as Ozzy Osbourne, found the band's trials and tribulations uncomfortably realistic. Infinitely quotable (no one who has seen the "but these go to eleven" scene can ever forget it) and ultimately hilarious, this movie, a great deal of which was ad libbed, holds a #1 spot in many music fans' hearts for its mix of goofball and incredibly subtle humor.

Favorite moment: All the band's songs and performances are authentic collectively, they provide some of the best humor of the show. Don't miss "Big Bottom," a tasteless and laugh-out-loud-funny tribute to Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls."

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

(2001, John Cameron Mitchell, Stephen Trask, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor)

A German gay man becomes a transgender woman in order to leave communist East Berlin and begin a new life in America. Due to a sudden change in fortunes, that new life turns out to be a rock & roll adventure full of yearning, betrayal, dignity, humor, and kick-ass performances. Originally conceived as a nightclub drag act, the Hedwig character evolved as writer/director/star John Cameron Mitchell built the sketches into a full show and finally a feature-length film. The awesome-in-its-own-right soundtrack, composed with Stephen Trask's band Cheater (who also appear as Hedwig's backing band in the film), is a great tribute to classic rock & roll.

Favorite moment: The final scenes involve a heart-tearing reprisal of the glorious "Wicked Little Town" and the hard rock ballad "Midnight Radio." Although slightly schmaltzy, these tunes have earned their place at the end of such a harrowing tale. Get your Zippo and some Kleenex.

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

(2005, Sam Dunn, Bruce Dickinson, Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Alice Cooper, Dee Snider)

Some rockumentaries tell the tale of a moment in music history; others delve into the stories of a single band or concert. This exhaustive, educational look at the who/what/when/where/why of heavy metal is nevertheless infinitely entertaining. You'll laugh; you'll learn. You'll see interviews with metal legends from Ronnie James Dio to Tony Iommi, from Iron Maiden to Slipknot. You'll follow the filmmakers around the world, from the die-hard metalhead teens clustered in Canada to the end-all, be-all of heavy metal festivals in Wachen, Germany. You'll bang your head, and you just might find a tear in your eye.

Favorite moment: I have no idea how the filmmakers stifled their own laughter when interviewing an all-too-serious Norwegian death-metal Satanist. When asked what influences his music, the trenchcoat-wearing spookmeister pauses as though the script asked him to wait a beat, mutters "Satan," then takes a sip from his red wine. Comedy really is all about timing.

Feel free to leave your own picks in the comments section!