Musicals and Music Movies
Two kinds of film live on this list: ones where people burst into song, and ones about the people who make the songs. Both are here, new and old, from Broadway adaptations to rock biopics to concert films, chosen so that even someone who insists they don't like musicals has a few things to try.
The useful distinction is how the music arrives. In a true musical, songs replace dialogue and you have to go with it: Wicked, Spielberg's West Side Story, Encanto. In a music movie, songs happen because the characters are musicians, an easier sell for skeptics: A Complete Unknown, Whiplash, Sing Street. And a few are pure performance, no story needed: Stop Making Sense, Hamilton, Summer of Soul. Rocketman and Better Man sit in between, biopics that break into full production numbers.
For the whole family, KPop Demon Hunters, Encanto, Wicked and The Sound of Music are the easy picks. Sinners is a real horror film, and the rock biopics are frank about drugs and sex. For more animation, see Best Animated Movies; for a night for two, Date Night Movies.
La La Land
Movie · 2016The best way into modern movie musicals for someone who thinks they don't like them. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are charming rather than polished singers, the jazz is lovely, and the closing sequence is the reason people still argue about it. Bittersweet rather than sad.
Wicked
Movie · 2024The Broadway hit about the Wicked Witch of the West before Dorothy, staged big and with real conviction. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande sang live on set, and "Defying Gravity" brings the house down. It's only the first half of the story; Wicked: For Good finishes it. Rated PG.
KPop Demon Hunters
Movie · 2025The surprise of 2025: an animated film about a K-pop girl group who secretly hunt demons, with songs good enough to top the real charts. Fast, funny and gorgeous, it's the rare kids' film teenagers chose for themselves, and it won the Oscar for animated feature. "Golden" will not leave your head.
Hamilton
Movie · 2020A filmed performance by the original Broadway cast, shot in 2016, and the closest most people will get to a seat in that theater. The hip-hop telling of a Founding Father's life works on a couch as well as on stage. Some swearing, including one f-word; families with kids over ten watch it together happily.
Encanto
Movie · 2021One of this decade's big family musicals: Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, a magical house in Colombia, and a girl who's the only one in her family without a gift. "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is the hit, but the quieter songs about family pressure are what the adults will notice. Rated PG.
Sinners
Movie · 2025A vampire film that is secretly the best music movie of 2025. Ryan Coogler's story of twin brothers opening a juke joint in 1932 Mississippi stops for a blues performance that pulls in the past and future of Black music, and it's the scene everyone talks about. Bloody, and a real horror film.
A Complete Unknown
Movie · 2024Timothée Chalamet as the young Bob Dylan, from his arrival in New York in 1961 to the night he went electric at Newport in 1965. Chalamet sings and plays the songs himself, much of it live on set, and the film works for people who couldn't name three Dylan songs. Plenty of swearing, smoking and drinking.
West Side Story (2021)
Movie · 2021Steven Spielberg's remake is that rare thing, a version that justifies itself: sharper about its neighborhood, cast with Latino actors, and staged with dazzling camera work. Ariana DeBose won an Oscar as Anita. It's a tragedy with knife fights, so better for teens than small children.
Whiplash
Movie · 2014A music movie that plays like a thriller: a young jazz drummer and the conductor who terrorizes him. J.K. Simmons won an Oscar for it, and the final performance is one of the most gripping endings of its decade. Constant abusive language, and it's meant to be hard to watch.
A Star Is Born (2018)
Movie · 2018Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in the fourth telling of this story, and the one with the best songs: "Shallow" won the Oscar. The first hour is a thrilling romance; the second is about addiction, and it gets heavy. Some sex and a lot of swearing.
Rocketman
Movie · 2019Elton John's life as an actual musical, with the songs used to tell the story rather than just performed on stage. Taron Egerton does his own singing. It's franker than most music biopics about drugs, sex and addiction, which is exactly why it feels more honest than most of them.
Better Man
Movie · 2024Robbie Williams's life story, with Robbie played by a CGI chimpanzee, which sounds like a gimmick and turns out to be the point. The "Rock DJ" number, staged on a closed-off Regent Street in London, is one of the great musical sequences of recent years. It flopped, so few have seen it. Plenty of drugs and swearing.
CODA
Movie · 2021The hearing daughter of a deaf fishing family in Massachusetts discovers she can sing. It won Best Picture, and the scene where her father asks her to sing for him is the one people remember. The deaf characters are played by deaf actors. Some crude sexual humor, so better for teens up.
Sing Street
Movie · 2016A Dublin teenager in 1985 starts a band to impress a girl, and the band turns out to be good. John Carney and Gary Clark's original songs pastiche Duran Duran and The Cure and stand up on their own. The most purely joyful film on this list, with teenage swearing, smoking and a few slurs.
Tick, Tick... Boom!
Movie · 2021Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the composer of Rent, turning thirty and panicking that he hasn't made it yet. Lin-Manuel Miranda directs a musical about writing musicals, packed with Broadway in-jokes and cameos. Garfield was Oscar-nominated and earns it; theater people will cry.
Summer of Soul
Movie · 2021Questlove's documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, filmed at the time and then left unseen for decades. Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson and Sly and the Family Stone in their prime, plus the story of why nobody saw it. It won the Oscar for best documentary.
Stop Making Sense
Movie · 1984Often called the greatest concert film ever made, and the easiest to love if you've never heard Talking Heads. Jonathan Demme films the band joining David Byrne on stage one by one, and then there's the big suit. Short, joyful, fine for the whole family, and best played loud.
Singin' in the Rain
Movie · 1952The classic that converts people who think they hate old musicals. It's a comedy about Hollywood's clumsy switch to talking pictures, and the title number and Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" still look impossible. Funny enough that kids laugh in the right places.
The Sound of Music
Movie · 1965A long, generous family epic with songs nearly everyone already knows: a governess, seven children and an escape from Austria as the Nazis arrive. Nearly three hours, so plan an intermission. The threat in the last act is real but never graphic, and it's fine for kids about six and up.
Once
Movie · 2007A small Irish film about a Dublin street musician and a Czech immigrant who write songs together. "Falling Slowly" won the Oscar for best song, and the film itself later became a Tony-winning stage musical. Shot cheaply on handheld cameras and closer to real life than anything else here. More swearing than you'd guess.
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Picks are editorial recommendations. Streaming availability changes by region and over time — the “where to stream” links check current availability on JustWatch.