TuneMovie

The film with a tune

Music and cinema grew up together. The first great success of the talking picture was a film about a singer, The Jazz Singer of 1927, and ever since the life of a musician has been one of the favourite stories of the screen: the rise from a small town or a hard street, the first band in a garage, the record that changes everything, the fame, the drugs and the fall, and, if the film is kind, the comeback at the end. The films of musicians also carry their own soundtrack, so that the audience leaves the cinema humming, and the best of them, from Amadeus to Whiplash, show what it costs to make music as well as how it sounds. TuneMovie, whose name hums a tune, gathers 156 of these films and sorts them on twelve playlists, in three families.

Every film of the guide has an English synopsis, its cast and director and a Watch now button that opens it on JustWatch, where you can see the services that offer it in your country. The oldest film is Fantasia, of 1940, the concert of Walt Disney in which an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski plays Bach, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky to the drawings of his animators, and the newest is KPop Demon Hunters, of 2025, the animated film of a girl group of Seoul who fight demons with their songs. Together the films carry about 272,300 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 6.99; the most voted is Bohemian Rhapsody, of 2018, with about 18,100 votes, and the best rated are Whiplash, of 2014, The Pianist, of 2002, and Stop Making Sense, of 1984, with an 8.4 each. The guide Start with TuneMovie picks one film from each playlist, and the guide The music biopic follows the history of the genre.

The first family, Rock and pop, holds the films of the music of the radio: the lives of the rock stars, the bands of garages and clubs, the pop stars and singers, and the music of country and folk. The second, Soul, jazz and hip hop, holds the films of the music born in the Black communities of America and its cousins: jazz, soul, rhythm and blues and reggae, hip hop and, beside them, the singers of the stages of the world. The third, Classical and beyond, holds the composers and virtuosos of classical music, the music schools and choirs, the animated films of music and the great music documentaries.

The name and the look

The Wayback Machine keeps tunemovie.com from 2013 to 2025. In February 2014 the address carried a site of films built on the WordPress video theme deTube, with a menu called Movie Box, lists of genres, countries and years, and a feature that its visitors could play with: a picker of backgrounds, with textures called Floral, Stucco, Leather, Paper and Rocky Wall. Its rows of thumbnails, headed Lastest Movies Updates, carried a red badge of quality at the bottom left and a blue badge at the bottom right, and under each one the year, the title in near black that turned dark red on hover and small grey counts of views, votes and likes. Later captures show a plainer site of the 2018 kind and, at the end, a parked page.

The look of this guide follows the stylesheet of 2014. The page is a light grey with a fine texture of dots, in memory of the old background picker, the panels are white with thin grey borders and soft shadows, the text is a dark grey with the small white shadow of the old theme, and the titles are near black and turn dark red under the pointer. The header is dark, edged below by a line of dark red, and the logo draws a note of music on a red square. The board of the home page, called Playlists, lists the twelve shelves as the tracks of an album, each numbered in red, blue or grey for its family, and each poster carries the year on a red badge and the rating on a blue badge, like the old badges of quality and status, with the tag of its playlist on a dark band. The guide The look of TuneMovie explains each detail.

How the playlists work

Every film of the guide is a film about musicians or about music: a biography of a singer or a composer, the story of a band, a musician of fiction, a school of music, an animated film built around songs or a documentary of a concert or a career. Musicals in which ordinary characters burst into song are left to other guides, with a few exceptions that are about music itself, such as Dreamgirls and Dancer in the Dark. Each film sits on a single playlist, chosen by its style of music, and each playlist keeps its thirteen most voted films and lists them by votes, so that the best known come first. 136 of the 156 films are in English, and the others in French, Hindi, Italian, Russian, Bengali, Portuguese and Japanese, all with an English synopsis. The guide How the playlists work sums up the rules.

The music biopic

The biography of a musician is the most reliable formula of the genre, and it has won more Academy Awards for acting than almost any other kind of film. Hollywood made its first ones in the 1940s and 1950s, warm portraits of bandleaders such as The Glenn Miller Story, of 1954, with James Stewart; the 1970s and 1980s turned to the rock and country stars who had died young or nearly so, from Buddy Holly to Ritchie Valens and Loretta Lynn, and Sissy Spacek won the Academy Award for best actress as Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter, of 1980. Then, in the 2000s, two films of two years set the model for everything that followed: Ray, of 2004, which won the award for best actor for Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, and Walk the Line, of 2005, which won it for best actress for Reese Witherspoon as June Carter.

The model, a childhood trauma, a rise, an addiction and a redemption, became so familiar that a comedy, Walk Hard, made fun of it in 2007, and yet it keeps filling the cinemas: Bohemian Rhapsody, of 2018, won four Academy Awards, including best actor for Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, and became the most successful music biopic ever made, and in its wake came Rocketman, Elvis, Respect and A Complete Unknown. The best films of the guide often break the model, from the rivalry of Amadeus, told by the composer who envied Mozart, to the black and white of Control and the ape of Better Man. The guide The music biopic tells the story.

Rock and pop

The first family, Rock and pop, gathers 52 films of the music of the radio, with about 110,000 votes, the most of the three families, and an average rating of 6.83. It runs from the first rock and roll of the 1950s to the stadiums of the 1980s and the pop stars of today, and it ends in the bars of Nashville and the cafés of Greenwich Village, where country and folk keep the old songs alive. The guide Rock and pop sums up the family.

Rock lives

The playlist Rock lives holds thirteen films from 1987 to 2024 of the lives of rock and roll stars, and it is the best rated playlist of the family, with an average of 7.24. Its most voted film is Bohemian Rhapsody, of 2018, by Bryan Singer, with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury from the founding of Queen to the concert of Live Aid of 1985, rated 7.9 with about 18,100 votes, and the stars of the 1960s and 1970s follow it: Rocketman, of 2019, by Dexter Fletcher, a musical of the life of Elton John with Taron Egerton singing the songs himself, rated 7.3; Elvis, of 2022, by Baz Luhrmann, with Austin Butler as the King and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Parker, rated 7.4, and Priscilla, of 2023, by Sofia Coppola, the same story told by his wife; The Doors, of 1991, by Oliver Stone, with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, and A Complete Unknown, of 2024, by James Mangold, with Timothée Chalamet as the young Bob Dylan who plugged in his guitar at Newport in 1965.

The rest of the playlist holds the bands and the lost. Control, of 2007, the first film of the photographer Anton Corbijn, in black and white, the short life of Ian Curtis of Joy Division, rated 7.5; Better Man, of 2024, by Michael Gracey, the life of Robbie Williams in which the singer appears as a computer-animated chimpanzee, rated 7.6, the best rated film of the playlist after Bohemian Rhapsody; The Dirt, of 2019, the excesses of Mötley Crüe; Nowhere Boy, of 2009, by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the teenage years of John Lennon in Liverpool with Aaron Taylor-Johnson; The Runaways, of 2010, with Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie; Love & Mercy, of 2015, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys played by Paul Dano and John Cusack, and La Bamba, of 1987, the oldest film of the playlist, with Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens, the young Chicano rocker killed in the plane crash of 1959. The guide The rock biopic follows them.

Bands and garages

The playlist Bands and garages holds thirteen films from 1980 to 2020 of bands real and invented. Its most voted film is The School of Rock, of 2003, by Richard Linklater, with Jack Black as a failed rocker who takes the place of a substitute teacher at a private school and turns his class of ten-year-olds into a band, rated 7.1 with about 6,400 votes. Three films of the playlist belong to the Irish director John Carney: Once, of 2007, a busker of Dublin and a young Czech pianist who record their songs over a weekend, played by the musicians Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, whose song won the Academy Award; Begin Again, of 2014, with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo recording an album in the streets of New York, and Sing Street, of 2016, a boy of the Dublin of 1985 who forms a band to impress a girl, the best rated film of the playlist, at 7.9.

The other bands of the playlist are comic or nostalgic. The Blues Brothers, of 1980, by John Landis, the oldest film of the playlist, with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on a mission from God to save their orphanage, with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and James Brown, rated 7.7; Almost Famous, of 2000, by Cameron Crowe, a boy of fifteen who tours with a band for Rolling Stone, from the life of the director himself, rated 7.5; That Thing You Do!, of 1996, written and directed by Tom Hanks, a band of Erie with a single hit in 1964; The Commitments, of 1991, by Alan Parker, the young people of Dublin who form a soul band; Rock Star, of 2001, with Mark Wahlberg as the singer of a tribute band who joins the real band; Detroit Rock City, of 1999, four fans of Kiss on the road to a concert, and Josie and the Pussycats, Bandslam and Bill & Ted Face the Music, in which the two heroes must write the song that will save the universe. The guide The band film follows the garages.

Pop stars and singers

The playlist Pop stars and singers holds thirteen films from 1954 to 2019 of singers of fiction and of the pop stars who played them. Its heart is a story told three times, the young singer discovered by an older star whose career sinks as hers rises: A Star Is Born of 1954, by George Cukor, with Judy Garland and James Mason, rated 7.1; of 1976, with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson as rock singers, and of 2018, directed by Bradley Cooper, who plays the country rocker Jackson Maine beside Lady Gaga, the most voted film of the playlist, rated 7.5 with about 12,400 votes, whose song Shallow won the Academy Award.

The pop stars of the playlist often played themselves or close to it. Whitney Houston sings beside Kevin Costner, as the singer he protects, in The Bodyguard, of 1992, whose soundtrack became the best selling of all time; Britney Spears drives across the country in Crossroads, of 2002; Miley Cyrus is the double life of a teenage star in Hannah Montana: The Movie, of 2009, and the five Spice Girls ride a double-decker bus around London in Spice World, of 1997, the lowest rated film of the guide, at 4.9. The singers of fiction complete it: Pitch Perfect, of 2012, the college a cappella groups of Anna Kendrick, rated 7.3; Yesterday, of 2019, by Danny Boyle, a musician who wakes in a world where only he remembers the Beatles; Music and Lyrics, of 2007, Hugh Grant as a pop star of the 1980s writing a comeback song; Vox Lux, of 2018, with Natalie Portman; Beyond the Lights, of 2014, and Teen Spirit, of 2019, with Elle Fanning as a singer of the Isle of Wight in a talent show. The guide A star is born follows the three versions.

Country and folk

The playlist Country and folk holds thirteen films from 1975 to 2019 of the music of the South and of the folk clubs. Its most voted film is Walk the Line, of 2005, by James Mangold, with Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, from his childhood in Arkansas to his concert at Folsom Prison and his proposal on stage, rated 7.5 with about 3,200 votes, and its second is Inside Llewyn Davis, of 2013, by the Coen brothers, with Oscar Isaac as a folk singer of Greenwich Village in the cold winter of 1961, rated 7.2. Walk the Line is also the best rated film of the playlist, followed by Nashville, of 1975, the oldest of the playlist, by Robert Altman, twenty-four characters in the capital of country music in the days before a political rally, rated 7.3, and by Coal Miner's Daughter, of 1980, with Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn, at 7.2.

The country singers of fiction carry the rest. Crazy Heart, of 2009, with Jeff Bridges as an old singer who drinks his way across the bowling alleys of the West, which won him the Academy Award for best actor; Tender Mercies, of 1983, by Bruce Beresford, with Robert Duvall, also a winner of the award, as a singer who starts again in a motel of Texas; Wild Rose, of 2019, with Jessie Buckley as a young woman of Glasgow just out of prison who dreams of Nashville; Country Strong, of 2010, with Gwyneth Paltrow; Pure Country, of 1992, with the singer George Strait, and Honeysuckle Rose, of 1980, with Willie Nelson. The true stories close it: I Saw the Light, of 2016, with Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams; Sweet Dreams, of 1985, with Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline, and Bound for Glory, of 1976, by Hal Ashby, with David Carradine as the folk singer Woody Guthrie on the roads of the Great Depression. The guide The country film follows the playlist.

Soul, jazz and hip hop

The second family, Soul, jazz and hip hop, gathers 52 films of the music of the Black communities of America and of the singers of the rest of the world, with about 57,400 votes and an average rating of 6.96. It follows the great American music from the clubs of Harlem to the studios of Detroit and the streets of Compton, and it ends in Paris, Mumbai, Seoul and Leningrad. The guide Soul, jazz and hip hop sums up the family.

Jazz

The playlist Jazz holds thirteen films from 1954 to 2023, and its most voted and best rated film is Whiplash, of 2014, by Damien Chazelle, with Miles Teller as a young drummer of a conservatory of New York and J. K. Simmons as the teacher who drives him to blood and to the edge of madness in the search for greatness, a role that won Simmons the Academy Award, rated 8.4 with about 17,300 votes. The great players of jazz have their own films: Bird, of 1988, by Clint Eastwood, with Forest Whitaker as Charlie Parker; Miles Ahead, of 2016, directed by Don Cheadle, who plays Miles Davis in his silent years of the 1970s; Born to Be Blue, of 2015, with Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker, and 'Round Midnight, of 1986, by Bertrand Tavernier, in which the real saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays an American jazzman in the Paris of 1959, rated 7.1.

The singers of the blues and the bands of the swing era fill the rest. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, of 2020, from the play of August Wilson, with Viola Davis as the mother of the blues and Chadwick Boseman, in his last role, as her ambitious trumpeter; The United States vs. Billie Holiday, of 2021, with the singer Andra Day; The Glenn Miller Story, of 1954, the oldest of the playlist; The Cotton Club, of 1984, by Francis Ford Coppola, the nightclub of Harlem of the 1920s; Mo' Better Blues, of 1990, by Spike Lee, with Denzel Washington as a trumpeter; Sweet and Lowdown, of 1999, by Woody Allen, with Sean Penn as an imaginary guitarist of the 1930s, and The Fabulous Baker Boys, of 1989, with Michelle Pfeiffer singing on a piano. The Japanese animated film Blue Giant, of 2023, a young saxophonist of Sendai who moves to Tokyo to become the best in the world, rated 7.8, closes it. The guide The jazz film follows the playlist.

Soul, rhythm and blues and reggae

The playlist Soul, rhythm and blues and reggae holds thirteen films from 1984 to 2024 of the great voices of Black music. Its most voted film is Ray, of 2004, by Taylor Hackford, with Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, blind from the age of seven, from the chitlin' circuit of the South to the mixing of gospel and blues that became soul, rated 7.5 with about 2,300 votes, and its best rated is Selena, of 1997, by Gregory Nava, with Jennifer Lopez as the queen of Tejano music, the young singer of Texas murdered at twenty-three, rated 7.7. The queens of soul follow: Respect, of 2021, with Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin; What's Love Got to Do with It, of 1993, with Angela Bassett as Tina Turner and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, rated 7.1, and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, of 2022, with Naomi Ackie.

The men of the playlist are as varied. Get On Up, of 2014, with Chadwick Boseman as James Brown; Bob Marley: One Love, of 2024, with Kingsley Ben-Adir as the king of reggae in the years of the attempt on his life and the album Exodus; Purple Rain, of 1984, the oldest film of the playlist, with Prince as the Kid, a young musician of Minneapolis; Dolemite Is My Name, of 2019, with Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, the comedian who made his own films; Talk to Me, of 2007, with Don Cheadle as the radio host Petey Greene, and Cadillac Records, of 2008, the story of Chess Records of Chicago, with Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters and Beyoncé as Etta James. Beyoncé also sings in Dreamgirls, of 2006, by Bill Condon, the story of a girl group of Detroit much like the Supremes, in which Jennifer Hudson won the Academy Award for her first role, and Sparkle, of 2012, the last film of Whitney Houston, closes it. The guide The soul film follows the voices.

Hip hop

The playlist Hip hop holds thirteen films from 1984 to 2019 of the music born in the Bronx in the 1970s. Its most voted film is 8 Mile, of 2002, by Curtis Hanson, with Eminem as a young rapper of a trailer park of Detroit who works in a factory and fights his way to the final battle of a club, rated 7.1 with about 8,000 votes, whose song Lose Yourself was the first rap song to win the Academy Award. Its best rated is Straight Outta Compton, of 2015, by F. Gary Gray, the story of N.W.A., Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, from the streets of Compton to the fame and the fights over money, with O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his own father, Ice Cube, rated 7.8.

The legends of the genre have their own films: Notorious, of 2009, the life of the Notorious B.I.G.; All Eyez on Me, of 2017, the life of Tupac Shakur, and Get Rich or Die Tryin', of 2005, by Jim Sheridan, with 50 Cent playing a version of himself. The fictions of the playlist range from the drama to the comedy: Hustle & Flow, of 2005, with Terrence Howard as a pimp of Memphis who wants to rap, whose song won the Academy Award too; Dope, of 2015, three geeks of Inglewood who love the hip hop of the 1990s; Patti Cake$, of 2017, a young woman of New Jersey who dreams of rap; Bodied, of 2018, a student who enters the world of battle rap; CB4, of 1993, with Chris Rock in a parody of gangsta rap; Brown Sugar, of 2002, a love story of two friends who grew up with hip hop, and Beat Street, of 1984, the oldest film of the playlist, the young breakers, DJs and graffiti painters of the Bronx. Gully Boy, of 2019, by Zoya Akhtar, with Ranveer Singh as a young man of the slums of Mumbai who becomes a rapper, from the lives of the rappers Divine and Naezy, carries hip hop to India, rated 7.3. The guide The hip hop film follows the playlist.

World stages

The playlist World stages holds thirteen films from 1958 to 2018 of the singers and musicians of the rest of the world, and it is the best rated playlist of its family, with an average of 7.08. Its most voted and best rated film is Dancer in the Dark, of 2000, by Lars von Trier, with the Icelandic singer Björk as a Czech immigrant of America going blind, who escapes into musicals in her head, the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, rated 7.8. La Vie en Rose, of 2007, by Olivier Dahan, with Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf, which won her the Academy Award for best actress, the first for a performance in French, is the great French film of the playlist, rated 7.4, with Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, of 2010, Dalida, of 2017, and My Way, of 2012, with Jérémie Renier as Claude François, about three more stars of French song, and The Concert, of 2009, the old musicians of the Bolshoi who pretend to be its orchestra to play in Paris.

India brings the playlist its singers and bands. Rockstar, of 2011, by Imtiaz Ali, with Ranbir Kapoor as a young man of Delhi who believes he needs a broken heart to become a great singer, with the music of A. R. Rahman, rated 7.3; Aashiqui 2, of 2013, a singer who sinks into drink as the young woman he discovered rises, a Bollywood version of A Star Is Born; Rock On!!, of 2008, by Abhishek Kapoor, a band of friends of Mumbai who meet again ten years after they broke up, and Taal, of 1999, by Subhash Ghai, with Aishwarya Rai as a village singer who becomes a star, at 177 minutes. The oldest and one of the best rated films of the playlist is The Music Room, of 1958, by Satyajit Ray, an old landowner of Bengal who spends his last fortune on concerts of classical Indian music in his crumbling palace, rated 7.5. Leto, of 2018, by Kirill Serebrennikov, the rock underground of the Leningrad of the early 1980s, in black and white, rated 7.4, and Elis, of 2016, the life of the Brazilian singer Elis Regina, close it. The guide The world on stage follows the playlist.

Classical and beyond

The third family, Classical and beyond, gathers 52 films of the music of the concert hall, the classroom, the drawing board and the documentary camera, with about 104,800 votes and an average rating of 7.16, the best of the three families. It holds three of the best rated films of the guide, The Pianist, The Legend of 1900 and Stop Making Sense, and its oldest film, Fantasia. The guide Classical and beyond sums up the family.

Composers and virtuosos

The playlist Composers and virtuosos holds thirteen films from 1984 to 2024 of the great names of classical music, real and imagined. Its most voted and best rated film is The Pianist, of 2002, by Roman Polanski, with Adrien Brody as Władysław Szpilman, the Jewish pianist of Warsaw who survived the ghetto and the destruction of the city in hiding, and who played for a German officer in the ruins, the winner of the Palme d'Or and of the Academy Awards for best director and best actor, rated 8.4 with about 10,500 votes. Amadeus, of 1984, by Miloš Forman, from the play of Peter Shaffer, tells the life of Mozart, played by Tom Hulce with his famous laugh, through the eyes of the court composer Antonio Salieri, played by F. Murray Abraham, who envies his genius, the winner of eight Academy Awards, among them best picture, rated 8.0, the oldest film of the playlist.

The virtuosos of the rest of the playlist are a strange family. The Legend of 1900, of 1998, by Giuseppe Tornatore, with Tim Roth as a pianist born on an ocean liner who spends his whole life aboard, with the music of Ennio Morricone, rated 8.2; TÁR, of 2022, by Todd Field, with Cate Blanchett as an imaginary conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic at the height of her power; Maestro, of 2023, directed by Bradley Cooper, who plays Leonard Bernstein beside Carey Mulligan; Maria, of 2024, by Pablo Larraín, with Angelina Jolie as the opera singer Maria Callas in her last days in Paris; Florence Foster Jenkins, of 2016, with Meryl Streep as the heiress of New York who sang opera badly and filled Carnegie Hall; The Piano Teacher, of 2001, by Michael Haneke, with Isabelle Huppert, and The Soloist, of 2009, with Jamie Foxx as a homeless cellist of Los Angeles. The composers of the past close it: Beethoven twice, by Gary Oldman in Immortal Beloved, of 1994, and Ed Harris in Copying Beethoven, of 2006; The Red Violin, of 1998, three centuries of a single violin, and All the Mornings of the World, of 1991, the viol players of the court of Louis XIV. The guide The classical film follows the playlist.

Music schools and choirs

The playlist Music schools and choirs holds thirteen films from 1980 to 2021 of teachers, students and the groups they form. Its most voted film is Pitch Perfect 2, of 2015, directed by Elizabeth Banks, the college a cappella group of Anna Kendrick at the world championship in Copenhagen, rated 6.8 with about 5,600 votes, and its best rated is CODA, of 2021, by Sian Heder, the only hearing member of a deaf family of fishermen of Massachusetts, who discovers she can sing and is offered a place at a school of music, the winner of the Academy Award for best picture, rated 7.9. Sound of Metal, of 2020, with Riz Ahmed as a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing, rated 7.7, and the French The Chorus, of 2004, by Christophe Barratier, a teacher who forms a choir in a boarding school for difficult boys after the war, rated 7.7, follow it.

The teachers of the playlist are as famous as their students. Whoopi Goldberg is a lounge singer hidden in a convent who turns its nuns into a gospel choir in Sister Act, of 1992, and a teacher of a poor school in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, of 1993; Richard Dreyfuss is the composer who becomes a music teacher for thirty years in Mr. Holland's Opus, of 1995; Meryl Streep is the violin teacher of East Harlem in Music of the Heart, of 1999, directed by Wes Craven, the master of horror, and Nick Cannon a drummer from Harlem in the marching band of a college of Atlanta in Drumline, of 2002. August Rush, of 2007, with Freddie Highmore as an orphan with a gift for music; Fame, of 1980, by Alan Parker, the students of the High School of Performing Arts of New York; Step Up, of 2006, with Channing Tatum, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, of 2008, a night in the clubs of New York, close it. The guide The music school follows the playlist.

Animated music

The playlist Animated music holds thirteen films from 1940 to 2025 in which drawing and music are partners. Its oldest film is Fantasia, of 1940, the third feature of Walt Disney, eight pieces of classical music played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, among them The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which Mickey Mouse loses control of an army of brooms, rated 7.3; its sequel Fantasia 2000, of 2000, brought Mickey's broom back with new pieces, from Beethoven to Gershwin, and the Italian Allegro non troppo, of 1976, by Bruno Bozzetto, answered Fantasia with a parody of its own. Its best rated film is the newest of the guide, KPop Demon Hunters, of 2025, by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the girl group of Seoul whose songs hold back the demons of the underworld, whose song Golden topped the charts around the world, rated 8.0.

The most voted film of the playlist is Sing, of 2016, by Garth Jennings, a koala who stages a singing contest to save his theatre, with the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and Taron Egerton, rated 7.1 with about 8,600 votes, and its sequel Sing 2, of 2021, rated 7.8. The other singers of the playlist are animals and dolls: the penguins of Happy Feet, of 2006, who find their mates by their song; the three chipmunks of Alvin and the Chipmunks, of 2007, and its sequel, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, of 2009; the trolls of Trolls, of 2016, and Trolls World Tour, of 2020, with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, in which every troll tribe has its own music; the kinkajou of Vivo, of 2021, with the songs of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the dog of Rock Dog, of 2016, a Tibetan mastiff who wants to be a rock star. The guide Animated music follows the playlist.

Music documentaries

The playlist Music documentaries holds thirteen films from 1968 to 2019, and it is the best rated playlist of the guide, with an average of 7.59. Its best rated film is Stop Making Sense, of 1984, by Jonathan Demme, the concert of Talking Heads in Los Angeles in which David Byrne walks on stage alone with a guitar and a cassette player and the band joins him one by one, in his famous big suit, rated 8.4; its most voted is Amy, of 2015, by Asif Kapadia, the life and death of Amy Winehouse told with home videos and her own voice, the winner of the Academy Award for the best documentary, rated 7.6 with about 1,300 votes. Searching for Sugar Man, of 2012, by Malik Bendjelloul, the search of two fans of South Africa for Rodriguez, a singer of Detroit forgotten at home and famous in their country, won the award too, rated 7.9, as did 20 Feet from Stardom, of 2013, the backing singers of the great stars.

The great concerts of rock are here: Monterey Pop, of 1968, by D. A. Pennebaker, the oldest film of the playlist, with Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire; Woodstock, of 1970, by Michael Wadleigh, three days of peace and music, at 224 minutes the longest film of the guide; Gimme Shelter, of 1970, the Rolling Stones and the free concert of Altamont that ended in a killing, and The Last Waltz, of 1978, by Martin Scorsese, the farewell concert of The Band with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. The portraits complete it: Cobain: Montage of Heck, of 2015, the singer of Nirvana told through his notebooks and tapes; What Happened, Miss Simone?, of 2015, the life of Nina Simone; Buena Vista Social Club, of 1999, by Wim Wenders, the old musicians of Havana brought back by Ry Cooder; Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, of 2004, the band in group therapy, and HOMECOMING: A film by Beyoncé, of 2019, her concert at Coachella of 2018 with the marching bands of the historically Black colleges, rated 8.0. The guide The concert film follows the playlist.

The faces of the music

Some actors return across the playlists. Terrence Howard appears in five films, from the pimp who wants to rap in Hustle & Flow to Ray, Get Rich or Die Tryin', August Rush and the young student of Mr. Holland's Opus; Anna Kendrick sings in the two Pitch Perfect films and gives her voice to Poppy in the two Trolls films; Taron Egerton is Elton John in Rocketman and the gorilla Johnny of the two Sing films, beside Reese Witherspoon, who is also June Carter in Walk the Line. Chadwick Boseman is James Brown in Get On Up and the trumpeter of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Jamie Foxx is Ray Charles and the cellist of The Soloist; Bradley Cooper directed and played the two musicians of A Star Is Born and Maestro, and Meryl Streep is the violin teacher of Music of the Heart and the singer of Florence Foster Jenkins. Among the directors, John Carney has three films, Once, Begin Again and Sing Street, and James Mangold two, Walk the Line and A Complete Unknown. The guide The stars lists the actors who appear most often.

TuneMovie in figures

The 156 films of the guide carry about 272,300 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 6.99; seven of them reach 8, from Whiplash, The Pianist and Stop Making Sense, at 8.4, to The Legend of 1900, Amadeus, KPop Demon Hunters and Homecoming, and the collection Rated 7.5 or more gathers the 31 films rated 7.5 or more, best first. By decade, the guide holds one film of the 1940s, three of the 1950s, one of the 1960s, seven of the 1970s, fifteen of the 1980s, 22 of the 1990s, 40 of the 2000s, 47 of the 2010s and twenty of the 2020s, and four years share the record, 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2019, with eight films each. The collection Before 1990 gathers the 27 films made before 1990, oldest first, from Fantasia to The Fabulous Baker Boys, and the collection Since 2010 gathers the 67 films made since 2010.

Together the films last 18,497 minutes, more than 308 hours, or nearly thirteen days of music; the longest is Woodstock, with 224 minutes, followed by Taal, with 177, and the A Star Is Born of 1954, with 176, and the shortest is Fantasia 2000, with 74. The United States is the first country of production of 104 films, France of eleven, the United Kingdom of ten and India of six. The most voted films are Bohemian Rhapsody, Whiplash, the A Star Is Born of 2018, The Pianist and Sing, and the lowest rated is Spice World, at 4.9. The guide The figures gathers every number.

Where to begin

For a first listen, take one film from each family: Almost Famous for rock and pop, Ray for soul, jazz and hip hop and Amadeus for the classics. Then follow your ear. For the drama of practice, Whiplash and Sound of Metal; for the joy of a band, Sing Street, Once and The Commitments; for a great voice, La Vie en Rose, Selena and Walk the Line; for the streets, 8 Mile and Straight Outta Compton; for the concert itself, Stop Making Sense and The Last Waltz; and for the whole family, Sing and KPop Demon Hunters. The guide Start with TuneMovie picks one film from each playlist.

How to use TuneMovie

The home page opens with an introduction on a white panel and the board Playlists, with the twelve shelves in three columns, one per family, each numbered like the tracks of an album, in red for rock and pop, blue for soul, jazz and hip hop and grey for classical and beyond. Each track shows the family, the playlist and its number of films, and leads to its row. Each row sits in a white panel under a grey title bar with a View more button that opens the full playlist. The menu in the header leads to the three families, and the search box finds any film by its title; the guide Search tips explains how.

Each poster shows the year on a red badge, the TMDB rating on a blue badge and, on a dark band at the bottom, the tag of its playlist, for example Rock or Jazz; under the poster come the title, the first genre and the running time. The film page has the English synopsis, the cast, the director and the genres. The Watch now button opens the film on JustWatch, which shows the services that offer it in your country, and the list button keeps it in My list, stored in your browser. The guide How to use TuneMovie explains each part, and the guide The Watch now button explains how JustWatch works.

Questions