2. Walk The Line
It must have been very difficult to put together a respectable film about the life of a singer that isn't just any country music star - he IS country music for many people. However, casting Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon as Johnny Cash and his wife Julia Carter was a masterstroke by James Mangold that made Walk The Line one of the most enjoyable biopics ever created. It's probably not all that factually accurate (Cash's daughter Rosanne said that the figures were "unrecognisable" to her), but that doesn't prevent it from being a great film. At its core, it's a romantic drama between its two leads - and one that transcends many of the trappings of romantic drama more widely due to the compelling performance sequences and portrayal of these two key figures from music's history. Witherspoon in particular is phenomenal. She crackles with intensity, and her vocals are genuinely stirring. Phoenix sings Cash like... Well... Like Cash sings Cash! Roger Ebert, a lifelong Cash fan, was totally convinced by his vocal mimicry. Whether or not the story is true to life, the evocation of the characters' musical talents absolutely is. It may not have won the awards that many felt it merited, but Walk The Line was nominated for plenty and achieved vast commercial success.