Films That Really Sing

In 1975, UNESCO established International Music Day. Every October 1, we get an excuse to spotlight the wide range of musicians and musical styles around the world. But with these five films, we get to celebrate the joy of making music every day of the year.

Piece By Piece

Nobody embodies the joy of making music more than Pharrell Williams, the subject of Morgan Neville’s eye-opening documentary, Piece By Piece. When Pharrell suggested the idea of telling his life story through LEGO animation, Neville immediately saw the possibilities. “It became such a metaphor for everything that was going on in the film,” Neville says in the production notes. “Pharrell is, if nothing else, a dreamer and a person who creates his own realities and bends reality to things that people say you can't do.” Following Pharrell’s journey from growing up in Virginia Beach, discovering music, and then turning the world on to the beats in his head, the film provides a magical musical tour of a musician and artist. For Deadline, the film’s purpose is “clearly to inspire dreamers like him, let creativity run free, and use music to make our lives (and his) driven with purpose and joy.”

Piece By Piece is only in theaters October 11, so get tickets now!

The Sparks Brothers

For his first documentary, The Sparks Brothers, Edgar Wright decided to introduce his favorite band, Sparks, to the world. For 25 albums, Sparks, the Southern Californian brother team of Ron and Russell Mael, astonished the music world with their alchemical talent for constant reinvention and ingenuity. “I wanted the film to have the same spirit as the music,” Wright explains in the production notes. “I wanted to tell their story with the same sense of humor as their music, and by the nature of having very entertaining interviewees, that comes across.” With found footage, stop-motion animation, visual wit, and Sparks’ music, Wright proves himself to be the perfect filmmaker for the band. “Never have I seen a documentary as fun as Wright’s The Sparks Brothers, which is thrilling from beginning to end,” writes RogerEbert.com.

Watch The Sparks Brothers on Apple TV or Amazon now!

The High Note

In Nisha Ganatra’s comedy The High Note, two women find a connection through their love of music. Although Maggie (Dakota Johnson) is the personal assistant to her idol Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), she dreams of one day being a music producer. From inception to production, music influenced the story. In an exclusive Focus Features interview, screenwriter Flora Greeson recounts how she “made playlist after playlist just to get into the zone” to write her story. To get the sound right, Ross sang all the songs herself, many of which were original compositions written by Sarah Aarons and Grammy-winner Corinne Bailey Rae. “The music in this movie is fantastic!” says Ganatra in the production notes. “There is something for everyone and yet all of the songs have a very specific point of view.” The combination makes for, as The Observer writes, “both a comic lark and a profoundly transporting cinema experience.”

Watch The High Note on Apple TV or Amazon now!

TÁR

Nominated for seven Academy Awards®—including Best Picture and Best Actress—Todd Field’s TÁR is a profound exploration of the mind of a world-class musician. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is a brilliant conductor dealing with the complexity of running a world-class orchestra while trying to maintain a personal relationship with her wife (Nina Hoss). When rumors of improper behavior start to bubble up, Tár’s perfectly orchestrated world starts to come undone. “The movie is breathtaking—in its drama, its high-crafted innovation, its vision,” Variety writes. For the music blog Sound of Life, the score composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, especially the composition entitled, “For Petra,” “is nothing short of amazing.”

Watch TÁR on Apple TV or Amazon now!

Back to Black

Sam Taylor-Johnson's Back to Black explores the woman behind the legend that was Amy Winehouse. From her early days singing to her family to her later sold-out concert appearances, Winehouse (Marisa Abela) turned every song she sang into a personal connection. Using music from the Winehouse’s iconic Back to Black album, as well as from artists—like The Shangri-Las, Billie Holiday, Minnie Riperton, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan—who influenced the singer-songwriter, the film maps out the making of the titular record. Abela told NPR, “using Back To Black as an album, as the framework for a story…gives her the power back that I think that she deserves as a legend.”

Watch Back to Black on Apple TV or Amazon now!