The familiar, isolated sound cues from their big hit song. The screams and squeals of an adoring crowd. The star earnestly explaining his hope to become the biggest and best act in the world. You know what’s coming: the latest biopic about a world-renowned pop act. Whether it’s Frankie Valli or James Brown, Ray Charles or Bobby Darin, the trailer will always hit these notes.
Jersey Boys and Get On Up are the latest examples, and while the lives they profile may be enormously different, you wouldn’t know that from their trailers. Throw them together with some other recent films from the genre, as we’ve done (there are so many that we had to leave out Walk the Line just to keep things manageable), and you’ve got the makings of the most epic musical biopic ever. I’d go.
