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Here : Robert Zemeckis’s New Movie Spans a Century, but the Camera Never Moves

“If these walls could talk…” That phrase is often said about the sites of well-known historical events, but it also applies to the private places where we spend most of our lives. In his upcoming film Here, director Robert Zemeckis puts a new spin on that idea, exploring what would happen if these walls could see .

Here takes place entirely from one fixed point of view. The camera never budges. It doesn’t zoom and never even turns. What does move—and rather quickly—is time. More than a century of life in one American living room plays out during the brisk 104-minute story. “The single perspective never changes, but everything around it does,” Zemeckis tells Vanity Fair in this exclusive first look. “It’s actually never been done before. There are similar scenes in very early silent movies, before the language of montage was invented. But other than that, yeah, it was a risky venture.”

Here is a Forrest Gump reunion of sorts, both in front of and behind the camera. The film, which debuts in theaters November 15th, stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and was cowritten by Zemeckis and Eric Roth , all of whom collaborated on that earlier Oscar-winner. Little has been shared about Here 's unusual point of view until now. “That’s the excitement of it,” Zemeckis says. “What passes by this view of the universe? I think it’s an interesting way to do a meditation on mortality. It taps into the universal theme that everything passes.”

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright on a Christmas day in the 1970s, with Kelly Reilly and Paul Bettany as his parents in the background.

Although Here’s focal point doesn’t change, the actors do. Hanks plays a baby boomer named Richard, who at certain times in the story is approximately his own age of 67 but also traverses the decades thanks to traditional makeup effects, as well as digital de-aging effects. Hanks ages into his late 80s and also goes backward to when Richard was a very young man in the 1960s—looking just like two-time Oscar winner did on his TV show debut as the baby-faced star of 1980’s Bosom Buddies .

Wright joins the story during Richard’s late teenage years as his girlfriend and later wife, Margaret, as the couple raise their own children in the house he grew up in, and also goes from looking decades younger to old age as her lively, more adventurous character pulls her husband through the changing times. “Eric and I wrote our generation,” says Zemeckis, who is now 72.

UPDATE: The trailer for Here has debuted. Watch it below:

These aging transformations can be tricky, even with state-of-the-art tools, as Zemeckis knows well. His holiday film The Polar Express pioneered digital performers 20 years ago, which he continued to refine in 2007’s Beowulf and 2009’s A Christmas Carol. Even for the most adept filmmakers, being on the cutting edge also means sometimes tipping into the “uncanny valley,” the term for an audience’s perception of something being unsettlingly unreal. Many films have fallen into it as they experimented. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, for instance, used de-aging techniques to shave decades off of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, but some critics noted that they still felt like old-timers with young faces.

A lot has changed in the five years since, and Zemeckis has continued to build upon and improve those techniques with Here . “I’ve always been, for some reason, labeled as this visual effects guy. But those were always there to serve as the character arc,” he says. “There’s always been a restlessness in trying. I’ve always thought that our job as filmmakers is to show the audience things that they don’t see in real life.”

One thing Zemeckis says he has learned is that successfully cracking the transformation is as much about the voices as the visuals. “It only works because the performances are so good,” he says. “Both Tom and Robin understood instantly that, ‘Okay, we have to go back and channel what we were like 50 years ago or 40 years ago, and we have to bring that energy, that kind of posture, and even raise our voices higher. That kind of thing.”

A behind-the-scenes shot from Here , with director Robert Zemeckis guiding Tom Hanks and Robin Wright through a scene set around the mid 2000s.

As the eras change, so do the symbols of progress in the living room. The film doesn’t typically smash-cut through the years; it deploys gradual transitions rather than abrupt jumps, using the scenery and props to guide the viewer backward or forward in time. As one scene ends, panels appear on screen, layering in segments of the room from earlier or later times before the full image changes. For instance, a 1960s television beside the fireplace will suddenly become covered by a rectangular window into the past, showing a 1930s radio in the same spot. Then the rest of the room from that era fades in and takes over the full perspective as another scene begins.

Zemeckis and Roth borrowed the effect from Here’s source material, a 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, which itself was adapted from a comic strip the artist created in 1989. “Instead of cutting to the next image in the full screen, we’re [easing] into the next scene, bringing us into the next moment in a way that allows us to actually overlap stories.”

Here has some parallels to a traditional playhouse experience, since the film takes takes place in one location, but it differs because the set itself is constantly evolving and changing. “When you’re watching something on the stage, you are the editor and the filmmaker,” Zemeckis says. “ You decide, ‘Am I going to watch that character or am I going to look over here and see that guy who’s sitting on the sofa?’ What we do with the panels is we guide the audience to what we want them to see.”

Using these panels, flashes of the home’s many inhabitants over the decades weave together throughout the story. A World War II veteran turned salesman named Al ( WandaVision’s Paul Bettany ) and his homemaker wife, Rose ( Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly ), move into the house shortly after he returns Stateside after surviving heavy combat. Hanks’s character, Richard, is their firstborn, which sets the core of Here’s story in motion. “There were men in the 1930s and ’40s who lived through the Great Depression and then World War II, and then entered the buttoned-down ’50s where everyone had this conformity,” Zemeckis says. “They didn’t have the tools to express their feelings. And so, there was a lot of anger and a lot of lashing out.”

Paul Bettany's Al (left) films the wedding of his son and new daughter-in-law, played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, in a scene set in the late 1960s.

Al is not abusive per se, but he’s got more edge than the Father Knows Best era acknowledged. Rose is no pushover either, even if the doors open to her are vanishingly few. “The whole point was to make the story identifiable,” Zemeckis says. “We didn’t want people [in the house] to be criminals or spies in highly dramatic situations. There are some people who probably won’t like the fact that the conflicts in the movie are not over the top—that they’re pretty rooted in reality.” Rose and Al are actually named after Zemeckis’s own parents, although he insists that wasn’t his idea, but Roth’s. “I didn’t do it. Eric did it,” he says. “None of it is actually biographical.”

Tonally, Here calls to mind Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, just whittled down to a single room. Hanks’s Richard finds himself overwhelmed by his headstrong father, just as his mother does at times. Richard doesn’t have the rebellious or adventurous streak we’ve come to associate with the ’60s, which causes friction in his own marriage as Wright’s Margaret pushes back against the norms that kept women like her mother-in-law, Rose, from pursuing her own dreams. “Richard is fearful, and I think that’s a common malaise in people,” Zemeckis says. “And yet he’s doing it for all the right reasons. He doesn’t want to risk his family.”

Richard is a 1950s kid whose plans to become an artist are overshadowed by his responsibilities as a husband and father in the 1970s and ’80s. As a new millennium turns over, he is stunned to realize how quickly time has passed. Margaret, meanwhile, senses the ticking clock throughout, urging him to break free, move out, and explore the world. The clashes between the generations show how quickly a culture shifts as children grow up and parents grow old. “I think that the film speaks to the truth that we have to accept that everything changes,” Zemeckis says. “Where we get in trouble is when we resist that reality of life, and then we get dug-in and miss out on opportunities.”

Robin Wright and Tom Hanks contemplate finally leaving his family home, many years after starting their lives together as husband and wife.

While Here focuses mainly on this family, the film occasionally flashes back to those who inhabited these four walls before them and faced their own upheavals and conflicts. Michelle Dockery ( Downton Abbey ) and Gwilym Lee ( Bohemian Rhapsody ) play the home’s first residents at the dawn of the 20th century, an aviator and his wife who never suspect how soon their living room will be used for a funeral wake. David Fynn ( The Mauritanian ) and Ophelia Lovibond ( Guardians of the Galaxy ) costar as an inventor and a pin-up model living the high life in the home during the Roaring Twenties, while Nicholas Pinnock ( For Life ) and Nikki Amuka-Bird ( Knock at the Cabin ) play a couple who lives in the home after Hanks and Wright, chronicling the social upheaval of 2020 in their own family, as well as their housekeeper (played by Anya Marco Harris .)

Sometimes Here journeys even further back, showing glimpses of this woodland location before the home existed. The Colonial mansion that for much of the movie sits across the street outside the home’s front window gets a supporting part, and the Native tribe who inhabited the land before settlers encroached also turns up throughout the story. Just for fun, the audience also briefly glimpses what was there in the prehistoric era.

Still Here : Decades later, the couple remains still rooted to the same place. Despite being all smiles, a restlessness has set in for Wright's Margaret.

The passage of time is one of the reasons Here exists. After decades of innovative hits such as the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Contact , Cast Away , and Beowulf , Zemeckis found himself wondering what frontiers were left to explore. On the set of Disney’s Pinnochio, in which Hanks played the puppet maker Geppetto, the director began brainstorming with his frequent star. “We were in London, musing about movies, and we were both talking about, ‘Is there a possibility to do something that is completely unique, something that has never been done?’ And I said, ‘Well, there’s this graphic novel that I’ve never been able to get out of my mind. It’s called Here .’ That night, Tom went home, bought the book on Kindle, and came back the next morning and said, ‘My God, that’s it. That’s the one!’

“Coincidentally, as I was checking on the availability of the graphic novel, I got a call from Eric, who says, ‘We need to write something together.’ I said, ‘Hey, well, listen, I actually am excited about this idea that Tom’s excited about. Get this book…’ He called me the next day and said, ‘This is it. This is what we have to do.’”

Despite all their years of experience, the veterans of Forrest Gump came together to experiment, without being sure the movie would work. Zemeckis was happy to have found a new hill to climb. “I think that that makes the story hopeful,” he says. “As long as you’re breathing, you can always get on with your dreams.”

Robert Zemeckis directs Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in their characters elderly years in a behind the scenes shot from Here, produced by Miramax and released by Sony Pictures.

Anthony Breznican

Senior hollywood correspondent.

‘Here’ Trailer: Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Get De-Aged and Play Teenagers to 80-Year-Olds in ‘Forrest Gump’ Reunion With Robert Zemeckis

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Sony Pictures has released the trailer for Robert Zemeckis ‘ “Here,” which is the sixth collaboration between the “Forrest Gump” director and his leading man Tom Hanks .

Based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, “Here” tells the century-long story of a single house and all the different people who lived there. The camera sits at a fixed angle for the entire 104-minute duration without moving. In another “Forrest Gump” reunion, the film’s main couple is played by Hanks and Robin Wright . The movie’s script is written by Zemeckis and “Forrest Gump” scribe Eric Roth.

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“It only works because the performances are so good,” Zemeckis said. “Both Tom and Robin understood instantly that, ‘Okay, we have to go back and channel what we were like 50 years ago or 40 years ago, and we have to bring that energy, that kind of posture, and even raise our voices higher. That kind of thing.”

Andrew Golov, Jeremey Johns and Thom Zadra serve as executive producers. “Here” is produced by Miramax.

“Here” hits theaters Nov. 15. Watch the trailer below.

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Screen Rant

Tom hanks' new movie will determine the legacy of a 30 year partnership.

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Forrest Gump True Story: Every Historical Event & How Accurate They Are

Terrifier 3's glass scene with vicky is the most disturbing sequence of the movie, gladiator 2 means denzel washington could equal an oscars feat only 7 actors in history have managed.

Tom Hanks teamed up once more with Robert Zemeckis, now for the drama movie Here , which will be the project that determines the legacy of their 30-year partnership. Tom Hanks continues to be one of the most popular and beloved actors of his generation thanks to his persona on and off the screen. Although Hanks’ acting career peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in the genres of drama and romantic comedies, he has made a bit of everything in over four decades of his career. Of course, Hanks has collaborated with some directors, producers, and actors more than once, among them filmmaker Robert Zemeckis.

Robert Zemeckis’ career began in the 1970s with short films, with his first feature-length project being the comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand , in 1978. Zemeckis gained attention when he directed the comedy adventure movie Romancing the Stone in 1984, and ten years later, he worked with Hanks for the first time in Forrest Gump . Since then, Hanks and Zemeckis have collaborated on a total of four movies , with a fifth scheduled for a 2024 release – and the latter will be key in determining the legacy of their partnership.

Only Half Of Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis' Movies Are Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes

There’s an interesting balance in tom hanks & robert zemeckis’ movies.

Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks have teamed up on four movies (without counting Here ), all of them very different. First was Forrest Gump , in which Hanks played the title character, a man with a low IQ who recounts the early years of his life and how he found himself as part of key historical events. Forrest Gump was a big critical and commercial success, giving Hanks and Zemeckis the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Director, respectively. Forrest Gump has a 76% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95% audience score, granting it a “fresh” label on both.

Forrest Gump documents the latter half of the 20th century, comically inserting Forrest in major historical events. How accurate are the portrayals?

Hanks and Zemeckis reunited in 2000 for the survival drama movie Cast Away , where Hanks played a FedEx troubleshooter who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific and must find ways to survive and return home. Cast Away was a critical and commercial success, and it holds an 89% critics score next to an 84% audience rating, once again earning a “fresh label”. These high ratings ended when Hanks and Zemeckis teamed up again in 2004 for The Polar Express .

The Polar Express is an animated Christmas adventure movie that depicted human characters using live-action and motion capture computer animation, which at the time was innovative. The Polar Express follows a young boy who rides the title train bound for the North Pole, with Hanks playing multiple characters , such as the Conductor. Unfortunately, The Polar Express got mixed reviews from critics and struggled at the box office, and it doesn’t have a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes . The Polar Express has a 56% critics score , making it “rotten”, but a 64% audience score, making it “fresh”.

The Polar Express was the first all-digital capture movie.

In 2022, Hanks and Zemeckis worked together again in Pinocchio , the live-action remake of Disney’s 1940 animated classic. Hanks played Geppetto, Pinocchio’s creator and father, and the movie followed the exact same story as the animated version, though with a couple of changes, most notably the ending. Pinocchio follows an unfortunate trend of Disney’s live-action remakes and has a 28% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes accompanied by a 27% audience score, making it “rotten” in both categories.

Here Will Swing Hanks & Zemeckis' Legacy On Rotten Tomatoes

Here will be a definitive movie in hanks & zemeckis’ team.

Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis’ next collaboration is the drama movie Here , based on the 2014 graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire. Here shows the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants – from the construction of the house to the many experiences the family living in it went through. For this, Here has the camera set on one spot and doesn’t move at all – instead, it’s the setting and props that are changed, and the actors were technologically de-aged so the movie can tell their stories from the past, present, and future.

Here stars Hanks as Richard Young and Robin Wright as his wife, Margaret, being the main characters of the story. Here is scheduled to premiere at the AFI Fest on October 25, 2024, before being theatrically released on November 1, 2024. No matter how well or badly it does with critics, Here will define if the majority of Hanks and Zemeckis’ movies are either “fresh” or “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes .

Will Here Snap Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis Rotten Streak With Critics?

Here will either end or worsen hanks & zemeckis’ rotten streak.

Predicting the success or failure of Here is tricky due to the technology and techniques used in it. De-aging technology has been quite controversial in recent years , making it a tough sell, but the idea of a movie told in a single frame is quite interesting and enough to spark the audience’s curiosity. Here could very well be the movie that gives Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis positive reviews again, but if the story isn’t strong enough, it could continue their rotten streak.

Here (2024)

A young couple expecting their first child takes in the husband's estranged, ailing mother. Set in a single room, the story spans multiple generations, capturing moments of love, loss, and everyday life in the same space. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and featuring performances by Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Paul Bettany, the film uses groundbreaking technology to de-age actors and presents a unique, stationary camera perspective throughout its runtime.

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Tom hanks, robin wright find love while de-aged in robert zemeckis’ ‘here’ trailer.

Hitting theaters in November, the Sony drama reunites key members of the 'Forrest Gump' team.

By Ryan Gajewski

Ryan Gajewski

Senior Entertainment Reporter

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Tom Hanks and Robin Wright experience pivotal moments at one very important place in the trailer for Here .

Sony ‘s TriStar Pictures is set to release director Robert Zemeckis ‘ drama feature in theaters on Nov. 15. Here tells the story of multiple families over the course of generations, with the entire film taking place in a single location, which becomes the home where Hanks’ and Wright’s characters reside. The trailer shows an early exchange between the characters, along with glimpses at their future ups and downs.

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Later in the footage, Hanks invites Wright to stay over at his home: “You know, if you like, you could spend the rest of the night here.” She responds, “I could spend the rest of my life here.”

Paul Bettany , Kelly Reilly and Michelle Dockery round out the cast.

Zemeckis helmed Here from a script he wrote with Eric Roth that is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire. Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Derek Hogue and Bill Block are producers on the film that hails from Miramax.

The Hollywood Reporter  reported last year that Hanks and Wright  are de-aged  in the movie through the generative AI-driven tool called Metaphysic Live. “With  Here , the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves,” Zemeckis explained at the time.

Here marks a reunion for Zemeckis, Roth, Hanks and Wright, who all previously collaborated on 1994’s Oscar-winning film  Forrest Gump , celebrating its 30th anniversary next month. Forrest Gump picked up six Academy Awards, including best picture, in addition to wins for Hanks for best actor, Zemeckis for best director and Roth for best adapted screenplay.

Hanks’ recent credits include Asteroid City , A Man Called Otto and Elvis . Wright recently appeared in the films Damsel and Devil’s Peak .

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Review: Tom Hanks gives ‘A Man Called Otto’ an easygoing sincerity

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It says something about the current state of studio filmmaking in Hollywood that all the things that make “A Man Called Otto” stand out are things that really should make it commonplace. The film is made with a level of craft and simple competence that has become shockingly rare. A genuine movie star is allowed to radiate charisma and charm, and all the performances have character nuance and emotional depth.

These should be the basic building blocks of Hollywood moviemaking and yet here we are, with “A Man Called Otto” feeling special for being a winsome dramedy with some effective moments of tearjerking tenderness. It’s not so much a matter of they don’t make them like this anymore as they should be making them like this all the time.

For your safety

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

Directed by Marc Forster, the film is based on the 2012 novel “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, which became an international bestseller and previously was adapted into a 2016 Swedish film that earned two Oscar nominations. From a screenplay by David Magee, who this year also wrote the adapted screenplays for “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “The School for Good and Evil,” the new film finds enough ways to update the core material to keep it fresh.

As the film opens, Otto (Tom Hanks) is buying a few bits and pieces at a hardware store and then gets into an argument with a clerk about whether he is being overcharged by a few cents for a length of rope. Once he is back at his modest, meticulously kept row house, it is revealed that Otto plans to kill himself, but life keeps getting in the way.

There are his new neighbors, Marisol and Tommy (Mariana Treviño and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a young couple with two small children and expecting another. The trans kid who delivers the newspapers was a student of Otto’s deceased wife, a teacher. Otto also finds himself reconnecting with a pair of longtime neighbors with whom he had a falling-out. Even a self-styled “social media journalist” won’t leave him alone after Otto, who had intended to throw himself onto the tracks, saves a man from being struck by a train.

Otto seems at first to be a rigid, stuck-in-his-ways old man similar to the type Clint Eastwood has played recently in films such as “Gran Torino,” “The Mule” and “Cry Macho,” men who must learn to overcome their prejudices. Otto, largely because of circumstances revealed around his late wife (played in flashbacks by Rachel Keller), is more readily open-minded and open-hearted than those Eastwood characters. He is nevertheless endlessly aggravated by others for a perceived lack of knowledge or abilities.

The film is an odd companion to Hanks’ recent, more willfully weird turn as Colonel Tom Parker in “Elvis,” which found him working against an accent and prosthetics and a fanciful villainous characterization. His role in “Otto” plays to Hanks’ more obvious strengths, his essential affability even when he is presenting a gruff, unyielding exterior. The sweet heart of the character is never too far below the surface.

“A Man Called Otto” is also something of a family affair, with Rita Wilson, Hanks’ wife, as one of the producers and co-writing and performing the song “Til You’re Home.” In flashback scenes, young Otto is played by one of Hanks’ and Wilson’s children, Truman Hanks. And in one of the film’s slyer jokes, the hip-hop song “White Boy Summer” by their son Chet Hanks is used to personify a certain kind of clueless obliviousness in others.

The real standout in the supporting cast is Treviño, a comedy star in her native Mexico who brings real energy and feeling to her role as one of Otto’s new neighbors. She barges into Otto’s orderly life and brings a bit of chaos with her, inserting a much-needed liveliness into the movie as well. Mike Birbiglia is also well cast playing against type as a sleazy real estate developer.

It is not meant as faint praise to say that “A Man Called Otto” is nice. The film has an easygoing, please-like-me quality that somehow never comes off as desperate but instead gives it a reassuring quality, like a mug of warm tea. It’s borderline corny, but sometimes corny can mean unselfconscious, willing to be unguarded in its sincerity. The tender message of hopefulness and spiritual renewal is a welcome tonic as the year comes to a close.

'A Man Called Otto'

Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving suicide attempts, and language. Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 30, AMC the Grove, Los Angeles; AMC Century City

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‘News of the World’ Review: Tom Hanks Does the Strong, Silent Type

The star can’t help but bring decency to Paul Greengrass’s lean, efficient western set in 1870s Texas.

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By A.O. Scott

Nowadays, if you want a selection of news stories culled from various publications, you can use a cellphone app. But if you lived in Texas in 1870, you could pay a dime to watch Tom Hanks shuffle through a stack of newspapers and read selected articles aloud. It seems like a much better deal.

In “News of the World,” a modest, solid western directed by Paul Greengrass and based on the novel by Paulette Jiles , Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kidd, a Civil War veteran eking out a post-bellum living as an analog news aggregator. Kidd, who fought on the Confederate side, travels from place to place, peddling a mix of diversion and information. He promises yarns that will distract his audiences from their own troubles, though his choices include reports on a meningitis outbreak, a coal mine fire and a ferry accident.

That all may count as entertainment given the grimness of the local situation. Five years after the end of the war, a state of simmering hostility persists across much of Texas. Union soldiers patrol the towns and roads, incurring resentment from a white population reluctant to rejoin the United States. Kidd stumbles on the aftermath of a lynching and hears frequent reports of violence against Indians and Mexicans. As is customary in westerns, this bloodshed is part of the film’s background rather than its overt subject. The title is a bit deceptive; the story is intimate and specific, and careful to tamp down any political implications that might make viewers uncomfortable.

Kidd is a variation on a familiar western archetype — a wandering soul who has seen and done terrible things and whose wariness around other people can’t disguise his fundamental decency. The first thing we see of the man are the battle scars on his torso, and before we’ve heard much about him we intuit that he has inflicted suffering as well as endured it. We know he’s a good guy, even if we don’t hear much about the Lost Cause he fought for — not an unusual choice in a western, but one which may have outlived its adequacy. Since this is Tom Hanks we’re talking about , kindness is the dominant note, and the drama arises less from the character’s internal ethical struggle than from the external challenges he faces in his quest to do the right thing.

Those challenges include various bad guys, wagon trouble, rough terrain and inclement weather. All that and more assails Kidd on his journey in the company of a young girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel). The child of German farmers, Johanna was kidnapped and raised by the Kiowa tribe, and has now been orphaned twice over. After a flurry of further misfortunes, Kidd takes it upon himself to deliver the girl, who speaks no English, to an aunt and uncle in Castroville, far away in the Hill Country.

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News of the World

There’s an old-fashioned aesthetic in “News of the World” that might make it easy to dismiss as a “dad movie,” something that plays on TNT in regular rotation for the next decade (which it almost certainly will), but this kind of finely-calibrated genre film is harder to pull off than it looks. There’s an attention to detail in every corner of this movie, including not just the period recreation but everything from James Newton Howard ’s lovely score to Tom Hanks ’ subtle performance. There’s something comforting about giving yourself over to an undeniably talented group of artists for two hours and just letting them tell you a story. That’s what this will be for many this holiday season. Yes, it’s relatively predictable and arguably a little thin in terms of ambition, but it’s also refined and nuanced in ways that these films often aren’t. Everyone here is at the top of their craft from the character actors who populate the ensemble to the two leads at its center to everyone behind the camera, and you can feel that from first frame to last.

Hanks reunites with his “ Captain Phillips ” director Paul Greengrass to play a very different kind of Captain in Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a traveler in Texas in 1870, not long after the end of the Civil War. Kidd is a newsreader, someone who travels from town to town and literally gets paid to read the news to the locals. Home delivery wasn’t a thing 150 years ago and many people in these small towns couldn’t even read, so they relied on people like Kidd to tell them what’s going on in the world. The chosen profession has made him something of an isolated wanderer, but it’s also imbued a deep humanity in Kidd that has given him the air of an old-fashioned storyteller. He’s an entertainer as much as an informer, choosing what to read and how to present it. His travels and encounters also mean he can read people better than most, which will be essential for the next chapter of his life.

That starts when he comes across the scene of a murder. A Black driver has been hanged from a tree and a blonde girl looks at Kidd from the woods nearby. Kidd decides to take the girl he names Johanna (the excellent Helena Zengel ) to safety, even though she speaks no English and appears to have spent much of her young life in the captivity of Native Americans. She comes from German lineage but speaks Kiowa, and she was being taken to the authorities after the tribe who raised her was killed. Kidd realizes he will have to find this orphan a home.

These early scenes may be simple in narrative structure but Greengrass, Hanks, and the team behind the film add so much grace and nuance to them. Hanks has become such a subtle actor over the years, finding the little beats to define Kidd at every turn but never feeling showy. He’s so completely in the moment in this film, responding to each situation believably instead of sinking into the bland protagonist that could have hampered this film. It’s yet another recent turn of his that feels like it won’t get enough attention because he makes it look so easy (see also “Captain Phillips,” “ Bridge of Spies ” and “ Sully ,” among others).

“News of the World” becomes a road movie of sorts for Kidd and Johanna, with new encounters across the unstable landscape. (After the end of the Civil War, Texas was not exactly the safest place in the country.) Greengrass structures it in an episodic way that kind of detracts from the midsection, where the film sags a bit as it jumps from encounter to encounter. The set-up is so well done that watching the movie settle into a road trip may be a bit disappointing, although Greengrass brings out some of his action movie direction skills when they’re needed, such as in a tense shoot-out with some scumbags who try to buy Johanna. However, there’s a better version of “News of the World” that has slightly higher stakes. As difficult as the journey is, neither Kidd nor Johanna have a bruise or scar to show, even after jumping from a runaway horse and cart.

Greengrass is also smart enough to imbue his 1870 Western with some 2020 ideas. Kidd finds his way to Erath County, where the atmosphere is one of isolation and, sorry, fake news. The most prominent figure in the area, Mr. Farley ( Thomas Francis Murphy ) insists that Kidd read his propaganda newspaper about pushing out everyone from the area but the white people, and connections to disinformation in the modern age are not hard to make. And the idea of a man trying to bring a fractured nation back together through knowledge and decency has some relevance in 2020 too.

Not all of these themes are fully fleshed out, but “News of the World” stays together and stays entertaining because of its top-notch craft. It may feel like Greengrass’ most traditional film but there’s an energy to the direction here that’s not always apparent in a Western. It helps that it’s arguably the director’s most aesthetically striking film, with gorgeous vistas captured by Darius Wolski and one of the best scores of the year from James Newton Howard. And it’s so great to see so many wonderful faces filling out the cast like Ray McKinnon , Elizabeth Marvel , and Bill Camp . On paper, this simple tale well-told may not seem like it amounts to much, but, at the end of a year in which comfort was hard to find, this movie sometimes feels like a gift.

In theaters on Christmas Day .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd
• Helena Zengel as Johanna Leonberger
• Fred Hechinger as
• Michael Angelo Covino as
• Thomas Francis Murphy as Merritt Farley
• Elizabeth Marvel as Gannett
• Mare Winningham as Jane
• Neil Sandilands as Wilhelm Leonberger
• Chukwudi Iwuji as Charles Edgefield

Cinematographer

• Dariusz Wolski
• James Newton Howard
• Luke Davies
• Paul Greengrass

Writer (based on the novel by)

• Paulette Jiles
• William Goldenberg

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A Man Called Otto: release date, reviews, cast and everything we know about the Tom Hanks movie

Tom Hanks plays a grump in A Man Called Otto.

Tom Hanks is often referred to as one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but he’s set to play "the grumpiest man in America" in his new movie, A Man Called Otto . Maybe after his portrayal of Colonel Tom Parker in Elvis , Hanks is enjoying the chance to play against his typical nice guy image (though we’re guessing Otto learns some of the errors of his ways).

Many of you may already be familiar with the journey Hanks’ character is about to go on, as A Man Called Otto is based on the New York Times bestselling book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, which actually was previously made into a movie of the same name in 2015.

What lies in store with the American remake? Here is everything we know about A Man Called Otto .

A Man Called Otto release date

After enjoying a brief run in the final days of 2022 to make sure it qualifies for Oscars, Tom Hanks' A Man Called Otto starts to expand to more markets in the US on January 4 and then rolls out in the UK on January 6. It is going to play exclusively in movie theaters everywhere starting January 13.

Here's how to watch A Man Called Otto .

A Man Called Otto plot

Anyone who has read A Man Called Otto knows the basics of what’s in store (with some American sensibilities added in to be fair). But for anyone who has not read the book, here is the official synopsis:

" A Man Called Otto tells the story of Otto Anderson, a grumpy widower who is very set in his ways. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and very pregnant Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that will turn his world upside-down. Experience a funny, heartwarming story about how some families come from the most unexpected places."

The adaptation was written by David Magee ( The Life of Pi ).

A Man Called Otto trailer

Tom Hanks is a great actor, but as the A Man Called Otto trailer shows, even when he is playing a grump it's just a matter of time before he warms up to everything going on around him. Watch the trailer right here: 

Check out the second A Man Called Otto trailer right here:

A Man Called Otto cast

Tom Hanks doesn't really need an introduction. The two-time Oscar winner ( Philadelphia , Forrest Gump ) is one of the most beloved actors of all time. A Man Called Otto is this third movie in 2022 (even if it is only playing the last week of the year), following the previously mentioned Elvis and Disney's live-action remake of Pinocchio .

The rest of the A Man Called Otto cast features Mariana Treviño ( Narcos: Mexico , Overboard ), Rachel Keller ( Tokyo Vice , Fargo ), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo ( The Lincoln Lawyer , Greyhound ), Christiana Montoya ( The Guilty ) and Alessandra Perez ( Spidey and His Amazing Friends ).

A Man Called Otto reviews — what the critics are saying

What to Watch's A Man Called Otto review calls the movie a charmer, with Hanks and co-star Mariana Treviño being the biggest reasons why. While there may be a few groans from some aspects, it's ultimately difficult not to be won over by it.

It seems others generally agree, as A Man Called Otto currently has a "Fresh" Rotten Tomatoes score of 68% from critics, though audiences that have seen the movie score it a bit better, with 88% giving it a thumbs up.

How long is A Man Called Otto?

A Man Called Otto has a runtime of two hours and six minutes.

What is A Man Called Otto rated?

A Man Called Otto has been given a PG-13 rating in the US and a 15 in the UK for "mature thematic material involving suicide attempts and language."

A Man Called Otto director

Behind the camera as the A Man Called Otto director is Marc Forster. This is the first time that Forster and Hanks have worked together, but he is a veteran director whose major credits include Monster’s Ball , Finding Neverland , Stranger Than Fiction , World War Z and Christopher Robin . 

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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The Gorgeous, Moving News of the World Features Tom Hanks at His Best

This review originally ran in December 2020. We are republishing the piece on the occasion of the film’s release on demand.

News of the World might be set in post-Civil War Texas, but it opens with mention of a meningitis outbreak and ends with mention of a cholera outbreak — a subtle (or maybe not-so-subtle) reminder from director Paul Greengrass that even when he makes movies set at a fixed point in the past they’re ultimately about the way things are now. Based on Paulette Jiles’s 2016’s excellent novel, News of the World follows Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), a former captain in the Confederate army, as he attempts to transport Johanna (Helena Zengel), a 10-year-old German girl raised by the Kiowa, back to what remains of her family. In another era — back when the Western genre was a vessel for all sorts of myths about white settlement and civilization — the film might have been about the return of a lost, wild soul to the comforts of an imagined community. News of the World has the elegiac mood and epic look of a classic Western, but its vision of civilization is a lot more complicated. No place in this movie feels like home, for either Kidd or Johanna. The stops on their journey seem increasingly stifling, empty, violent, hellish. These two are nomads both practically and spiritually.

Kidd’s job is to go from town to town reading newspapers from around the world to the public. He mixes bits of current events with evocative tales from distant lands, half-performing his narratives to heighten the crowd’s interest. In her novel, Jiles makes it clear that this dead-end job is all that this former printer could get. The film version of Kidd invests him with a bit more nobility and power: He understands the effect that his stories can have on his audience, and over the course of the movie, he learns to wield that power more pointedly. His tales speak of mysterious occurrences, wondrous inventions, political happenings — and they all serve to open up the world and maybe even place the listener somewhere in it. As Kidd reads and his audiences respond, we feel like we’re watching the start of something strange, new, and fearsome: the beginnings of a connected, self-aware society.

Kidd and Johanna, like many of Greengrass’s characters, straddle different tribes during a time of enormous change. He’s a defeated, reluctant soldier from an army that no longer exists, with bad memories of a gruesome war, but he also charges his stories with a sense of wonder and optimism that feels genuine. Hanks brings his usual affability and understated authority to the part, but he also brings weariness and melancholy: News of the World feels like the first real Old Man Tom Hanks movie, and it’s the most moving he’s been in years. (I’d argue it’s his best work since his last collaboration with Greengrass, Captain Phillips .) Johanna, meanwhile, has been torn from two different families — one German, one Kiowa — right at the point when she’s supposed to be developing her identity. The film’s most heartbreaking moment finds her on the edge of a river, standing on a cliff in the pouring rain, crying and begging for a migrating Native American tribe half-visible across the water to take her back to her Kiowa family.

Meanwhile, all around our two rootless protagonists stretches the failed state of Texas, which Greengrass shoots with the wide-eyed immersiveness he brought in previous films to war-torn Northern Ireland and post-U.S. invasion Baghdad. It’s a land alternating between immense spaces and crowded towns that seethe with division and menace, broken places filled with broken people. But this time, the director opts to forgo the unhinged, handheld “shaky-cam” aesthetic that started to become a punchline in some of his films. News of the World is hauntingly gorgeous, with vistas you can lose yourself in and a James Newton Howard score that lilts and quavers and sweeps. It feels odd to see a Western in 2020 that actually dares to be a Western, especially coming from a director who for so long specialized in urgent, high-tech, ripped-from-the-headlines thrillers. But maybe that’s not so odd a combination. News of the World has the trappings of an old-fashioned epic, but it also has a restless, modern soul.

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NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy. NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy. NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.

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• 475 User reviews
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• 78 Metascore
• 31 wins & 59 nominations total

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• Trivia In a commentary track, Marilyn Lovell comments that Tom Hanks exactly portrays Jim Lovell 's mannerisms and style of movement.
• Goofs Before re-entry, the crew were informed that their course was shallowing because they did not have the lunar samples that would have been gathered if they had landed on the Moon. This is incorrect. Just as Galileo (and the Apollo 15 astronauts) showed that objects of different mass fall at the same rate in a vacuum, Apollo 13's trajectory wasn't affected by its mass. The actual cause was the lunar module cooling system that evaporated water into space, creating an unintended and small but significant thrust. Ballast WAS transferred to the CM to shift its center of gravity for proper aerodynamic lift and steering during the actual re-entry.

NASA Director : This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever experienced.

Gene Kranz : With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.

• Alternate versions A digitally remastered IMAX-format version was released in September 2002. It is about 20 minutes shorter in running time than the original theatrical version. Some of the missing scenes are the dinner that the astronauts have aboard the ship that results in Fred Haise being sick into a plastic bag, and Marilyn Lovell telling the off the press.
• Connections Edited into Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
• Soundtracks Waiting Written by Carlos Santana , David Brown , Gregg Rolie , Michael Shrieve (as Mike Shrieve), Jose Chepito Areas (as Jose Areas), and Mike Carabello Performed by Santana Courtesy of Columbia Records by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

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• June 30, 1995 (United States)
• United States
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The 30 best movies based on true stories.

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Leonardo DiCaprio with airline stewardess surrounding him in a scene from the film "Catch Me If You ... [+] Can," 2002.

Movies based on true stories sometimes feel cheesy or like Oscar bait. However, they don’t have to be. “Movies based on true events” is a broader genre than it sometimes gets credit for. From Drama to Action to Romance and even musicals , many films are based on true stories. However, popular topics especially include bio-pics, war and sports movies. Many filmmakers and writers take inspiration from the world around them and find true stories worth telling. There are hundreds of films based on true stories. While many are good, this list seeks to showcase the best of the best movies based on true events.

Top Movies Based On A True Story

Just to be clear, this list doesn’t include documentaries. It includes only narrative films based on events after the fact. It is hard to rank films on a list like this as they come from all different genres and seek to accomplish different goals. Notably, the films are not ranked by how important the story they tell is. Also, while this list doesn’t consider how close the film is to the real story in its ranking, it does omit several kinds of films that are “inspired by true events.”

This list does not include semi-autobiographical films based on the director’s (or someone close to the director’s) life, such as The 400 Blows, Roma, America America, Past Lives or The Farewell . These are all great films; however, this list prioritizes films that are directly based on true stories. Similarly, this list also tries to stay away from purposely fictionalized films. Purposely fictionalized films include movies where all the major characters are fictionalized like Titanic as well as films that are fictionalized for the purpose of commentary like Citizen Cane, Inherent the Wind or RRR. This list also seeks to stay away from films that are based on novels that include real people like Gods and Monsters or Cabaret.

30. A Night To Remember (1958)

Overcrowded lifeboats are lowered from the stricken Titanic in a scene from Roy Ward Baker's 1958 ... [+] film "A Night To Remember," based on the sinking of the ship on April 14, 1912.

While 1997’s Titanic doesn’t appear on this list because its main characters are fictionalized, A Night to Remember is a very realistic portrayal of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The film, which has long been celebrated for its accuracy, is based on a nonfiction book of the same name, based on 63 survivor accounts. While many have revisited the film to compare it to Titanic , it was also was popular with audiences and critics on its release.

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The film stars Kenneth More, Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum and Tucker McGuire. A Night to Remember currently has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and is streaming for free on Tubi, Pluto TV , The Roku Channel and Amazon.

29. Loving Vincent (2017)

Loving Vincent is not only an animated film but also sells itself as the “world's first fully painted film.” The film is about the life and, specifically, the death of painter Vincent Van Gogh. It is a stylish and heartbreaking film. Loving Vincent is comprised of 65,000 frames of oil painting on canvas in a similar style to Van Gogh. The film took 125 artists six years to complete

Co-directed by DK and Hugh Welchman, Loving Vincent was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film was partially funded by the Polish Film Institute and a Kickstarter campaign. Loving Vincent stars Robert Gulaczyk, Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Helen McCrory and Chris O'Dowd. It is currently available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

28. Selena (1997)

Jennifer Lopez stars in the movie "Selena."

It is surprisingly hard to make a good music bio-pic; many of them feel a bit lackluster. However, there are a couple of good ones including Ray, Get On Up, La Bamba and Walk the Line . It is hard to say if Selena is the best of this genre, but it captures something special, possibly because of the icon it is about. Selena tells the story of the rise and tragic murder of Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.

Directed by Gregory Nava, Selena stars Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda and Lupe Ontiveros. Lopez’s performance is especially notable. In 2021, it was chosen for preservation in the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is available for free on Tubi.

27 . The 47 Ronin (1941)

Many samurai and Chanbara films are at least loosely based on true events. The 47 Ronin tells the story of the Akō incident, where a pack of swordsmen avenged the death of their lord during the Tokugawa Shogunate. The film shouldn’t be confused the 2013 film 47 Ronin (which isn’t good) or the 1958 film The Loyal 47 Ronin (which is just okay), which also tell the story of the Akō vendetta.

The film was originally supposed to be government propaganda to bolster wartime patriotism; however, director Kenji Mizoguchi took it in a far more subdued direction. It is long and did poorly at the box office . However, part of this was likely due to its release the week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film wasn’t shown in America until two decades later. While it wasn’t popular initially, it is a beautiful foundational film in the samurai genre. If you are looking for more great Chanbara films based (at least loosely on) true stories, When the Last Sword is Drawn , and Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy are also wonderful. The 47 Ronin is free to stream on Tubi and Max with a subscription.

26. The Big Sick (2017)

A view of atmosphere during Amazon Studios and Lionsgate Present The LA Premiere Of "THE BIG SICK"

Very few romcoms are based on true stories; however, The Big Sick does it well. The film tells the story of the early romance between Kumail Nanjiani and his now wife, Emily V. Gordon, as she battles adult-onset Still’s Disease. Nanjiani and Gordon co-wrote the film, and it feels very personal.

Directed by Michael Showalter, Nanjani plays himself, while Gordon is played by Zoe Kazan. The film has a lot of heart and humor and feels deeply human. While the movie received good reviews , it also drew criticism for its depiction of Desi women, something that Nanjiani has since apologized for. The film is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime .

25. Glory (1989)

American actors Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher and Matthew Broderick on the set of "Glory."

War movies are a large subsection of the “based on a true story” genre; however, many of them are not great (this may also have to do with some bias against war movies by this author). Out of the subgenre of true war movies, Glory is arguably one of the better ones. The film tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, a Black regiment during the Civil War.

Directed by Edward Zwick, the film stars Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. It is easily one of the best Civil War movies ever made, and its grandness and heart carry it. Washington’s performance is also a standout, and he won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (the film also won for Best Cinematography and Best Sound). Glory is available to rent on YouTube , Google Play , Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

24. Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Displays and signage is seen during the "Dolemite Is My Name" premiere

Dolemite is My Name tells the story of Rudy Ray More and his character, Dolemite, who he used as a stand-up and in a series of 1970s blaxploitation films. The film is not only funny but also has a lot of heart while it tells a story about representation and low-budget filmmaking.

Directed by Craig Brewer, the film stars Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Tituss Burgess and Wesley Snipes. Murphy and Randolph especially shine; however, the entire cast delivers great performances. If you enjoy Dolemite is My Name, you should also watch 2003’s Baadasssss! , a film about Melvin Van Peebles’s challenges when making another blaxploitation classic, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song . Notably, Van Peebles’s son Mario Van Peebles wrote, directed and played his own father in Baadasssss! . Dolemite is My Name is available to stream on Netflix.

23. Pride (2014)

Pride tells the story of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign, a group of gay activists who became involved in the 1984 British miners strike in a small village in Wales. Directed by Matthew Warchus, Pride stars Ben Schnetzer, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Andrew Scott.

The film is incredibly earnest while still having a message about community, collective liberation and acceptance. It received the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. It is one of several very sweet but still funny queer movies based on a true story (other notable films include I Love You, Phillip Morris and Kinky Boots .) It is available to rent on YouTube , Google Play, Apple TV and Amazon Prime .

22. The Iron Claw (2023)

Writer/director Sean Durkin, Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Jeremy Allen White, Zac ... [+] Efron and Kevin Von Erich attend the Los Angeles Premiere of A24's "The Iron Claw."

The Iron Claw follows the real-life story of the Von Erich brothers and World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). It's a heartbreaking film about wrestling, familial pressure, the bonds of brotherhood and generational curses.

The film stars Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Lily James. Efron’s performance is powerful and easily one of the best of his career leading many to say that he, and the film at large, were snubbed at the Oscars. The film was produced and promoted during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike because it was given special dispensation due to A24’s relationship with the Union. The Iron Claw is available to stream on Max.

21. The Big Short (2015)

The Big Short is based on Michael Lewis's book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine and follows how the housing bubble triggered the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Directed by Adam McKay , the film features a large ensemble cast that includes Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong and Marisa Tomei.

The film's real strength is its ability to take a fairly dry and complicated financial story and make it engaging and often funny. It is also impressively accurate. The film was nominated for five Oscars and won for Best Adapted Screenplay. It is currently available to stream on Peacock and Paramount+.

20. Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

There are many martial arts films about Wong Fei-hung (who was both a real person and a Cantonese folk hero). However, Once Upon a Time in China is arguably the best. The film follows Wong’s fight for family, lov and his martial arts school during a period marked by the rising tide of imperialism and a rapidly modernizing way of life in late 1800s China.

Directed by Tsui Hark, Once Upon a Time in China was a breakout film for Jet Li. It is a prime example of Hong Kong’s golden age of cinema in the 1990s and it won four Hong Kong Film Awards. The film has several sequels, but the original is by far the best. Once Upon a Time in China is currently streaming on Max.

19. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

A large part of what makes Can You Ever Forgive Me? a must-watch is the performances, especially by Melissa McCarthy (as well as co-star Richard E. Grant). The film is based on the memoir of Lee Israel and follows Israel as she forges letters from deceased celebrities as her writing career was failing.

The movie was nominated for three Oscars. Directed by Marielle Heller, the film is surprisingly funny in a dark and wry sort of way. However, more than that, it is a beautiful if quiet film about success, alcoholism and guilt that will be loved by those with queer sensibilities or appreciation for the bygone great minds of New York City. It is available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV and Amazon Prime .

18 . The Sound of Music (1965)

A poster for the British release of Robert Wise's 1965 musical, "The Sound Of Music," starring Julie ... [+] Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

While The Sound of Music is directly based on the 1950s stage musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, it is also one of many films based on the life of Maria Von Trapp. The musical and its film adaptation are loosely based on Maria von Trapp’s 1949 memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers .

The film follows Maria from her life in a convent to her time as the governess for the von Trapp family in 1930s Austria, and the family’s eventual escape from the Nazis to Switzerland. Directed by Robert Wise, the film stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. While the film originally garnered mixed reviews, it won five Oscars and surpassed Gone With The Wind to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a distinction it held for five years. The Sound of Music is currently streaming on Disney+.

17. Persepolis (2007)

While not many animated films are based on true stories, Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir of the same name. The film follows Satrapi’s life after the Iranian revolution. Co-directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the film retains the graphic memoirs in bold black-and-white style, which is very arresting.

The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. It has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is available to rent on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Play and Apple TV .

16. Funny Girl (1968)

American actress and singer Barbra Streisand films a scene of "Funny Girl" with her co-star Omar ... [+] Sharif, 1968.

Funny Girl is based on a stage musical of the same name. It follows the life of comedian Fanny Brice and her relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein (if a little loosely). The film stars Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif. Sharif was almost replaced in the film for being Egyptian since the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt broke out while the film was in rehearsals. However, director William Wyler and Streisand threatened to quit if executives replaced him.

Funny Girl went on to gain both critical and commercial success and earned eight Academy Award Nominations. It has also received praise for its portrayal of Jewish womanhood . It is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

15 . A League of Their Own (1992)

A photo from the popular movie "A League of Their Own."

"There's no crying in baseball!" A League of Their Own maybe shouldn’t count for this list. While it is based on the true story of the All-American Girls League and the Rockford Peaches were a real team, many of the characters are fictionalized. The film follows the creation of a women’s baseball team as World War II shuts down men’s major league baseball.

Directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, Jon Lovitz, Garry Marshall and Bill Pullman. The baseball in the film is surprisingly real. Every woman who auditioned for the film also had to learn or be able to play baseball. Davis especially had some natural talent, and learning to play for the movie led her to rediscover a love for sports. She even eventually made it to the Olympic trials for archery… talk about an arm. It is still the highest-grossing baseball movie of all time, beating out the Jackie Robinson biopic, 42. It is currently streaming on Sling TV with a premium subscription.

14. Zodiac (2007)

There are many films based on real-life serial killers. While many are not great, some stand-outs include My Friend Dahmer, Monster, In Cold Blood and Memories of Murder (which is a little too fictionalized for his list but a masterpiece of a film). However, the best of this genre is 2007’s Zodiac , which follows the search for San Francisco’s so-called zodiac killer in the late 1960s.

The subgenre of serial killer-inspired movies often suffers from either being too imagined or focusing too much on the culprit. Zodiac does neither, partially because the case it's based on is still unsolved. The film is based on two books by Robert Graysmith, which posit an idea of who the culprit was, but there is still room for mystery. The film almost feels more like a story of a newspaperman than of a killer, but it works phenomenally as a slow-burning thriller. Directed by David Fincher, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. and Brian Cox. It is currently streaming on MGM+ .

13. Milk (2008)

General view of the atmosphere at Focus Features' world premiere of "Milk" held at The Castro ... [+] Theatre in San Francisco, California.

Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, and who was assassinated in 1978. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the film stars Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and James Franco.

Milk received 8 Oscars nominations, winning two for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. It is one of many great biopics of important LBGTQ+ icons (including 2015’s Bessie , 1997’s Wilde , 2005’s Capote and 2002’s Frida ) and is a must-watch in the genre. It is available to rent on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Apple TV.

12. Raging Bull (1980)

Robert De Niro as boxer Jake LaMotta in a scene from "Raging Bull."

Raging Bull tells the story of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. The film is based on his memoir Raging Bull: My Story. Directed by Martin Scorsese , the film stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty and Nicholas Colasanto.

Initially, De Niro wanted to make the film with Scorsese, but the director wasn’t interested. However, after a collapse while at the 1978 Telluride Film Festival (and another soon after in New York City), Scorsese connected with LaMotta's story and agreed to make it. Raging Bull went on to be nominated for eight Oscars and currently has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes . It is available to stream for free on Amazon Prime . It is also available on Max with a subscription.

11. All The President’s Men (1976)

Robert Redford sitting on a desk with Dustin Hoffman pointing at him in a scene from the film "All ... [+] The Presidents Men," 1976.

A quick response to the Watergate scandal, All the President’s Men is based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The film follows the two as they investigate the 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula, All the President’s Men stars Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and Hal Holbrook. It is a very well mde film, even if it was probably more striking closer to the scandal than it is now. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, winning four. In 2010, it was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress. It is available to rent on Amazon Prime, YouTube , Google Play and Apple TV.

10. Hustlers (2019)

Jennifer Lopez seen filming on location for 'Hustlers' in SoHo on March 29, 2019 in New York City.

Hustlers is a film based on a 2015 New York Magazine article by Jessica Pressler called "The Hustlers at Scores" about the true story of NYC strippers and their con of drugging stock traders to commit credit card fraud.

Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, the film is darkly funny and inventive. It balances genuine emotion and bombastic crimes. Overall, it feels like part Goodfellas and part Showgirls , but in the best way possible. The film stars Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Cardi B and Jennifer Lopez, who was especially praised for her performances and dancing. It is currently streaming on Hulu.

9. Schindler's List (1993)

Schindler’s List is based on the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved more than a thousand Jews from the Nazis by employing them in his factories. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley.

While there are some key differences between the real-life story and the film, Schindler’s List is a beautiful film that had some real-world implications. The film was a commercial success, earning $322.2 million worldwide on a $22 million budget, and due to the film's success, Spielberg founded the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The city of Kraków also purchased Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory and turned it into a permanent museum exhibition. The film was also nominated for 12 Oscars. Schindler’s List is available to rent on Google Play , Apple TV, Amazon Prime and YouTube.

8. Fruitvale Station (2013)

Fruitvale Station tells the story of the murder of Oscar Grant by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police in 2009. It is a heartbreaking film that follows the last day of Grant's life leading up to his death on the early morning of January 1.

The film was the first feature film written and directed by Oakland filmmaker Ryan Coogler. It stars Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray, Ahna O'Reilly and Octavia Spencer. Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize and an Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival (under its original title, Fruitvale ). The film feels very authentic to Oakland and the Bay Area, especially Jordan’s performance. It is currently streaming on Max.

7. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

The movie's poster on display at the Variety Screening Series presentation of "Hotel Rwanda."

Hotel Rwanda tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a man who sheltered over 1,000 refugees in his hotel in Kigali during the Rwandan Genocide. Directed by Terry George, the film stars Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Nolte.

The film is heartbreaking and inspiring, but more than that, it takes aim at the west and their blind eye to the horrors of genocide in Rwanda, including the failures of the U.N. While Hotel Rwanda is the most famous, there are a couple of other beautiful films about the Rwandan Genocide, including Lee Isaac Chung’s Munyurangabo and Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda. Hotel Rwanda is streaming for free on Tubi , Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.

6. The French Connection (1971)

Gene Hackman in "The French Connection."

While The French Connection takes some creative liberties and fictionalizes some characters, it is based on the 1969 non-fiction book of the same name. The film follows NYPD and narcotics officers as they try to track down a French Heroin kingpin. While it is probably most famous for its car chase scene under the elevated subways in Brooklyn, it is a great crime thriller throughout.

Directed by William Friedkin, the film stars Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco. The French Connection was nominated for eight Oscars and won five, including Best Picture. It has been a favorite of many directors, including Akira Kurosawa. David Fincher said that it “had a profound impact” on his life. Steven Spielberg also used it as an inspiration for his film Munich. The French Connection is currently available to stream on Max.

5. Catch Me if You Can (2002)

It is hard to say how much of Catch Me if You Can actually happened ; however it is based the alleged life of Frank Abagnale Jr. The story follows the conman as a teenager who carries out a check fraud scheme. Even if the real Frank Abagnale Jr. faked parts of his memoir, the film is a phenomenal look at success and dreams in the 1970s.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye and Amy Adams. The film was nominated for two Oscars. It is streaming for free on Pluto TV or with a subscription on Paramount+.

4. Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Poster for "Judas and the Black Messiah."

Judas And The Black Messiah is one of several amazing films about the lives of civil rights pioneers (others include Selma and Malcom X ). Directed by Shaka King, Judas and The Black Messiah is about the murder of Fred Hampton and Chicago’s Black Panther Party in the 1960s.

The film stars Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders and Martin Sheen. Kaluuya and Stanfield especially shine in this film, and both actors were nominated for Academy Awards for best supporting actor (Kaluuya won for his portrayal of Hampton). It perfectly captures the drama of revolution and the FBI’s fear of social change while still being a tensely watchable real-life thriller. It is currently streaming on Max.

3. Goodfellas (1990)

Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Paul Sorvino and Joe Pesci in a publicity portrait for the film ... [+] "Goodfellas," 1990.

“We always called each other Goodfellas.” Based on Wiseguy, journalist Nicholas Pileggi's book about Henry Hill , Goodfellas follows the rise and fall of a mob associate. The film is a master class of mixing humor, tragedy and brutality.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas stars Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Pesci. In 2000, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film also helped inspire T he Sopranos , which featured 27 actors who appeared in Goodfellas over its six seasons. Goodfellas is currently streaming on Philo.

2. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

"Dog Day Afternoon" lobbycard featuring Al Pacino and Penny Allen, 1975.

"Attica! Attica!" Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon is based on a Life magazine article called "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The film follows a robbery and hostage situation at a Brooklyn bank.

Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick and Charles Durning. The film was a success, both with critics and at the box office, and was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Screenplay. It has also been reassessed (without too many spoilers) as an early important film in queer cinema . It is available to rent on YouTube , Google Play , Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

1 . I, Tonya (2017)

Actress Margot Robbie attends Screening Of "I, Tonya."

I, Tonya takes a refreshing approach to the sports biopic by not really answering the question, “Did Tonya Harding orchestrate the 1994 assault on her figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan?” Instead, it posits, “There’s no such thing as truth… everyone has their own truth.” I, Tonya is contradictory and full of unreliable narrators, which feels extremely fresh in a genre that usually gives a single narrative. Its meta analysis on the genre of bio-pics is what makes it stand out in all the right ways.

The film focuses on the difficult life of skating’s most controversial olympian. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the film stars Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Paul Walter Hauser and Bobby Cannavale. It masterfully balances humor, class commentary and tragedy and really makes you feel for a difficult woman. I, Tonya earned Robbie her first Academy Award nomination, and Janney won the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. It is currently streaming on Max.

Bottom Line

From inspiring stories to laugh out loud comedies, there are many different types of films that are based on true stories. However, all of these films capture something... well, “real.”

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