Movies about beloved musicians are a dime a dozen, but sift through the earnest biopics and career-spanning documentaries and you'll discover a storied subgenre: movies about great musicians who deserve more credit than they get. Some of those films, like the Oscar-winning Searching for Sugar Man and 20 Feet from Stardom, give their central musicians an extra boost of notoriety. But most remain relatively unknown, just like their subjects. Here are some cinematic deep cuts about unfairly overlooked artists you should consider streaming.
ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL (2008)
In the headbanging '80s, Canadian hair metal band Anvil had the shredding stage antics that could have made them the next big thing. It never happened. Often called the real life This Is Spinal Tap, this documentary follows the aging rockers on a disastrous European tour, and it's often as funny as any scripted comedy. Streaming on Paramount+
A BAND CALLED DEATH (2012)
The Hackney brothers of the '70s band Death were anomalies in their hometown of Detroit: a trio of Black teenagers making fuzzy, furious hard rock in the birthplace of Motown. This doc finally gives Death its due, showing how they found their sound and accidentally prefigured the rise of punk. Streaming on Redbox
BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME (2012)
Now they're canonized, but there was a time when power-pop pioneers Big Star were the sort of band that only your coolest friend's older brother knew about. This doc explores why it took so long for them to take off, and how they influenced everyone from KISS to R.E.M. to countless '90s alt-rockers. Streaming on Tubi
BLAZE (2018)
Another of director Ethan Hawke's portraits of underappreciated artists and their processes (see also: Seymour: An Introduction), this time dramatizing the final years of country musician Blaze Foley. He never found fame during his short life and is admittedly still pretty obscure, so this film functions as much as a primer as a biopic. Streaming on Kanopy and Tubi
THE DEVIL & DANIEL JOHNSTON (2005)
With his warbly voice and hand-drawn album art, the late Daniel Johnston developed a fanbase that included Kurt Cobain, Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth. His cult grew even bigger following Jeff Feuerzeig's gripping 2005 bio-doc, which brings emotional context to Johnston's nakedly sincere lyrics. Digital rental
THE RUNAWAYS (2010)
Most musical biopics chart both highs and lows, but The Runaways, about the short-lived but influential all-girl rock band, is a catalog of horrors about being a young woman in show-biz. It features great work by Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as singer Cherie Currie, and a ferocious Michael Shannon as sleazy self-imposed svengali Kim Fowley. Digital rental
SUZI Q (2019)
Suzi Quatro's blend of early rock 'n' roll and glam made her a '70s superstar in Europe and Australia. But the Detroit-born singer and bassist never hit it big in her home country. This documentary effectively argues that most hard rocking women (including the Runaways) have taken cues from Quatro. Streaming on Kanopy
THE WRECKING CREW (2008)
Maybe you don't know their names, but the group of L.A. session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew played on countless classic recordings of the '60s and '70s (from Frank Sinatra and Cher to the Beach Boys and the Partridge Family). Directed by Denny Tedesco, son of Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco, this heartfelt doc puts faces and names to some of rock's most famous riffs. Streaming on Peacock, Tubi and YouTube
