Malcolm X 1992
Ryan's favorite biopic and, to him, Spike Lee's Citizen Kane; an act of subjective biography carried by Denzel Washington.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
Danny Strong and the Recipe for a Classic Biopic | The Big Picture (Ep. 25)
September 15, 2017/ 35 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan try to define the biopic through their favorite examples, then Fennessey talks to writer-director Danny Strong about his J.D. Salinger film Rebel in the Rye.
25 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
What makes a biopicSean Fennessey and Chris Ryan on the form
Citizen Kane 1941
Held up as the stylized end of the spectrum against Malcolm X's fictionalized one.
Ray 2004
The default template: name in the title, childhood trauma, rise-fall-rise across a whole life.
Straight Outta Compton 2015
A hit that captures only a narrow slice of its subjects' lives.
Raging Bull 1980
The opposite scope: roughly a 40-year span of one man.
The Imitation Game 2014
Reads more like a procedural than a biography: the task, not the character.
Steve Jobs 2015
Skips the usual expository life story and stages the man across three product launches; a Sorkin favorite of both hosts.
Molly's Game 2017
Named as the next Sorkin, still to come.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007
A film about the mythology of a person, told through someone else's eyes.
Wyatt Earp 1994
Ryan's soft spot: Costner's life's-work Western, admired for how unconcerned it is with being cool; overshadowed by Tombstone.
Tombstone 1993
The quotable, rewatchable counterpart with Val Kilmer.
Amadeus 1984
Forman's portrait of a fascinating but not good man: Mozart as a frothy fool at war with Salieri.
The People vs. Larry Flynt 1996
Same director, Milos Forman, drawn to grand eccentrics.
Ed Wood 1994
Ryan's number-one example of loving portrayal: Burton and Depp make a failure the hero; the last good Burton movie.
Lincoln 2012
Great filmmaking that mostly confirms what we already knew about its subject.
Lawrence of Arabia 1962
A perfect movie Ryan struggles to place: is it about the man or the grandeur of widescreen cinema?
24 Hour Party People 2002
Ryan's pick: Tony Wilson riding the post-punk and Manchester dance music wave.
Milk 2008
The kindred film: a subject caught in the middle of a great cultural upheaval.
Danny Strong on Rebel in the Rye
Danny Strong on
Rebel in the Rye 2017
His directorial debut, on the middle stretch of J.D. Salinger's life: the war, the trauma, the writing of Catcher in the Rye. He optioned the biography himself, wrote on spec, and recut significantly after Sundance.
Danny Strong on
Salinger 2013
The documentary he feared would make his film irrelevant; it turned out birth-to-death and completely different from his period piece.
Danny Strong on
The Best of Enemies 2019
He's producing it: Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, Robin Bissell's directing debut; the first cut made him cry.
Danny Strong on
Seabiscuit 2003
Bissell's producing credit, part of why Strong came aboard The Best of Enemies.
Danny Strong on
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 2014
One of the studio assignments that kept pushing the Salinger movie back.
Danny Strong on
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 2015
After finishing it he turned down about ten offers to go write Rebel in the Rye.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV / TV movies EmpireBuffy the Vampire SlayerBillionsRecountGame Change
Unmade projects Guys and DollsThe Da Vinci Code
Podcast ad reads The WatchBlack on the Air