Best movies like Shine

Similar in 89%

Nowhere Boy (2009)

Plot Summary:

The drama tells the story of Lennon's teenage years and the start of his journey to becoming a successful musician. The story also examines the impact on his early life and personality of the two dominant females in his childhood.

Similar in 85%

Love & Mercy (2014)

Plot Summary:

The life of reclusive and eccentric Beach Boys songwriter and musician Brian Wilson.

Similar in 79%

Copying Beethoven (2006)

Plot Summary:

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Similar in 80%

Beyond the Sea (2004)

Plot Summary:

Based on the life and career of legendary entertainer, Bobby Darin, the biopic moves back and forth between his childhood and adulthood, to tell the tale of his remarkable life. Kevin Spacey did his own singing for Beyond the Sea, recreating Bobby Darin's vocal style with uncanny accuracy.

Similar in 84%

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010)

Plot Summary:

A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991 at the age of 62.

Similar in 81%

Lennon Naked (2010)

Plot Summary:

A profile of John Lennon in the late 1960s as the Beatles are set to fall apart.

Similar in 85%

Amadeus (1984)

Plot Summary:

The incredible story of genius musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told in flashback by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri – now confined to an insane asylum.

Similar in 82%

La Bamba (1987)

Plot Summary:

Biographical story of the rise from nowhere of singer Ritchie Valens whose life was cut short by a plane crash.

Similar in 81%

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Plot Summary:

Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs like "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.

Similar in 83%

Elvis (2022)

Plot Summary:

The life story of Elvis Presley as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

Similar in 79%

Control (2007)

Plot Summary:

Control is the biography of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, taking his story from schoolboy days of 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.

Similar in 78%

Candy (2006)

Plot Summary:

A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

Similar in 85%

The Legend of 1900 (1998)

Plot Summary:

The story of a virtuoso piano player who lives his entire life aboard an ocean liner. Born and raised on the ship, 1900 (Tim Roth) learned about the outside world through interactions with passengers, never setting foot on land, even for the love of his life. Years later, the ship may be destroyed, and a former band member fears that 1900 may still be aboard, willing to go down with the ship.

Similar in 90%

August Rush (2007)

Plot Summary:

A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

Similar in 86%

Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)

Plot Summary:

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

Similar in 80%

Ray (2004)

Plot Summary:

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered couping gospel and country together.

Similar in 77%

What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

Plot Summary:

A film about the singer Tina Turner and how she rose to stardom with her abusive husband Ike Turner and how she gained the courage to break free.

Similar in 83%

Selena (1997)

Plot Summary:

In this biographical drama, Selena Quintanilla is born into a musical Mexican-American family in Texas. Her father, Abraham, realizes that his young daughter is talented and begins performing with her at small venues. She finds success and falls for her guitarist, Chris Perez, who draws the ire of her father. Seeking mainstream stardom, Selena begins recording an English-language album which, tragically, she would never complete.

Similar in 75%

Whiplash (2014)

Plot Summary:

Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.

Similar in 80%

Awakenings (1990)

Plot Summary:

Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.

Similar in 88%

Temple Grandin (2010)

Plot Summary:

A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling.

Similar in 77%

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Plot Summary:

The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.

Similar in 76%

The Chorus (2004)

Plot Summary:

Set in 1940's France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.

Similar in 86%

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Plot Summary:

At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.