Best movies — musique on Apple TV+ : our Top 20

2021 · Siân Heder

Ruby is the only hearing member of a deaf family, balancing life as their interpreter and the backbone of their struggling fishing business while secretly pursuing a love for singing. When the family's livelihood is jeopardized, she faces an impossible choice between following a chance at a musical future and staying to support the parents who rely on her.

With Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant and Amy Forsyth

2005 · James Mangold

Following Johnny Cash's rise from a childhood spent laboring on an Arkansas cotton farm to his breakthrough at Sun Records in Memphis, the film traces his personal and professional journey as he makes music alongside contemporaries like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

With Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, Dallas Roberts, Dan John Miller and Larry Bagby

2004 ·

Born into a sharecropping family in northern Florida, Ray Charles lost his sight at seven. Encouraged by a determined, fiercely independent mother to make his own way, he discovered his calling at the piano. Touring the South’s lively music circuit, his soul-stirring performances earned him a growing reputation, and his daring fusion of gospel and country propelled him to global stardom.

With Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Regina King, Harry Lennix, Clifton Powell, Bokeem Woodbine and Sharon Warren

2024 · Michael Gracey

Trace Robbie Williams's ascent from childhood to his early breakthrough as the youngest member of the chart-topping boy band Take That, and onward to a record-smashing solo career. Along the way he faces the intense pressures, personal costs and emotional fallout that often accompany dizzying success.

With Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Raechelle Banno, Damon Herriman, Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman and Kate Mulvany

1993 · Jane Campion

Sent to New Zealand’s untamed 19th-century frontier by an arranged marriage, Ada and her headstrong daughter confront life far from home; Ada fights a controlling husband while a fierce, forbidden attraction to a rugged frontiersman sparks a tense clash of wills.

With Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, Cliff Curtis, Kerry Walker and Ian Mune

1978 · Martin Scorsese

Facing imminent execution for the killing of a young couple, a condemned man on death row seeks spiritual counsel from a local nun during the last days before his sentence is carried out.

With Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Eric Clapton and Neil Diamond

2022 · Baz Luhrmann

Spanning Elvis Presley's rise from small-town performer to global icon, the film examines how his fraught, often transactional partnership with the elusive Colonel Tom Parker shaped his career choices, personal life, and the costs of fame.

With Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and David Wenham

2000 · Stephen Frears

When his girlfriend of several years leaves him, a thirty-year-old vinyl-shop owner sets out to understand his romantic bad luck by revisiting the five breakups that have shaped his heart.

With John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joan Cusack

2024 · James Mangold

A nineteen-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village in the early 1960s with nothing but a battered guitar and a fiercely original voice. Against a backdrop of smoky coffeehouses, restless artists and sweeping social change, his songs and presence crack open the scene, inspiring a generation and altering the course of American music.

With Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Joe Tippett, Eriko Hatsune and Peter Gray Lewis

1996 · Scott Hicks

David Helfgott, a gifted pianist relentlessly pressured by his father and teachers, suffers a mental breakdown. Years later he returns to performing, winning popular adoration even if critical approval is mixed.

With Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Googie Withers, Sonia Todd and Nicholas Bell

2011 · Ron Fricke

Captured on 70mm over nearly five years and filmed across twenty-five countries on five continents, Samsara presents a visual odyssey through consecrated sites, regions marked by catastrophe, vast industrial landscapes, and the planet’s most awe-inspiring natural scenes.

With Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi, Puti Sri Candra Dewi, Putu Dinda Pratika, Marcos Luna, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Olivier De Sagazan and Ladyboys of Cascade Bar

2003 · Richard Linklater

A down-on-his-luck guitarist and singer, recently kicked out of his band and desperate for money, talks his way into a job as a substitute teacher for a fifth-grade class at an upscale school. Secretly, he turns his high-achieving pupils into a rock-ready crew, coaching them in guitar riffs, stage presence, and the idea that music can be a form of rebellion and self-expression. As the strict headmistress closes in and a high-stakes Battle of the Bands draws near, he risks his position—and his future—to prove that rock can change their lives.

With Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White, Sarah Silverman, Lee Wilkof, Kate McGregor-Stewart and Adam Pascal

2002 · Curtis Hanson

Jimmy Smith Jr. wakes each day battling to hold on to hope. Immersed in Detroit’s electric music scene, he pours himself into his dreams while confronting the hurdles that keep him from finding his own sound. Driven to claim a place in a world where beats and bars create icons, he treats every performance as a fresh opportunity to prove himself.

With Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, Kim Basinger, Michael Shannon, Evan Jones and Taryn Manning

2014 · Eric Lartigau

A man turns up claiming to be the family's long-lost Uncle Fester after twenty-five years gone, and the household throws a macabre reunion to "wake the dead." The children barely have time to warm the electric chair when Morticia grows suspicious—he can't recall any of the private memories that would prove he's truly Fester.

With Karin Viard, François Damiens, Eric Elmosnino, Louane Emera, Roxane Duran, Ilian Bergala and Luca Gelberg

2003 · Christopher Guest

When the longtime manager of three quirky, forever-under-the-radar folk bands dies, his son persuades the groups—who haven't shared a stage in decades—to come together for a memorial concert. As they rehearse for one last show, old rivalries, faded romances and forgotten songs resurface, forcing them to reckon with their pasts and decide what their music still means.

With Bob Balaban, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean and Catherine O'Hara

1992 · Penelope Spheeris

Two easygoing heavy-metal fans, Wayne and Garth, run a low-budget talk show out of Wayne’s basement. When a slick network executive wants to turn their modest program into a glossy, big-budget franchise—and sets his sights on Wayne’s singer girlfriend, Cassandra—the duo must confront him to protect their show and Cassandra.

With Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Lara Flynn Boyle, Donna Dixon and Chris Farley

1996 · Tom Hanks

A small Pennsylvania group cracks the charts in 1964, and their eager manager funnels them into the fast track of pop stardom, exploiting every chance to keep them in the spotlight. As money, tours and public attention escalate, the pressure fractures friendships and forces the young musicians to confront adult responsibilities, bruised egos and the seductive pitfalls that come with sudden celebrity.

With Tom Hanks, Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry and Charlize Theron

2014 · Tate Taylor

The film follows James Brown’s journey from a childhood of crushing poverty to becoming a relentless, electrifying performer whose talent, drive, and innovative stagecraft reshaped popular music and left a lasting cultural legacy.

With Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Lennie James, Fred Melamed and Jill Scott

2014 · Gina Prince-Bythewood

Rising star Noni Jean dazzles the public, but the relentless pressure beneath the spotlight pushes her to the brink—until she’s paired with Kaz Nicol, a driven young police officer with political aspirations assigned to her security detail. As their professional relationship deepens into something more, Kaz’s steadiness and belief in her help Noni reclaim her voice and break away from expectations to become the artist she was always meant to be.

With Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver, Machine Gun Kelly, Danny Glover, Aml Ameen and Benito Martinez

2007 · Todd Haynes

Six actors inhabit distinct incarnations of Bob Dylan across a sequence of vignettes that trace his journey from an unknown folk troubadour to a global cultural icon, capturing pivotal moments and the ongoing reinventions—both artistic and personal—that shaped his legend.

With Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Charlotte Gainsbourg