I hate biopics

I never liked biopics movies, and for a while I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Sure, I've nitpicked about inacuracies in the few I saw that were about a topic I thought I knew something about, and I've complained about how they always focus way too much on the glamour and the drama. But I could feel there was something deeper that bothered me about them. Part of it is simply that a movie is not the same thing as a documentary. The latter is mostly concerned with facts, while the later is all about telling a story. Stories need themes, characters, plot, rhythm and all that jazz that real life doesn't care about. No matter how accurate the script might strive to be, the very act of telling the story is bound to color the reality, which is why complaining about whether or not a scene accurately portrays whatever happened is missing the point. And that's fine. If the author has something interesting to say, I don't see why you couldn't end up with something great.1 But the whole…