The Big Picture: ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics

Published 2022-06-24; 1:19:22 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “'Elvis,' 'Walk Hard' and Top Five Music Biopics”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins. Guests: Adam Nayman.

Subject films: Elvis (2022), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; the transcript includes baked-in ads (Propel, Botox, Columbia, Feeding America) and a Westworld podcast promo, which were skipped. Attribution between Sean and Amanda in the Elvis segment is partly inferred; Adam is identifiable only after 0:26:11.

Films that came up

subject (2)

Elvis · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

compared (12)

The Great Gatsby · Ray · Cloud Atlas · Airplane! · Airport · The Doors · This Is Spinal Tap · Forrest Gump · Repo Man · Velvet Goldmine · The Velvet Underground (documentary) · The Beatles: Get Back

passing (27)

Moulin Rouge · Mank · Once Upon a Time in Hollywood · The Searcher (Elvis documentary) · Rocketman · Bohemian Rhapsody · Knocked Up · Superbad · The Decline of Western Civilization · El Norte · My Family · Carrie · Gorillas in the Mist · Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story · The Trip · Brokeback Mountain · 12 Years a Slave · The Tree of Life · Dirty Harry · Bronco Billy · White Hunter, Black Heart · Joker · Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid · Inside Llewyn Davis · Top Gun (original and new) · Irma Vep (HBO series) · The Black Phone

recommended (14)

Walk the Line · Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping · Selena · Coal Miner's Daughter · Behind the Candelabra · La Vie en Rose · 24 Hour Party People · Love & Mercy · Bird · Jersey Boys · Amadeus · Sid and Nancy · I'm Not There · Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

dismissed (2)

Respect · Untitled Bowie biopic (the one with no Bowie songs)

anecdote (1)

Revenge

Claims (48)

  1. career (career context): Baz Luhrmann → Moulin Rouge!. Luhrmann reinvented musicals with Moulin Rouge and redefined the jukebox musical, making him a natural fit for Elvis.
    “reinvented musicals, really, with Moulin Rouge and redefined the idea of the jukebox musical.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:04:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (parody target): Walk the Line → Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Amanda argues effective parody must work from something that works, and watched the two back to back; the buzz-saw brother incident mirrors Walk Hard's setup.
    “for something, to be an effective parody, it has to be working from something that actually works.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:04:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. people (performance praise): Elvis → Austin Butler. Butler embodies Elvis so well that Sean thought he was really good, though the Parker framing detracts from him.
    “I don't know if he looks exactly like Elvis, but man, he embodies him so well.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  4. unmapped (parody of a parody): Elvis → Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Elvis seems to parody Walk Hard's parody of women ripping open shirts at the star.
    “somehow this movie is doing a parody of the Walkhard parody of the scene of like women like busting open.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:09:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. people (same director, style as substance): Elvis → The Great Gatsby. Style-as-substance can't hold up a whole film, as Luhrmann's Great Gatsby shows.
    “I think that that can't hold up a film, as we've learned in like many other Buzzlerman films, including Great Gatsby”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:13:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
  6. career (career echo): Elvis → Cloud Atlas. Hanks's accent work in Elvis recalls his big swing in Cloud Atlas; accents are not where he excels.
    “it reminded me a little bit of Cloud Atlas where he's like, I want to have some fun.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:23:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. unmapped (prefigured by): Elvis → Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. A scene in Elvis (the subject thinking over his life before going on stage) is almost beat for beat preceded by Walk Hard.
    “there is a scene that is almost beat for beat preceded by walk hard 15 years ago.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:26:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  8. unmapped (parody of): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Ray. Walk Hard arrived in the wake of Ray and Walk the Line and skewers their clichés.
    “that film coming out in the wake of things like Ray, and especially walk the line”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:27:51 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. craft (structural analogy): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Airplane!. Walk Hard is modeled on Walk the Line the way Airplane! is modeled on Airport, then copies everything else.
    “in the same way that airplane is modeled mostly after airport, and then it copies everything else.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:27:58 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. unmapped (parody of): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Walk the Line. Walk Hard is a beat-for-beat demolition of Walk the Line (and Ray), pairing contempt with affection.
    “it is such a perfect note for note, beat for beat, cliche for cliche, demolition of this kind of movie, with just the right amount of contempt and affection”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:28:10 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. theme (genre boom): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Rocketman. Walk Hard did not deflate the music biopic; Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody and Respect kept coming, certifying it as a subgenre.
    “So it didn't actually deflate anything. If anything, it almost like raised them up and certified them as an ongoing subgenre in film.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:29:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  12. unmapped (produced by): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Judd Apatow. Walk Hard was produced and shaped by Judd Apatow, in his big year of Knocked Up and Superbad; one of his better credits.
    “it is produced by, and shaped in a good way by, by, by Judd Appital, right?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:30:12 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  13. industry (marketing mimicry): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → The Doors. Walk Hard's poster of John C. Reilly was modeled on Val Kilmer in The Doors so it would pass as a real biopic.
    “the poster of John C. Riley is modeled on Val Kilmer in the doors, right?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:30:27 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. unmapped (songwriting credit): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Marshall Crenshaw. Marshall Crenshaw, a power-pop singer, has songwriting credits on Walk Hard's catchy songs.
    “there's also some songwriting credits on it, I think, for Marshall Crenshaw, who's a great power pop singer from the 80s”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:33:56 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  15. craft (craft): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Weird Al. The guest says the songs written for Walk Hard are credible enough to meet the high bar set by Weird Al's song parodies, which is the comparison for its style-parody music.
    “it's a high bar to match someone like weird out in his song parodies”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:34:07 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  16. craft (shared plot device): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Elvis. Both feature a dead brother as the formative trauma (Walk Hard's wrong-kid-died gag, Elvis's twin).
    “that's also the premise of Elvis is that, you know, his twin brother died at a very young age.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:35:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  17. unmapped (missing scene): Elvis → Respect. Respect's songwriting-in-the-studio scene always works; Elvis disappointingly has no 'they're writing Jailhouse Rock' moment.
    “there's no point where they're just like, oh my god, they're writing Jailhouse Rock or whatever.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:37:48 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80 sure it was them)
  18. lineage (origin-of-moves gag): Elvis → Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump already did the bit where Elvis took his moves from a kid in leg braces.
    “How could they ever improve on the Bitten Forest Gump where you find that Elvis didn't actually get his moves or style some black music?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:38:01 · Adam Nayman (0.75 sure it was them)
  19. unmapped (solves a problem): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Untitled Bowie biopic (the one with no Bowie songs). A Bowie biopic with no Bowie songs is the IP problem; Walk Hard avoids it by inventing a fake musician with credible songs.
    “Walkhart solves that problem by inventing a fake musician and then giving him songs that almost sound more credible than the real ones.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:38:52 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  20. lineage (spiritual kin): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → This Is Spinal Tap. Both lampoon rock-star mythology; Dewey is a Forrest Gump of popular music where Tap's band has no identity.
    “connecting Walkhart to Spinal Tap, because I think there's a deep spiritual communion between these movies”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:38:58 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  21. theme (character analogy): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Forrest Gump. Dewey is the Forrest Gump of American popular music, inhabiting every style.
    “he's almost kind of the forest gump of American popular music because he inhabits all of them.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:39:25 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  22. people (cameo): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Eddie Vedder. Eddie Vedder inducts everyone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a parody of himself, singled out as the funniest performance ever.
    “It's like funniest performance ever in a movie, is Eddie Vedder doing a parody of himself, because he inducts everyone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:40:05 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
  23. unmapped (satire trilogy): Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Spinal Tap, Walk Hard and Popstar make an instructive trilogy of music satire, with Popstar the millennial, internet-era update.
    “if you drew a line from Spinal Tap through Walkhard through pop star, that's like just this expert satire”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:41:03 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
  24. unmapped (breakthrough role): Selena → Jennifer Lopez. Selena was J.Lo's breakthrough; her presence overrides standard biopic filmmaking.
    “this was her big breakthrough performance, and this is an example of just someone taking over the screen”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:43:13 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
  25. people (performance pick): Coal Miner's Daughter → Sissy Spacek. Adam picks the film for Spacek's uncanny performance, not the ordinary filmmaking.
    “I just pick it because of the uncanniness of SpaceX performance.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:45:41 · Adam Nayman (0.95 sure it was them)
  26. career (shapeshifter filmography): Michael Apted → Gorillas in the Mist. Apted made the Up documentaries, a Bond movie, Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner's Daughter.
    “He made gorillas in the Mist. He made this movie. He really was a shapeshifter.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:46:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  27. unmapped (wished-for complement): Elvis → Behind the Candelabra. Sean wished Elvis had more Fat Elvis; Behind the Candelabra is one long stretch of that excessive late period.
    “I wish there was a little bit more Fat Elvis in the film Elvis.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:47:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  28. people (directed by / HBO): Behind the Candelabra → Steven Soderbergh. It aired as an HBO movie before Soderbergh made HBO movies full time.
    “this was an HBO movie before that was his full-time job.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:48:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  29. contrast (tone contrast): Behind the Candelabra → Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Behind the Candelabra is very comic but not parody, unlike Walk Hard.
    “It's not parody. It's not comedy, even though it is very comic.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:48:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  30. people (director-actor collaboration): 24 Hour Party People → Steve Coogan. Winterbottom and Coogan collaborate repeatedly (Tristram Shandy, The Trip) and this is the best of them.
    “when he does things with Steve Coogan, they're very good.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:51:04 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  31. contrast (contrast of technique): 24 Hour Party People → Adam McKay. Fourth-wall breaking is now often dire (Adam McKay) and hard to do well; Winterbottom does it lightly.
    “this 4th wall breaking is now quite dire. I mean, this is like what happens with Adam McKay stuff and it's like, it's hard to do that well.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:53:08 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
  32. contrast (structure contrast): Love and Mercy → Elvis. Love & Mercy splits its story across two Brian Wilsons (Cusack, Dano) rather than a cradle-to-grave Wikipedia run.
    “it gives you kind of 2 lenses to, to go through the 60s and the creation of the Beach Boys”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:54:54 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
  33. people (producer turned director): Love and Mercy → Bill Pohlad. Pohlad, a producer of Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave and Tree of Life, directed only this film of note, clearly a passion project.
    “he was one of the producers of Brokeback Mountain, and 12 Years a Slave, and the Tree of Life”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:56:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  34. theme (shared theme): Bird → Bronco Billy. Eastwood's theme of craft as self-destruction, central to Bird, is also what Bronco Billy and White Hunter, Black Heart are about.
    “It's kind of what Bronco Billy's about, is what White Hunter, Black Heart is about.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:58:04 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  35. people (same director, grave mode): Bird → Jersey Boys. Adam likes Eastwood in his severe, slow-paced mode, even in Jersey Boys.
    “as someone who likes Eastwood and likes him in his kind of grave, severe, slow paced mode, even like Jersey Boys”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:58:58 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  36. what-if (almost-cast): Bird → Richard Pryor. For years Richard Pryor was supposed to play Charlie Parker before Forest Whitaker did.
    “One for years was supposed to be Richard Pryor, portraying Charlie Parker, and it ultimately became Forrest Whitaker.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:59:28 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  37. industry (studio rights trade): Bird → Revenge. Warner Bros. and Columbia swapped Revenge and the Charlie Parker story so both could be made.
    “They had to trade the Kevin Costner, Tony Scott movie Revenge from Warner Brothers to Columbia and the Charlie Parker story from Columbia to Warner Brothers”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:59:42 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  38. craft (same structure): Elvis → Amadeus. Both tell a titanic cultural figure's story through a lesser, frustrated figure entrenched in their life (Salieri, Colonel Parker).
    “It actually has a little bit in common with Elvis in that it's the story of this Titanic, almost imperceptible figure in the culture, through the lens of a lesser and perhaps more frustrated figure”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:01:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  39. contrast (contrast of approach): Amadeus → Elvis. Amadeus conveys Mozart's genius without answering who he was; Elvis also skips interiority but fails to fill the gap.
    “it's smart that Elvis doesn't do that, even though you feel the lack of it because Elvis doesn't fill anything else in.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:02:36 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85 sure it was them)
  40. unmapped (early appearance): Sid and Nancy → Courtney Love. A young Courtney Love is visible in the background, in the very first scene.
    “you can also see a youngish Courtney Love in the background of the of the movie”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:09:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  41. people (same director, opposite vibe): Sid and Nancy → Repo Man. Alex Cox made punk-adjacent Repo Man (affirmative vibes) then Sid and Nancy (apocalyptic) back to back.
    “Repo Man is a kind of punk movie, but the vibes are good in Repo Man”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:09:50 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
  42. what-if (almost-cast): Sid and Nancy → Daniel Day-Lewis. The Sid Vicious part almost went to Daniel Day-Lewis rather than Gary Oldman.
    “this is almost Daniel Day Lewis, it almost wasn't Gary Oldman, which would have also been a fascinating wrinkle.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:10:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  43. lineage (spiritual progenitor): I'm Not There → Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Todd Haynes's first film, the Barbie-doll Karen Carpenter story, is the progenitor of I'm Not There's foregrounded cliches.
    “a movie that's kind of the spiritual progenitor if I'm not there, which is Superstar, which is the 1st thing Todd Haynes ever made”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:11:55 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  44. programming (scene-film companion): 24 Hour Party People → Velvet Goldmine. Velvet Goldmine is a B-side or A-side to 24 Hour Party People, looking at a music scene through its history.
    “it's like a B side or a, an A side to 24 hour party people where it's like looking at the scene through that musical history”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:12:26 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  45. lineage (pastiche source): I'm Not There → Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Haynes styles one segment after Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and another after Pennebaker, so the film is also different period filmmaking.
    “he styles one whole segment after, you know, Pat Garrett and Noie the Kid.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:13:32 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  46. craft (disguised music biopic): I'm Not There → Inside Llewyn Davis. Adam would rather listen to Llewyn Davis sometimes than Dylan, a different disguised music biopic.
    “I actually rather listen to Lewin Davis sometimes in Bob Dylan, which is a whole other kind of disguised music biopic.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:13:58 · Adam Nayman (0.65 sure it was them)
  47. people (double bill, auteur): I'm Not There → The Velvet Underground. Both show Haynes's fascination with originating power: where it came from and how pieces assembled into a singular figure or band.
    “the thing that it fascinates him is originating power. It's like, where did this come from and how did it come together?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:16:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80 sure it was them)
  48. contrast (double bill, opposite control): The Velvet Underground → The Beatles: Get Back. Haynes's film is all shaping and concept while Jackson's Get Back just lets you sit and listen.
    “What an interesting double bill development underground dock is with get back.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:16:41 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)

Fun items (25)

  1. fun, about Elvis: Amanda zoned out and missed that Elvis's mother died, and only realized the fancy house was Graceland when the film moved on; the pacing is endless yet frenetic.
    “Like, quite literally, I missed that Graceland was purchased as Graceland, you know, like 2 hours in the movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:05:43 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Elvis: Sean's contrast: Elvis was shot with one camera on Ed Sullivan; the movie cuts a hundred times in two minutes to match his magnetism.
    “it literally cuts a 100 times in a 2 minute period of performance because that's almost sort of what it takes to match the Elvis Presley magnetism.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:17:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Tom Hanks: Hanks's Colonel Parker accent is compared to Goldmember; separately Amanda notes this is the film where he contracted COVID.
    “he's doing basically the gold member accent”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:18:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Elvis: The film's 68 Comeback Special sequence and 'If I Can Dream' are Sean's favorite moments, close to Elvis's 'A Change Is Gonna Come'.
    “It's as close as Elvis got to a change is going to come.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:21:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Elvis: Sean and Amanda attended the same screening unknowingly; Amanda left with alacrity.
    “We were at the same screening. We didn't know this and I did watch you just leaving with like alacrity, even for you.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:24:08 · Amanda Dobbins (0.75 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: Adam watches the Beatles-stop-fighting-in-India excerpt on YouTube about weekly; he saw the film twice in theaters.
    “I don't know how many times I've watched the Beatles stop fighting here in India excerpt online on YouTube.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:30:05 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: Amanda saw it on a Netflix mailer on a couch with a group of young people, which she thinks is how this whole generation of films should be experienced.
    “which is how I think all this this entire generation of movies should like truly be experienced.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:31:43 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: Walk Hard's Roy Orbison parody 'Life Without You' is stirring; the fake hippie numbers like the song about a change that never says what it is are great.
    “the fake Roy Orbison song he does, the life without you is really quite stirring”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:34:22 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: Tim Meadows and Chris Parnell as Dewey's backing band mocking a Dylan parody: 'This is very deep.'
    “Tim Meadows with his perfect delivery. like, you don't understand. This is very deep, you know?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:34:52 · Adam Nayman (0.80 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: The film's jokes annotate themselves: characters introduce themselves and each scene has a thesis statement, which the film dares you to call out.
    “daring you to call it, call bullshit on this trope of just people saying who they are at all times, which I think is priceless.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:35:37 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: The final Hall of Fame performance is with Jewel, Lyle Lovett and Ghostface, inducted by Eddie Vedder who 'should have won an Oscar'.
    “he performs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the greatest band of all time, which is Jewel, Lyle, Lovett, and Ghostface”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:39:49 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Selena: Amanda was shown Selena in high school intro to Spanish on a quiet day to learn about Selena and Tejano music.
    “they literally showed us this movie in intro to Spanish when I was in high school.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:44:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Coal Miner's Daughter: Sissy Spacek was afraid of the part; after Loretta Lynn announced on Johnny Carson that Spacek would play her, Spacek prayed for a sign and heard the title song on the car radio.
    “supposedly she was driving around and coal miner's daughter came on the radio in the car and she was like, okay, I'll do this.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:46:16 · Adam Nayman (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about La Vie en Rose: Marion Cotillard's Oscar speech is a favorite; the hosts joke about her later 'jet fuel can't melt steel beams' remarks.
    “It is true that there are angels in this city tonight.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:49:58 · Marion Cotillard (0.60 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about 24 Hour Party People: The real Howard Devoto, as an extra in the frame, turns to camera during a scene of Devoto sleeping with Tony Wilson's wife to say he doesn't remember it happening.
    “there's an extra in the frame who turns to camera and says, I definitely don't remember this happening and the person who does that is the real life Howard DeVoto.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:52:28 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Love and Mercy: Director Bill Pohlad is the son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad; he produced Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave and Tree of Life, a benefactor for filmmakers.
    “a guy named Bill Polad, who is the son of Carl Polad, the billionaire owner of the Minnesota Twins.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:55:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Bird: Warner Bros. and Columbia traded Revenge for the Charlie Parker rights, and Adam jokes Revenge is a gift to history that social media should avoid.
    “Revenge and Bird would be quite a double feature.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 0:59:52 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Amadeus: Amadeus won all the Oscars; the lasting memory is F. Murray Abraham's Salieri rather than Tom Hulce's Mozart.
    “I think the lasting memory of this movie is not Tom Holst, but F. Murray Abraham”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:02:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Walk the Line: Amanda was embarrassed about picking Walk the Line at number one but took a 'Tony Hawk 720' route to going with her heart; she notes Reese Witherspoon is lit like a Greek goddess.
    “Also, she's lit like a Greek goddess. It's extraordinary how beautiful she looks in this movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:05:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.90 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Sid and Nancy: Adam rented it at 10 or 11 because the cover box looked like it was about deeply unhappy addicts; the last 10-15 minutes are brutal and the postscript is a gut shot.
    “10 or 11 year old Adam rented when he shouldn't have and just severely fucked him up.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:06:22 · Adam Nayman (0.95 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Sid and Nancy: Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb have a documentary texture and look possessed.
    “it's not made like a documentary, but the acting has a documentary texture in it, like Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:07:19 · Adam Nayman (0.95 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Gary Oldman: Running gag: Adam says Oldman is great 'playing Mank or whatever', and Sean protests loudly.
    “Not or whatever, how dare you? Back when he was, he played mank, all right?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:08:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story: Todd Haynes's first film uses Barbie dolls to tell Karen Carpenter's story; the Carpenter estate was not happy.
    “The Karen Carpenter estate was not happy with that movie, right?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:12:08 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about I'm Not There: A 7-Dylans-in-one film, Todd Haynes is the smartest guy Adam has interviewed; Sean and Adam call it hugely pretentious but says it blows through that.
    “Todd Haynes is in like the 99th percentile of smartness for American filmmakers having interviewed him.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:14:24 · Adam Nayman (0.90 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about The Beatles: Get Back: Adam notes Get Back is the opposite of Haynes: it just lets you sit, though Jackson tweaks skin tone and inserts a calendar; he adds it is 'literally endless'.
    “I'm going to insert a calendar every so often, you know, just so you know what day it is.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Elvis,’ ‘Walk Hard’ and Top Five Music Biopics · 1:17:14 · Adam Nayman (0.85 sure it was them)

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