The Best Gigs in Film – Own Green Room on Blu-ray & DVD September 19

Green Room

Green Room arrives on Blu-ray & DVD on September 19 (read our review) and it shows punk rock at it’s very best, joining legions of awesome films that show what life is like lived through the lense of music. To celebrate the release here’s a compilation of  some of the very best films for music lovers, capturing the spectacular essence of live gigs on film. Watch, listen and enjoy.

Begin Again

Gretta (Keira Knightley) has just been dumped by her cheating boyfriend (Maroon 5’s Adam Levine), now he’s found success as a musician, whilst she performs at lowlife bars in NYC. A music exec (Mark Ruffalo) down on his luck hears her and they two start a musical collaboration, producing an album together and mending each other’s sorrows.

Straight Outta Compton

Compton is a tough place to grow up, but despite the arduousness, NWA are formed in the mid-80s, revolutionising hip-hop and birthing gangsta rap. The film charts the rise of NWA star performers; Dr. Dre, Easy E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Hella. ‘Straight Outta Compton’ was the group’s seminal album with violence of the gangsta lifestyle forever shaping the hip-hop genre.

Amy

Amy Winehouse died aged 27 from alcohol poisoning after a long battle with addiction. The film shows that her incredible talent was evident from an early age and how her increasing notoriety paralleled her growing dependence on alcohol and narcotics. With footage of live performances and interviews with her closest friends, this film showcases Amy’s incredible vocal talent.

The Wedding Singer

Robbie (Adam Sandler) is the town’s greatest wedding singer. Until he gets jilted at the altar, that is. With his life in ruins, unable to perform at weddings, Robbie meets waitress Julia (Drew Barrymore) who gently coaxes him to help her organise her own wedding. Robbie re-discovers his love of music and falls for Julia, though she’s betrothed to another.

8 Mile

Rabbit (Eminem) is a white trash wannabe rapper, desperate to escape his banal life and co-dependent mother’s (Kim Basinger) trailer. Despite objections from the rapping community based on the colour of his skin, and with the support of his new love interest Alex (Brittany Murphy), Rabbit enters rap battles to try to claw his way out of his own hopeless life.

The Commitments

Alan Parker’s adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s 1987 novel sees Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins), a young music fanatic who assembles a group to form a soul music band known as “The Commitments”. Many of the cast had never acted before, but when they get on stage the music just makes you want to get up and dance.

My Blueberry Nights

Jazz-singer Nora Jones stars as Elizabeth, who sets out on an epic journey across America, to search for meaning after a devastating break-up. Waitressing her way through the US, she meets people with much bigger problems than her own, whilst developing feelings for a sympathetic bar owner (Jude Law) back home who tries desperately to track her down.

Quadrophenia

Jimmy (Phil Daniels) hates his dead-end job, his folks, and his small little life in 60s London. Until the evening comes when he loses himself in the ‘mod’ lifestyle of gangs, mopeds, drugs and live gigs. Thinking he might get lucky with Steph (Leslie Ash), Jimmy eagerly anticipates the August bank holiday, where there’s set to be a kerfuffle with the Rockers on Brighton beach.

Almost Famous

William (Patrick Fugit) has won the competition of a lifetime, to write about his favourite 70s band, Stillwater, for Rolling Stones magazine. He goes on tour, meeting his heroes and falling in love with groupie Penny Lane (Kate Hudson). But not everything is rosy as the magazine pushes for sensational journalism from William and the band starts in-fighting.

School of Rock

Dewey Finn (Jack Black), wannabe rock star, is mortifyingly kicked out of his own band for bad behaviour. In desperate need of cash, he bluffs his way into a teaching job at a prestigious school. Impressed by the musical talent of the prodigies he’s teaching, he imparts his love of rock to his young students, forming a new, younger band to win battle of the bands.

Walk the Line

A biopic of country music star, Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), charting his meteoric rise to fame from humble beginnings to an artist recording alongside Elvis. The film follows the self-destructive talent as he battles with his inner demons, and shows the tumultuous yet redeeming relationship with the love of his life, June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).

This is Spinal Tap

Infamous rockumentary, spoofing the life of a fictional band called ‘Spinal Tap’, a British heavy metal band touring America to promote their ‘Smell the Glove’ album. Rob Reiner mercilessly satirises the rock genre and music documentary, showing the absurdity of star antics. The film is replete with all of the technical mishaps and inconveniences of life on the road.

What are your favourite movie gigs?

OWN GREEN ROOM ON BLU-RAY & DVD SEPTEMBER 19