The biopic has given us some of the best and worst works in film history. As far as making multi-million-dollar movies go, it can be boiled down to a simple enough task: tell us the true-ish story of someone's life. But that simplicity and accountability to fact — while recognising that sometimes, you just can't let the full truth get in the way of a good movie — has both inspired and confounded some of the great directors of our time .

Resultantly, the genre has given us the likes of Lawrence of Arabia , which is present in most serious conversations about the greatest film ever made, and some of the best performances in cinema history (hello, Robert De Niro in Raging Bull ). It has also dropped some proper clangers that we'll do the kindness of leaving unnamed.

Biopics recall

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