15 Great Unconventional Biopics

Writing about what you love is easy; but taking something you pretty much hate and finding a way to love it is perhaps more valuable. Which brings us to the subject of today's excavation: the horror of banality summoned by the word "biopic."

"Biographical picture" should be a value-judgement-free term for a category of films that can encompass every possible genre, depending on who is being profiled. But instead, the standard biopic has evolved into a kind of genre unto itself, so when we hear that Famous Person X is "getting the biopic treatment" we already know what to expect: awards baity star turns from actors looking for a short cut to the Oscar podium ("The Theory of Everything"); plentiful montages, prologues, epilogues, flashbacks, and more to cover as much ground as possible ("Ray"); convenient scenes that cue up the better-known episodes in the subject's life ("Y'all can't walk no line!" spits Reese Witherspoon...