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The Best Biographical Movies Of 2022

The best 2022 biopics entertain you while also giving you a better sense of who a celebrity or historical person was in real life. My Best Friend Anne Frank  is a Netflix Original movie that offers a little bit of insight into Anne Frank's life through the perspective of her best friend. Against the Ice is a biographical film that shows a historical figure going far and surviving against the odds find evidence to contradict the U.S.'s claim to Greenland. These are just a few of the great biographical films that are coming out in 2022 and there are bound to be a few Oscar contenders on the list below.

But which one deserves to be at the top of the list? You get to help decide by voting up your favorite 2022 biopics and voting down the ones that you think fellow cinephiles should skip this year. Be sure to check back for new and upcoming biopics as they are added to the list once they are released.

The Fabelmans

Though not a true biopic, director Steven Spielberg based The Fabelmans on his own childhood.   

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We can't help but fall in love with Baz Luhrmann and his glitzy musical biopic of the iconic Elvis Presley. Austin Bulter plays the King of rock 'n' roll from his early days starting out on the carnival circuit to his nights in Las Vegas. The always fabulous Tom Hanks costars as his hustler manager Colonel Tom Parker while some of music's greatest help out with the soundtrack and step in some of the supporting roles, such as Yola and Jack White. 

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Biopic movies are set to take over our screens in 2022 (and beyond). These are the ones not to miss

By Fiona Ward

A good biopic movie is always going to be a hit with viewers – seeing an actor transform into a person or icon we already know is never not a talking point; plus we get to learn more about the lives and stories of those we have perhaps admired, adored or even questioned.

If you loved the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody, House of Gucci or Rocketman , the chances are that you'll be just as excited about these upcoming biopic movies just as much as us. 

There's something for the film buff in all of us – from Austin Butler taking on the role of Elvis Presley (judging by the trailer, he's *nailed* the walk) to Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston – and yes, it's a musical. 

The ceremony has just wrapped at the Royal Albert Hall.

By Lucy Morgan , Ali Pantony and Charlie Teather

It's not all rock 'n' rollers and pop icons either, since a biopic of model, actress and TV personality Anna Nicole Smith is also in the works, as well as a drama based on the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, whose pursuit for justice over the killing of her son Emmett Till will be portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler.

Here's GLAMOUR's round-up of the star-studded biopics that are set to hit screens in 2022 (and beyond).

Baz Luhrmann directs this epic biopic starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, and Tom Hanks as his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Set to hit cinemas on 24 June 2022, all we've seen so far is a snippet trailer shared on social media, with a shot of Elvis' trademark swagger and soulful vocals. Get excited.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

We can already feel the buzz surrounding the Whitney Houston biopic starring Star Wars alum Naomi Ackie - which will chart her rise to stardom. It will release on 23 December 2022.

It's said that the movie will feature Whitney's many beloved songs, using her original vocals rather than Naomi's. Producer Clive Davis told SlashFilm : "Although Whitney's incomparable vocals are used for all the songs, Naomi's extraordinary acting range enables her to masterfully capture Whitney's unique charm, star power, and, of course, her personal struggles. Naomi is the real deal and I can't imagine a better choice for this iconic role."

It's been confirmed that a Michael Jackson film is currently in the works, produced by Bohemian Rhapsody 's Graham King. It's not known whether the biopic will address the multiple child sexual abuse claims that Michael faced during his life and following his death, however – though the movie has the endorsement and cooperation of his family and estate, according to Variety .

You can expect tune after tune in this film following the life and work of Peggy Lee, starring Michelle Williams as the celebrated jazz singer. Reese Witherspoon is producing, too, while Billie Eilish has also been rumoured to be involved.

And if you think you don't know any Peggy Lee songs, you do. Think Fever , Big Spender and It's A Good Day . What a knockout.

So Much Love

Gemma Arterton is taking on the role of Dusty Springfield in So Much Love , which she has described as a "more intimate" take than other blockbuster biopics.

She told the Daily Mirror : "I am kind of a bit terrified by it, but at the same time really excited. It’s about a specific moment in her life when she made  Dusty in Memphis  and went to America for the first time and did that amazing incredible album and defied everybody’s expectations.”

Going Electric

A Bob Dylan biopic starring Timotheé Chalamet was put on hold due to the pandemic back in 2020, but it's since been confirmed that production is back on (thank you, film gods).

It's said that Timmy has put a lot of work into the role, using the first covid lockdown to absorb himself in Dylan's world, even renting a place in Woodstock, New York, where the singer lived for some time.

Not much is known about the Anna Nicole Smith biopic centring on the late model and TV personality – including who is going to play her. According to Deadline , GLOW star Betty Gilpin was in talks to take the lead role until recently, when she had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.

So what do we know? Producers have described the film as looking at the “immense hurricane-like force that was Anna Nicole Smith, and the fateful string of events that led Anna to destroy everything in her path, including herself and those closest to her.”

Bohemian Rhapsody 's Lucy Boynton is stepping into Marianne Faithfull's shoes for a biopic about the singer's inspiring story – from her rise to fame, her publicised relationship with Mick Jagger to her experiences with heroine addiction and recovery. We're expecting lots of incredible 60s fashion and beauty looks in this one, too.

By Elizabeth Logan

By Emma Howarth

By Elle Turner

Telling the heartbreaking story of the racist murder of Emmett Till and its aftermath, Till stars Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley, a mother desperate to get justice for her son. Whoopi Goldberg produces and co-stars as Emmett's grandmother, Alma Carthan. An important watch. 

It will release in October 2022.

The Bee Gees biopic

It doesn't have a name as yet, but things are set to get seriously funky when the Bee Gees biopic finally hits cinemas. The movie is going to be directed by Kenneth Branagh according to Deadline , but there's no word as to which trio of actors will play the Gibb brothers as yet.

The Madonna biopic

Our very own Material Girl is on the biopic bandwagon, too, and has revealed she is set to write and direct a film about her life. It's still in the early stages, by the sounds of things, but she already has her sights set on a leading lady: Florence Pugh.

She told the Associated Press in 2021: "I don't know. We haven't decided yet. But she’s definitely up there on the list, if she'll have me."

The Bob Marley biopic

Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley and Cedella Marley are all on board to produce a Bob Marley biopic, which Deadline reports will be directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, of King Richard fame. The film is in its early stages, but we'll wait patiently to hear who will portray the reggae icon. 

The Cher biopic

Snap out of it! Cher has confirmed that a biopic based on her life and career will be produced by the makers of Mamma Mia! . Intriguing.

As for casting news, there isn't much to report, but Cher did reveal to Variety that she thinks her leading lady should be a newcomer. “We were talking about it yesterday, and we’re just trying to think of [actors],” she said. “I said, ‘I don’t think we know her yet.’”

The Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne biopic

The tumultuous love story of Ozzy and Sharon is set to be reimagined on screens – and it's a true Osbourne family affair. As yet untitled, the film will be produced by Sharon and her children Jack and Aimée under their label Osbourne Media. 

Sharon has said of the movie: “Our relationship at times was often wild, insane and dangerous but it was our undying love that kept us together. We’re thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram to bring our story to the screen.”

The Teddy Pendergrass biopic

Teddy Pendergrass' story is an incredible one – from his huge stardom as a solo R&B artist to his survival of a devastating car crash that left him paralysed from the chest down.

Actor and singer Tyrese Gibson has been confirmed to play Pendergrass in the biopic about his life, though he announced the news back in 2019. Here's hoping more details will be announced soon.

Based on the explosive Harvey Weinstein investigation and the New York Times journalists that broke the story, She Said stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor – in a movie based on the book they wrote about giving Weinstein's victims a voice. It's set to be released on 18 November 2022.

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10 Most Highly-Anticipated Biopics (As Of July 2022)

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On the heels of the success of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, many fans are looking into the upcoming biopics for what’s next. While fiction can be a welcomed escape from the real world, the true stories of real people can be even more entrancing for movie fans.

RELATED: 10 Best Movies Of 2022, So Far

Learning the true stories of famous figures, which may have been previously hidden from the public eye, is a unique experience. It takes true talent to make a biopic an entertaining, cinematic experience. Some highly-anticipated biopics are arriving soon, many of which will be extremely successful.

10 Ana De Armas Portrays Marilyn Monroe In Blonde

Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in Blonde , which is set to release on Netflix on September 23, 2022. The film also stars Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller, an American playwright. Blonde is based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name and is a dramatized retelling of Monroe’s life.

Directed by Andrew Dominik, Blonde follows Monroe from her childhood, when she still uses her birth name of Norma Jeane Mortenson, up until the height of her fame. The biopic also showcases the negative aspects of her life that followed her fame and success.

9 Christopher Nolan Makes His Return With Oppenheimer

Going to be released in theaters on July 21, 2023, Oppenheimer will be Christopher Nolan’s next film. Oppenheimer tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. His contributions led to the development of the atomic bomb.

RELATED: Every Christopher Nolan Movie, Ranked According To IMDb

Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer. The biopic also boasts an ensemble cast of Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Quaid, who's best known for his role as Hughie in The Boys .

8 Leonard Bernstein's Life Is Relayed In Maestro

Maestro is a biographical drama that tells the story of the life of Leonard Bernstein, a famous conductor. Bradley Cooper is starring as Bernstein and directing the film, which will be his second turn in the director’s seat. Maestro is said to focus on Bernstein’s relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre, who will be played by Carey Mulligan.

Jeremy Strong, Sarah Silverman, and Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke are also starring in the upcoming biopic. Filming for Maestro began in May 2022, and the film is set to be released by Netflix in 2023.

7 An Amy Winehouse Biopic Is In The Works

Though it's in its very early stages, a biopic on Amy Winehouse is already one of the most anticipated upcoming films. Sam Taylor-Johnson is currently attached to direct, and according to Variety, there is a completed script circulating for casting the film’s coveted role of Winehouse. Back To Black, a documentary about Winehouse's life, was released in 2018.

Lady Gaga was rumored to star as Winehouse, though this was shut down by Winehouse’s father. He was quoted by Woman&Home discussing the potential casting of his daughter’s role: “I wouldn’t mind betting it would be an unknown, young, English — London, cockney — actress who looks a bit like Amy.”

6 Daniel Radcliffe Stars In Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Since the end of the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe has unapologetically taken on some interesting and captivating roles. His newest leading role is "Weird Al" Yankovic in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which may be the most interesting of them all. Set for a late 2022 release on The Roku Channel, this biopic chronicles the life of Al Yankovic, an American musician and actor.

RELATED: 10 Real-Life Inspirations In Harry Potter

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story also stars Quinta Brunson (from Abbott Elementary), Evan Rachel Wood, and Rainn Wilson. Filming took place in early 2022 and lasted only eighteen days.

5 Bob Dylan Will Be Played By Timothée Chalamet In Going Electric

Although it's currently untitled, a biopic is set to be released about Bob Dylan, which is rumored to be called Going Electric. The film has been in production for several years, having been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timothée Chalamet is set to portray Dylan as he rises to fame in the folk music industry and the actor has been learning guitar for the role, according to American Songwriter . At the moment, there is no news of other castings, though as production picks up, this will surely change. Bob Dylan is lauded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time and a pop culture icon whose lyrics became anthems in the civil rights and antiwar movements, so fans are excited to see his biopic.

4 Whitney Houston Is Portrayed By Naomi Ackie In I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Naomi Ackie portrays Whitney Houston in the upcoming biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, which will be released on December 21, 2022, for the holiday season. Principal photography began in August 2021 and filming ended in late 2021. In between these times, Kasi Lemmons took over the role of director.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody also stars Stanley Tucci and Ashton Sanders, who is known for his role as teenage Chiron in the Oscar-winning film, Moonlight. The film is a celebration of life and follows Houston’s rise to superstardom and how she eventually became a household name thanks to her impeccable talent.

3 She Said Follows The Reporters Who Broke The Weinstein Case

She Said is the upcoming biopic about two New York Times reporters who are credited with exposing Harvey Weinstein’s abuse and misconduct against women in the film industry. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor respectively and lead a cast that includes Jennifer Ehle and Patricia Clarkson.

RELATED: 10 Biopics That Were Made Against The Wishes Of The Subject (Or Their Family)

She Said is based on Twohey and Kantor's 2019 book of the same, which explores themes of injustice and speaking up. She Said is the first film to approach the Weinstein case since the #MeToo movement. It is set to be released on November 18, 2022, in theaters.

2 Ridley Scott Returns With Napoleon

Ridley Scott’s next film, which he announced on the day that he wrapped filming on The Last Duel, is Napoleon. Production began in February 2022 and filming has taken place in several English locations and Malta.

Joaquin Phoenix reunites with Scott for the first time since Gladiator to star as Napoleon. Vanessa Kirby stars as Napoleon's wife, Empress Josephine. The film allegedly focuses on her due to their historically tumultuous relationship. Napoleon also stars Tahar Rahim, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in The Mauritanian.

1 Scorsese And Hill Reunite For A Biopic On The Grateful Dead

Martin Scorsese and Jonah Hill are finally reuniting for the first time since The Wolf of Wall Street for an untitled biopic, which chronicles the life of Jerry Garcia and his band, The Grateful Dead. Scorsese is set to produce and direct, while Hill is set to portray the magnetic Garcia.

Scorsese has previously produced a documentary about The Grateful Dead, so he brings a wealth of knowledge to the film. Hill had one of his best performances of all time under Scorsese’s direction (even winning an Academy Award), so the conditions seem to be perfect to create a fresh, successful, and entertaining biopic.

NEXT: 10 Best Biopics About LGBTQ+ People

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12 New 2022 Memoirs to Add to Your TBR Pile

From Kendra James's 'Admissions' to Viola Davis's 'Finding Me.'

Sometimes the best way to feel seen is by reading an incredible memoir and realizing, through another person's story, we're not alone in our thoughts and feelings. This year's exciting new memoirs can help us do just that. From Viola Davis's Finding Me to Selma Blair's Mean Baby , find Marie Claire 's running list of highly-anticipated 2022 memoirs to order, below. Bookmark this page for updates throughout the year!

Kathryn Schulz, a staff writer at  The New Yorker  and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, wrote a moving memoir about loss and discovery. In Lost & Found , she traces some of the important relationships in her life—and illustrates simultaneous feelings of grief, love, and heartbreak—after meeting the person she would marry 18 months before her father died.

If you need further proof of the elitism that plagues the education system, read Kendra James’s Admissions, where James reflects on the years she spent at The Taft School as the first African-American legacy student.

In Miss Me With That , Rachel Lindsay shares her full story for the first time, letting readers inside her world both inside and outside of The Bachelor franchise.

In an expansion of her New York Times piece , Tiffanie Drayton explores the Black American experience and the nuances of the American Dream as she details her early memories of moving from Trinidad and Tobago to the States—and what life entailed after that.

Following the highly-acclaimed release of Girlhood , Melissa Febos returns with Body Work . Here, Febos explores the art of writing about ourselves—quite a meta topic, if we do say so ourselves!—and how it impacts our lives.

Where are my Drake and Josh fans at?! Josh Peck is set to release Happy People Are Annoying that explores his coming of age story—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and how he’s finally living the life he’s always wanted.

Delia Ephron—sister of the late Nora Ephron and a You’ve Got Mail screenwriter—tackles grief, love, and loss in a moving memoir that details her experience losing her sister and her husband, then being diagnosed with leukemia.

In Hello, Molly! Molly Shannon opens up about how she became the celebrated, hilarious actress she is after an early life filled with tragedy and grief.

The highly-anticipated memoir from Viola Davis will tell the award-winning actress' life story in her own words. “This is my story...straight, no chaser,” she said in a statement, per  the Associated Press , so you can expect this to be a good one.

Danica Roem, the first openly transgender person elected to U.S. state legislature, takes readers inside her political journey and the challenges she’s overcome.

Minnie Driver fans will want to pick up this memoir immediately to learn more about the actress’ upbringing, career path, and family.

If you thought you knew Selma Blair, think again. Here, the actress opens up about being a “mean baby” and the evolution of her life throughout the years.

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Rachel Epstein is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in New York City. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor at Coveteur, where she oversaw the site’s day-to-day editorial operations. Previously, she was an editor at Marie Claire , where she wrote and edited culture, politics, and lifestyle stories ranging from op-eds to profiles to ambitious packages. She also launched and managed the site’s virtual book club, #ReadWithMC. Offline, she’s likely watching a Heat game or finding a new coffee shop. 

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Best Movies of 2022 Ranked

Welcome to the best-reviewed movies of 2022! All eyes are on the film slate as 2022 represents the first year since the pandemic lockdown that saw theaters back at full capacity. The year started strong with Scream in January, becoming the first Certified Fresh movie in the franchise since 1997’s Scream 2.

Spring saw a string of critical hits, including the dark crime epic on The Batman , the spirited YA comedy  Turning Red from Pixar , and two from A24 : Some throwback horror with X , and Everything Everywhere All At Once , which would become A24’s biggest box office hit, surpassing  Hereditary.

Of course, no story about the state of movies in 2022 is complete without full mention of  Top Gun: Maverick . With afterburners activated, the crowd-pleasing blockbuster set records across the board, including an easy landing on the coveted billion-dollar movie hall of fame .

More headline-grabbing films include another great Adam Sandler dramatic turn in Netflix’s  Hustle , the surprise  Predator return-to-form prequel  Prey , the latest from auteurs Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers ( Nope and  The Northman , respectively), and  Jujutsu Kaisen 0 , which sees anime continuing to make inroads with critics and at the box office.

Read on for the best movies of 2022, ranked! (And for more, explore the best movies of previous years with our guides on 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , and 2018 .) — Alex Vo

No Bears (2022) 99%

Happening (2021) 99%

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) 98%

Girl Picture (2022) 99%

Till (2022) 96%

The Quiet Girl (2022) 97%

Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie (2021) 98%

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) 98%

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) 96%

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) 96%

The Duke (2020) 97%

Hellbender (2021) 97%

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022) 95%

Great Freedom (2021) 97%

To Leslie (2022) 93%

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 96%

Official Competition (2021) 96%

The Innocents (2021) 97%

EO (2022) 96%

Neptune Frost (2021) 97%

Sissy (2022) 96%

Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021) 96%

Saloum (2021) 96%

Utama (2022) 96%

A Wounded Fawn (2022) 96%

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 93%

Turning Red (2022) 95%

Aftersun (2022) 96%

Living (2022) 96%

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) 95%

Belle (2021) 95%

A Love Song (2022) 95%

Hit the Road (2021) 95%

RRR (2022) 95%

Gagarine (2020) 96%

The Justice of Bunny King (2021) 95%

The Woman King (2022) 94%

X (2022) 94%

Emily the Criminal (2022) 94%

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) 94%

Broker (2022) 94%

Fire Island (2022) 94%

The Sea Beast (2022) 95%

Enola Holmes 2 (2022) 93%

Ali & Ava (2021) 94%

Clara Sola (2021) 93%

The Long Walk (2019) 96%

Prey (2022) 94%

Decision to Leave (2022) 94%

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) 93%

Hustle (2022) 93%

Benediction (2021) 93%

You Won't Be Alone (2022) 93%

Compartment No. 6 (2021) 93%

Nitram (2021) 93%

Vortex (2021) 93%

The Fallout (2021) 93%

The Pink Cloud (2021) 93%

Lost Illusions (2021) 93%

You Resemble Me (2021) 93%

Bull (2021) 93%

Everything Went Fine (2021) 91%

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) 91%

Barbarian (2022) 93%

Emergency (2022) 91%

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) 90%

Hatching (2022) 93%

Kimi (2022) 92%

The Good Boss (2021) 92%

My Old School (2022) 92%

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022) 93%

Close (2022) 91%

God's Creatures (2022) 89%

Catch the Fair One (2021) 93%

The Righteous (2021) 92%

Slash/Back (2022) 89%

Pearl (2022) 92%

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) 91%

We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) 90%

Piggy (2022) 91%

Mad God (2021) 91%

Murina (2021) 91%

Dinner in America (2020) 91%

Something In The Dirt (2022) 90%

Deadstream (2022) 91%

A Chiara (2021) 91%

INU-OH (2021) 91%

The Stranger (2022) 92%

Tár (2022) 91%

After Yang (2021) 90%

Women Talking (2022) 90%

Nanny (2022) 90%

Werewolf by Night (2022) 89%

Anaïs in Love (2021) 90%

Vesper (2022) 91%

What Josiah Saw (2021) 91%

The Tale of King Crab (2021) 90%

Alcarràs (2022) 93%

Tove (2020) 90%

The Northman (2022) 90%

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50 Best Movies of 2022 Ranked (and Where to Watch Them All)

Ghezal Amiri

Official JustWatch writer

2022 saw the comeback of major box office success following two years of struggling returns. With a diverse mix of heart-pumping action, touching dramas, majorly anticipated sequels, remarkable foreign films, and all that’s in between, the year truly featured something for everyone. The first half of the year contained a number of familiar franchises returning to full capacity theaters including Hotel Transylvania:Transformania, Scream, Jackass Forever, The Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World Dominion. The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun with Top Gun: Maverick became the second highest grossing film of the year behind another long-awaited sequel mentioned soon. The franchises did not slow down as the year progressed as seen with such titles as Minions: The Rise of Gru, Thor: Love and Thunder, Halloween Ends, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Disenchanted, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and the release to end all releases, over ten years in the making, Avatar: The Way of Water.

Sprinkled throughout the year were family-friendly titles with Turning Red, Lightyear, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, DC League of Super-Pets, Strange World and two releases of Pinocchio with Robert Zemeckis’ straight-to-Disney+ rendition and Guillermo del Toro's Academy Award winning version. There were a number of phenomenal female-led films as well including Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar winning performance in Everything,Everywhere All at Once, Viola Davis in The Woman King, Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till in Till, Cate Blanchett in Tár and Angela Bassett in Wakanda Forever, just to name a few. Foreign films also dominated with critics and audiences alike with such titles as Germany's war drama All Quiet on the Western Front,South Korea's romance/mystery Decision to Leave, Ireland's coming-of-age drama The Quiet Girl, Argentina's historical legal drama Argentia, 1985, India's epic action drama RRR, Poland's drama EO, and Belgium's coming-of-age drama Close. 2022 overall had an incredible array of films to choose from regardless of preferred genre. Here are 50 of the best movies of the year and where to find them.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

A cash-strapped documentary maker decides to make his newest documentary about a mollusk shell he finds living in his Airbnb with his friends.

France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so.

Burning Days

With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small Turkish town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.

Argentina, 1985

A team of lawyers takes on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.

Decision to Leave

A detective investigating a man's death in the mountains meets the dead man's mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one life left. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives.

In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice.

Missing Home

A married couple stages their divorce in order to encourage their estranged adult children to return to their hometown.

Renowned musician Lydia Tár is days away from recording the symphony that will elevate her career. However, Lydia's elaborate facade begins to unravel, revealing dirty secrets and the corrosive nature of power.

Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.

A fictional history of two legendary revolutionaries' journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.

Top Gun: Maverick

After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.

The Fabelmans

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

During the rise of fascism in Mussolini's Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father's expectations.

When his young daughter's beloved companion — an android named Yang — malfunctions, Jake searches for a way to repair him. In the process, Jake discovers the life that has been passing in front of him, reconnecting with his wife and daughter across a distance he didn't know was there.

The Quiet Girl

In rural Ireland, a quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer where she blossoms and learns what it is to be loved.

In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

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The Best Reviewed Memoirs and Biographies of 2022

Featuring buster keaton, jean rhys, bernardine evaristo, kate beaton, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Memoir and Biography .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Liveright) 17 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span … it is not a memoir, nor is it an absolute history, nor is it entirely a personal reflection or a crepuscular credo. It is, in fact, all of these things helixed together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his misgivings, his anger, his pride, his doubt, all of them belonging, eventually, to us … O’Toole, an agile cultural commentator, considers himself to be a representative of the blank slate on which the experiment of change was undertaken, but it’s a tribute to him that he maintains his humility, his sharpness and his enlightened distrust …

O’Toole writes brilliantly and compellingly of the dark times, but he is graceful enough to know that there is humor and light in the cracks. There is a touch of Eduardo Galeano in the way he can settle on a telling phrase … But the real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time. O’Toole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.”

–Colum McCann ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (Milkweed)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Assured and affecting … A powerful and bracing memoir … This is a book that will make you see the world differently: it asks you to reconsider the animals and insects we often view as pests – the rat, for example, and the moth. It asks you to look at the sea and the sky and the trees anew; to wonder, when you are somewhere beautiful, whether you might be in a thin place, and what your responsibilities are to your location.It asks you to show compassion for people you think are difficult, to cultivate empathy, to try to understand the trauma that made them the way they are.”

–Lynn Enright ( The Irish Times )

3. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

14 Rave • 4 Positive

“It could hardly be more different in tone from [Beaton’s] popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant … Yes, it’s funny at moments; Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction; it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment …

There are some gorgeous drawings in Ducks of the snow and the starry sky at night. But the human terrain, in her hands, is never only black and white … And it’s this that gives her story not only its richness and depth, but also its astonishing grace. Life is complex, she tell us, quietly, and we are all in it together; each one of us is only trying to survive. What a difficult, gorgeous and abidingly humane book. It really does deserve to win all the prizes.”

–Rachel Cooke ( The Guardian )

4. Stay True by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 3 Positive

“… quietly wrenching … To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. Hsu captures the past by conveying both its mood and specificity … This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life … Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

5.  Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo (Grove)

13 Rave • 4 Positive

“Part coming-of-age story and part how-to manual, the book is, above all, one of the most down-to-earth and least self-aggrandizing works of self-reflection you could hope to read. Evaristo’s guilelessness is refreshing, even unsettling … With ribald humour and admirable candour, Evaristo takes us on a tour of her sexual history … Characterized by the resilience of its author, it is replete with stories about the communities and connections Evaristo has cultivated over forty years … Invigoratingly disruptive as an artist, Evaristo is a bridge-builder as a human being.”

–Emily Bernard ( The Times Literary Supplement )

1. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

14 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Rundell is right that Donne…must never be forgotten, and she is the ideal person to evangelise him for our age. She shares his linguistic dexterity, his pleasure in what TS Eliot called ‘felt thought’, his ability to bestow physicality on the abstract … It’s a biography filled with gaps and Rundell brings a zest for imaginative speculation to these. We know so little about Donne’s wife, but Rundell brings her alive as never before … Rundell confronts the difficult issue of Donne’s misogyny head-on … This is a determinedly deft book, and I would have liked it to billow a little more, making room for more extensive readings of the poems and larger arguments about the Renaissance. But if there is an overarching argument, then it’s about Donne as an ‘infinity merchant’ … To read Donne is to grapple with a vision of the eternal that is startlingly reinvented in the here and now, and Rundell captures this vision alive in all its power, eloquence and strangeness”

–Laura Feigel ( The Guardian )

2. The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (Harper)

12 Rave • 3 Positive

“Compelling … We know about Auschwitz. We know what happened there. But Freedland, with his strong, clear prose and vivid details, makes us feel it, and the first half of this book is not an easy read. The chillingly efficient mass murder of thousands of people is harrowing enough, but Freedland tells us stories of individual evils as well that are almost harder to take … His matter-of-fact tone makes it bearable for us to continue to read … The Escape Artist is riveting history, eloquently written and scrupulously researched. Rosenberg’s brilliance, courage and fortitude are nothing short of amazing.”

–Laurie Hertzel ( The Star Tribune )

3. I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour (W. W. Norton & Company)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Pan

“…illuminating and meticulously researched … paints a deft portrait of a flawed, complex, yet endlessly fascinating woman who, though repeatedly bowed, refused to be broken … Following dismal reviews of her fourth novel, Rhys drifted into obscurity. Ms. Seymour’s book could have lost momentum here. Instead, it compellingly charts turbulent, drink-fueled years of wild moods and reckless acts before building to a cathartic climax with Rhys’s rescue, renewed lease on life and late-career triumph … is at its most powerful when Ms. Seymour, clear-eyed but also with empathy, elaborates on Rhys’s woes …

Ms. Seymour is less convincing with her bold claim that Rhys was ‘perhaps the finest English woman novelist of the twentieth century.’ However, she does expertly demonstrate that Rhys led a challenging yet remarkable life and that her slim but substantial novels about beleaguered women were ahead of their time … This insightful biography brilliantly shows how her many battles were lost and won.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Wall Street Journal )

4. The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

9 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Grisly yet inspiring … Fitzharris depicts her hero as irrepressibly dedicated and unfailingly likable. The suspense of her narrative comes not from any interpersonal drama but from the formidable challenges posed by the physical world … The Facemaker is mostly a story of medical progress and extraordinary achievement, but as Gillies himself well knew—grappling daily with the unbearable suffering that people willingly inflicted on one another—failure was never far behind.”

5. Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis (Knopf)

8 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Keaton fans have often complained that nearly all biographies of him suffer from a questionable slant or a cursory treatment of key events. With Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life —at more than 800 pages dense with research and facts—Mr. Curtis rectifies that situation, and how. He digs deep into Keaton’s process and shows how something like the brilliant two-reeler Cops went from a storyline conceived from necessity—construction on the movie lot encouraged shooting outdoors—to a masterpiece … This will doubtless be the primary reference on Keaton’s life for a long time to come … the worse Keaton’s life gets, the more engrossing Mr. Curtis’s book becomes.”

–Farran Smith Nehme ( The Wall Street Journal )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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The 20 Best Memoirs of 2022

From marriage to medicine to masculinity, the year's best memoirs dig deep into thorny topics.

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links.

Still, our favorite memoirs of 2022 elevate the form to new heights. They tackle personal, psychological, and philosophical concerns through topics ranging from ancestry to medicine to marriage. With guts and grace, these authors dive deep into their loves and losses, and come ashore with these dazzling treasures for you to read. (Or give ! What better gift than that of a remarkable true story?)

Stay True, by Hua Hsu

When Hsu arrived at Berkeley in the 1990s, a rebellious undergrad obsessed with creating zines and developing “a worldview defined by music,” he made an unexpected friend. At first, Hsu wrote his fraternity brother Ken off as “mainstream,” thinking they had nothing in common beyond their Asian American identities—but soon, an unlikely friendship blossomed, with the two young men penning a screenplay together and discussing philosophy late into the night. It all came crashing down when Ken was murdered in a carjacking, sending Hsu into a decades-long spiral of grief and guilt. Ever since, Hsu has been trying to write Stay True , a wrenching memoir about who Ken was and what Ken taught him. At once a love letter, a coming-of-age tale, and an elegy, it’s one of the best books about friendship ever written.

The Man Who Could Move Clouds, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

“They say the amnesias were a door to gifts we were supposed to have,” Rojas Contreras muses in this poetic memoir. After a head injury afflicted the author with amnesia, she learned that this had happened before: decades ago, her mother took a fall that left her with amnesia, and when she recovered, she gained access to “the secrets.” The first woman to know “the secrets,” Rojas Contreras’ mother inherited them from her father, known to the family as Nono, a Colombian community healer renowned for his ability to communicate with the dead, predict the future, heal the sick, and move the clouds. After Rojas Contreras’ accident, she and her mother traveled to Colombia to disinter Nono’s remains and tell his story. That quest, recounted here with mesmerizing prose and bracing insight, sent the women on a journey through the brutal colonial history that shaped their family and their nation. Rich in personal and political history, The Man Who Could Move Clouds is an effervescent read.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, by Paul Newman

After six decades of Hollywood superstardom, it’s difficult to imagine that anything could remain unknown about Paul Newman . But that’s the particular magic trick of this memoir, assembled by way of a literary scavenger hunt. Between 1986 and 1991, Newman sat down with screenwriter Stewart Stern for a series of soul-baring interviews about his life and career. With the actor’s encouragement, Stern also recorded hundreds of hours worth of interviews with his friends, family, and colleagues. The whole enterprise was destined to become Newman’s authorized biography, but his feelings on the project soured; in 1998, he gathered the tapes in a pile and set fire to them. Luckily, Stern kept transcripts—over 14,000 pages worth. Now, those transcripts have been streamlined into this honest and unvarnished memoir, in which the actor speaks openly about his traumatic childhood, his lifelong struggle with alcoholism, and his tormenting self-doubt. But the highs are there too—like his 50-year marriage to actress Joanne Woodward—as well as the mysteries of making art, and the “imponderable of being a human being.” All told, the memoir is an extraordinary act of resurrection and reimagination.

Bad Sex, by Nona Willis Aronowitz

When Teen Vogue ’s sex columnist decided to end her marriage at 32 years old, chief among her complaints was “bad sex.” Newly divorced, Aronowitz went in search of good sex, but along the way, she discovered thorny truths about “the problem that has no name”—that despite the advances of feminism and the sexual revolution, true sexual freedom remains out of reach. Cultural criticism, memoir, and social history collide in Aronowitz’s no-nonsense investigation of all that ails young lovers, like questions about desire, consent, and patriarchy. It’s a revealing read bound to expand your thinking.

The High Sierra: A Love Story, by Kim Stanley Robinson

A titan of science fiction masters a new form in this winsome love letter to California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. Constructed from an impassioned blend of memoir, history, and science writing, The High Sierra chronicles Robinson’s 100-plus trips to his beloved mountains, from his LSD-laced first encounter in 1973 to the dozens of ​​“rambling and scrambling” days to follow. From descriptions of the region’s multitudinous flora and fauna to practical advice about when and where to hike, this is as comprehensive a guidebook as any, complete with all the lucid ecstasy of nature writing greats like John Muir and Annie Dillard.

Year of the Tiger, by Alice Wong

In this mixed media memoir, disability activist Alice Wong outlines her journey as an advocate and educator. Wong was born with a form of progressive muscular dystrophy; as a young woman, she attended her dream college, but had to drop out when changes to Medicaid prevented her from retaining the aides she needed on an inaccessible campus. In one standout essay, Wong recounts her struggle to access Covid-19 vaccines as a high-risk individual. The author's rage about moving through an ableist world is palpable, but so too is her joy and delight about Lunar New Year, cats, family, and so much more. Innovative and informative, Year of the Tiger is a multidimensional portrait of a powerful thinker.

My Pinup, by Hilton Als

Has any book ever roved so far and wide in just 48 pages as My Pinup ? In this slim and brilliant memoir, Als explores race, power, and desire through the lens of Prince. Styling the legendary musician in the image of his lovers and himself, Als explores injustice on multiple levels, from racist record labels to the world's hostility to gay Black boys. “There was so much love between us,” the author muses. “Why didn’t anyone want us to share it?” These 48 meandering pages are difficult to describe, but trust us: My Pinup is a heady cocktail you won’t soon forget.

Novelist as a Vocation, by Haruki Murakami

In this winsome volume, one of our greatest novelists invites readers into his creative process. The result is a revealing self-portrait that answers many burning questions about its reclusive subject, like: where do Murakami’s strange and surreal ideas come from? When and how did he start writing? How does he view the role of novels in contemporary society? Novelist as a Vocation is a rare and welcome peek behind the curtain of a singular mind.

Bloomsbury Publishing Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional, by Isaac Fitzgerald

In this bleeding heart memoir, Fitzgerald peels back the layers of his extraordinary life. Dirtbag, Massachusetts opens with his hardscrabble childhood in a dysfunctional Catholic family, then spins out into the decades of jobs and identities that followed. From bartending at a biker bar to smuggling medical supplies to starring in porn films, it’s all led him to here and now: he’s still a work in progress, but gradually, he’s arriving at profound realizations about masculinity, family, and selfhood. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is the best of what memoir can accomplish. It's blisteringly honest and vulnerable, pulling no punches on the path to truth, but it always finds the capacity for grace and joy. “To any young men out there who aren’t too far gone,” Fitzgerald writes, “I say you’re not done becoming yourself.”

Pretty Baby, by Chris Belcher

As a financially strapped PhD student in Los Angeles, Belcher fell into an unusual side hustle: she began working as a pro-domme, fulfilling the fantasies of male clients aroused by feelings of shame and weakness. Belcher found unique power in the work as a queer woman, writing, “My clientele wanted a woman who would never want them in return, and at that, I excelled." But as she illuminates in this discerning memoir, the work had its drawbacks—namely, the brutality and blackmail of men. In a lucid examination of power, sexuality, and class, Belcher tells a gripping story about the performance of identity, inside and outside of the dungeon.

Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me, by Ada Calhoun

When Calhoun once went looking for a childhood toy, she stumbled upon a far greater treasure: dusty cassette tapes of interviews recorded by her father, art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who started but never completed a biography of the gone-too-soon poet Frank O’Hara. As a lifelong O’Hara fan, Calhoun gleefully committed to finishing what Schjeldahl started, but the task proved to be anything but easy. Like her father before her, Calhoun was stonewalled by Maureen O’Hara, the poet’s prickly sister and executor; the project also revealed the faultlines in her complicated bond with Schjeldahl, whom she longs to impress. In this heartfelt memoir, Calhoun recounts how going in search of O’Hara revealed so much more—like the painful complexities of parents, children, art, and ambition.

Because Our Fathers Lied, by Craig McNamara

How do we reckon with the sins of our parents? That’s the thorny question at the center of this moving and courageous memoir authored by the son of Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy’s architect of the Vietnam War. In this conflicted son’s telling, a complicated man comes into intimate view, as does the “mixture of love and rage” at the heart of their relationship. At once a loving and neglectful parent, the elder McNamara’s controversial lies about the war ultimately estranged him from his son, who hung Viet Cong flags in his childhood bedroom as a protest. The pursuit of a life unlike his father’s saw the younger McNamara drop out of Stanford and travel through South America on a motorcycle, leading him to ultimately become a sustainable walnut farmer. Through his own personal story of disappointment and disillusionment, McNamara captures an intergenerational conflict and a journey of moral identity.

The Unwritten Book, by Samantha Hunt

One of our most gifted practitioners of the short story makes her first foray into nonfiction with this shapeshifting volume. Hunt’s many-feathered subject is the things that haunt: art, the dead, the forest, things left unfinished. Her investigation centers on an unfinished novel written by her late father, a Reader's Digest editor; “the dead leave clues, and life is a puzzle of trying to read and understand these mysterious hints before the game is over,” she writes. As she considers the novel, she sifts through her relationship with her father, characterized as it was by his alcoholism and their shared love of story. Eerie, profound, and daring, this is a book only the inimitable Hunt could write.

Roc Lit 101 Shine Bright, by Danyel Smith

Memoir, criticism, and cultural history meet in this masterful study of the brilliant Black women who shaped American pop music, enriched by the author's own experiences and memories. Some of the figures here will be familiar, like Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, while others are long overdue for the reckoning Smith provides, from the Dixie Cups, a gone-too-soon sixties girl group, to the enslaved poet Phyllis Wheatley, who cleared a path for generations of descendants by singing her poems. In this soulful, enriching portrait of these extraordinary artists’ struggles and triumphs, Smith widens the canon to usher in new luminaries.

Lost & Found, by Kathryn Schultz

Eighteen months before Schultz’s father died after a long battle with cancer, she met the love of her life. It’s this painful dichotomy that sets the foundation for Lost & Found , a poignant memoir about how love and loss often coexist. Braiding her personal experiences together with psychological, philosophical and scientific insight, Schultz weaves a taxonomy of our losses, which can “encompass both the trivial as well as the consequential, the abstract and the concrete, the merely misplaced and the permanently gone.” But so too does she celebrate the act of discovery, from finding what we’ve mislaid to lucking into lasting love. Penetrating and profound, Lost & Found captures the extraordinary joys and sorrows of ordinary life.

Ecco Press South to America, by Imani Perry

The American South is often cast as a backwater cousin out of step with American ideals. In this vital cultural history, Perry argues otherwise, insisting the South is, in fact, the foundational heartland of America, an undeniable fulcrum around which our wealth and politics have always turned. Fusing memoir, reportage, and travelogue, Perry imparts Southern history alongside high-spirited interviews with modern-day Southerners from all walks of life. At once a love letter to “a land of big dreams and bigger lies” and a clarion call for change, South to America will change how you understand America’s past, present, and future.

Admissions, by Kendra James

When James enrolled at Connecticut’s prestigious Taft School at fifteen years old, she had no idea that, as the predominantly white boarding school’s first “Black American legacy student to graduate since 1891,” she would become its involuntary poster child for diversity. James’ hopes for a positive high school experience were dashed by “a swamp of microaggressions,” ranging from a student who accused her of stealing $20 to an article in the student newspaper blaming students of color for the segregation of campus. Determined that students after her wouldn’t suffer the same fate, she became an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment, but soon felt that she was “selling a lie for a living.” Frank and devastating in its candor, as well as incisive in its critique of elite academia, Admissions is a poignant coming-of-age memoir.

The Invisible Kingdom, by Meghan O'Rourke

“I got sick the way Hemingway says you go broke: ‘gradually and then suddenly,’” O’Rourke writes in The Invisible Kingdom , describing the beginning of her decades-long struggle with chronic autoimmune disease. In the late nineties, O’Rourke began suffering symptoms ranging from rashes to crushing fatigue; when she sought treatment, she became an unwilling citizen of a shadow world, where chronic illness sufferers are dismissed by doctors and alienated from their lives. In this elegant fusion of memoir, reporting, and cultural history, O’Rourke traces the development of modern Western medicine and takes aim at its limitations, advocating for a community-centric healthcare model that treats patients as people, not parts. At once a rigorous work of scholarship and a radical act of empathy, The Invisible Kingdom has the power to move mountains.

Read an exclusive interview with O'Rourkre here at Esquire.

Ancestor Trouble, by Maud Newton

Who are our ancestors to us, and what can they tell us about ourselves? In this riveting memoir, Newton goes in search of the answers to these questions, spelunking exhaustively through her frustrating and fascinating family tree. From an accused witch to a thirteen times-married man, her family tree abounds with stories that absorb and appall, but taxonomizing her family history doesn’t satisfy Newton’s hunger for meaning. Just what do the facts of a life tell us about who we are or where we come from, and what can our personal histories tell us about our national past? Carefully blending memoir and cultural criticism, Newton explores the cultural, scientific, and spiritual dimensions of ancestry, arguing for the transformational power of grappling with our inheritances.

Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage, by Heather Havrilesky

No one writes about the agony and ecstasy of relationships with as much gutsy grace as Havrilesky, who has long counseled troubled lovers under the guise of Ask Polly . In Foreverland , Havrilesky turns the microscope on her own relationship, illuminating the joys and exasperations of her fifteen-year marriage. From parenting to quarantining together to bristling at her husband’s every loud sneeze, Havrilesky proves that forever is hard, wonderful work.

Read Havrilesky’s column about her husband here at Esquire.

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Get in tune with these 14 upcoming music biopics

Sydney Bucksbaum is a writer at Entertainment Weekly covering all things pop culture – but TV is her one true love. She currently lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Chicago so please don't make fun of her accent when it slips out.

Melody masters reimagined on the big screen

Will these music biopics hit the right note or turn out tone-deaf? See our list of 14 upcoming movies that chronicle the iconic lives of famous musicians, and who's set to star in them.

Leonard Bernstein

From A Star Is Born to Leonard Bernstein, Bradley Cooper is staying in the music genre for his next big directorial effort. The multi-hyphenate will direct and star in a Leonard Bernstein biopic , Maestro, about the conductor and composer behind West Side Story , Peter Pan , and more. Cooper co-writes the Netflix film with Josh Singer ( Spotlight ), while producing with, among others, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Carey Mulligan is set to co-star as Felicia Montealegre, wife of the iconic composer.

Timothée Chalamet is expected to play Bob Dylan in an as-yet-untitled film from Searchlight Pictures . Directed by James Mangold , the film takes place in 1965, when the folk legend made a controversial shift to rock & roll and the electric guitar. However, in an interview with Collider , cinematographer Phedon Papamichael revealed production is on hold due to COVID-19.

Boy George is yet another musical icon to get the Hollywood treatment, with MGM producing the biopic and Sacha Gervasi ( Anvil: The Story of Anvil ) writing and directing. The as-yet-untitled project will follow the singer (born George Alan O'Dowd) from his early years in England growing up in a working-class Irish family through his rise up the pop charts as part of the group Culture Club in the 1980s. Sophie Turner has said she'd like the part , with Boy George admitting, "When I was 17, I would have loved to have been her."

Marianne Faithfull

Lucy Boynton is trading one music biopic for another. After appearing in Bohemian Rhapsody , the British actor is set to executive produce and star as singer Marianne Faithfull in Faithfull , directed by Ian Bonhôte. Set in mid-1960s London, the movie will chronicle the highs and lows of Faithfull's career after being discovered as a convent schoolgirl at 17, becoming a pop idol, her tumultuous romance with Mick Jagger that inspired some of the Rolling Stones' greatest songs, and being a homeless drug addict in Soho. "I am delighted that my story is finally being made with my dream team of Lucy, [producer] Julia [Taylor-Stanley] and Ian," Faithfull said.

Michael Jackson

It should come as no surprise that Michael Jackson is finally getting the biopic treatment . Graham King, who produced the Oscar-winning Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody , has acquired the rights to Jackson's music and is set to make a film based on the pop legend's life. Collaborating with King is screenwriter John Logan; the two previously worked together on Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator.

Graham King is a busy man—he's also developing a biopic about the Bee Gees along with Steven Spielberg . Once director John Carney will helm the currently untitled film, with a script by John Logan. The movie will likely follow the trio of brothers— Barry , Robin, and Maurice Gibb—and their journey from humble beginnings in 1958 to reaching global fame after working on the soundtrack for the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever , penning iconic tunes like "Stayin' Alive" and "More Than a Woman." Paramount and King purchased the life rights to the Gibb family estate, and thus will be able to use the group's biggest hits in the movie. Barry is the sole surviving member of the group, as Maurice and Robin died in 2003 and 2012.

Teddy Pendergrass

Six-time Grammy nominee Tyrese Gibson is taking on the life of R&B icon Teddy Pendergrass in a biopic written by Little Marvin, with Donald De Line ( Ready Player One ), Lee Daniels ( Precious ), and Gibson producing. Pendergrass' widow, Joan Pendergrass, is also on board as an executive producer. "This is the role that I feel I was born to play," Gibson said. "Teddy Pendergrass embraced me and, before he passed, put the responsibility on my shoulders to tell his story."

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

An adaptation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono 's epic love story has been in the works for years. The script was written by Bohemian Rhapsody scribe Anthony McCarten, while Ono herself was attached to produce. Jean-Marc Vallée ( Dallas Buyers Club ) had been expected to direct and edit before his death in 2021. There has been no other news about the project, but we still hope it will come together some day.

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse 's family announced back in 2018 that the iconic singer was getting a big-screen biopic, with proceeds from the film reportedly benefiting the Amy Winehouse Foundation. The Winehouse family will serve as executive producers on the film, Back to Black , which has been written by Matt Greenhalgh and will be directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson . "We now feel able to celebrate Amy's extraordinary life and talent," the singer's father, Mitch Winehouse, said. "We know through the Amy Winehouse Foundation that the true story of her illness can help so many others who might be experiencing similar issues."

Rapper Gucci Mane (real name: Radric Delantic Davis) is getting a biopic from Paramount Players and Imagine Entertainment, based on his memoir, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane . Imagine's Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins will join Mane and Todd Moskowitz in producing the film about the trap house artist who started his career by releasing mixtapes while in prison.

Bob Marley is expected to be played by Kingsley Ben-Adir ( One Night in Miami ) in a new biopic about the reggae music trailblazer. The Jamaican singer-songwriter died of cancer in 1981, but in his short life he changed the legacy of reggae forever. Reinaldo Marcus Green ( King Richard ) will direct the biopic with input from the musician's son, Ziggy Marley.

Who better to make a movie about Madonna 's life than Madonna herself? The iconic singer is set to direct a biopic about her life, having co-written the script with a collaboration from Oscar-winning Juno scribe Diablo Cody . The still-untitled Universal film is rumored to star Julia Garner in the lead role and will also be produced by Madonna and two-time Academy Award nominee Amy Pascal ( Little Women ). The film is expected to follow the entertainer's rise to prominence as the culture-shaping musician, actress, director, author, and entrepreneur she is today. Sara Zambreno and Madonna's longtime manager, Guy Oseary, are on board as executive producers as well.

Lemmy, a.k.a. Ian Fraser Kilmister, the lead singer of Motörhead who passed away in 2015 , is getting a biopic from someone who knew him well—Greg Olliver. The filmmaker spent several years with the band for their 2010 documentary, also titled Lemmy . The movie will follow Kilmister's early life in England, his time as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, and the five years he spent with rock band Hawkwind before he went on to create Motörhead, forever changing the future of rock music. Motörhead's manager Todd Singerman and Steffan Chirazi will serve as executive producers for a screenplay written by Medeni Griffiths along with Olliver.

What's better than a biopic about an iconic female-led rock band? A biopic about an iconic female-led rock band written and directed by another iconic female rock star. Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein is set to write and direct a biopic on the rock band Heart for Amazon Studios. It was Heart guitarist Ann Wilson herself who revealed on SiriusXM's Volume West that "there's [a film] in the works" about her band, best known for late '70s and early '80s hits like "Crazy on You" and "Barracuda." Wilson added that she "saw the first draft of the script, it's really cool… The script started in childhood and ended up in the '90s." Casting is currently underway for the roles of Wilson and her sister, Nancy Wilson.

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The Best Biographies of 2022

Summer Loomis

Summer Loomis has been writing for Book Riot since 2019. She obsessively curates her library holds and somehow still manages to borrow too many books at once. She appreciates a good deadline and likes knowing if 164 other people are waiting for the same title. It's good peer pressure! She doesn't have a podcast but if she did, she hopes it would sound like Buddhability . The world could always use more people creating value with their lives everyday.

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The following are the best biographies 2022 had to offer, according to my brain and my tastes. And I know it might sound like something everyone says, but it was really hard to pick them this year. Like many people, I love “best of” lists for the year, even when I disagree with the titles that make the cut. There is something about narrowing the field to “the best” that makes me excited to read the list and see what I’ve read already and which gems I’ve missed that year. If you want to look back at some of the titles Book Riot chose in 2021, try this best books of 2021 by genre or best books for 2020 . Both will probably quadruple your TBR, but they’re super fun to read anyway.

For 2022 in particular, there were a ton of excellent titles to choose from, in both biographies and memoirs. I am not being polite here but let me just say that it was genuinely hard to choose. To make it easier on myself, I have included some memoirs to pair with the best biographies of 2022 below. If you don’t see your absolute favorite, it’s either because I didn’t like it (I don’t believe in spending time on books I don’t like) or because I ran out of space. And it was most likely the latter!

His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Samuels and Olorunnipa are two Washington Post journalists who meticulously researched Floyd’s personal history in order to better understand not only his life and experiences before his death, but also the systemic forces that eventually contributed to his murder. While very interesting, this is also a harder read and very frustrating at times as there is so much loss wrapped up into this story. Definitely one of the best biographies of 2022 and one that I think will be read for years to come.

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird by Gene Andrew Jarrett

This is one of those classic biographies that I think readers will just love diving into. Rich in detail and nuance, it drops readers into Dunbar’s life and times, offering a fascinating look at both the literary and personal life of this great American poet. If you are able to read on audio, you may want to check out actor Mirron E. Willis’s excellent narration.

Didn’t We Almost Have it All: In Defense of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy

Maybe you’re a huge fan or maybe you don’t know who Whitney Houston was, but either way, you can still read this and enjoy it. Kennedy is very clear that he didn’t set out to write a traditional biography. He wasn’t trying to dig up new “dirt” about the singer or to ask people in her life to reflect back on her now that she has been gone for 10 years. Instead, Kennedy tackles something deeper and possibly harder: to see and appreciate Houston as the fully-formed and talented human being that she was and to understand in full her influence over popular culture and music.

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Finding Me by Viola Davis

If you are also interested in reading a memoir from 2022, you could pair Whitney Houston’s biography with Viola Davis’s book. It was a title I saw everywhere in 2022, but didn’t pick up until the end of the year. My only two cents to add to this strong choice is that I was also just about the last person on earth who hadn’t heard about Davis’s childhood. Please don’t go into this without knowing at least something about what she had to overcome. However, despite all that, I still think it is an excellent and ultimately uplifting read. Content warnings include domestic violence, child endangerment, physical and sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, drug addiction, and animal death. And also the unrelentingly grinding nature of poverty.

Like Water: A Cultural History of Bruce Lee by Daryl Joji Maeda 

This is a much more academic presentation of Bruce Lee and the myriad of ways he can be “read” in his connections and contributions to American pop culture. If you or someone you know is itching to read an extremely detailed and deeply considered look at Lee’s life, then this is the book for you. If you read on audio, be sure to check out David Lee Huynh’s narration.

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu

If you want to read something much lighter but still connected to Asian representation in Western movies, you could do worse than Liu’s 2022 memoir. In comparison to other books on this list, this felt like a much lighter read to me, but it is not without some heavier moments. While I am not a superfan of Liu (because I’m not really a superfan of anyone), I did enjoy learning about Liu’s childhood and especially hearing little details like that his grandparents called him a nickname that basically translated to “little furry caterpillar” as a child. I mean, is there anything more adorable for a kid?

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya

This is another meaty biography that readers will just adore. Complex and fascinating, von Neumann’s curiosity was legendary and his contributions are so far-reaching that it is hard to imagine any one person undertaking them all. This is a good choice for readers who are fascinated by mathematics, big personalities, and intellectual puzzles.

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

This is another best biography of 2022 that many, many readers will want to sink into. The audio is also by the author so you may want to read it that way. Whether someone reads it with eyes or ears (or both!), this book is sure to interest many curious Christie fans. And if Worsley’s biography isn’t enough for you, you may also enjoy this breakdown of why Christie is one of the best-selling novelists of all time or these 8 audiobooks for Agatha Christie fans .

The School that Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler by Deborah Cadbury

Cadbury writes a fascinating biography of Anna Essinger, a schoolteacher who managed to smuggle her students out of a Germany succumbing to Hitler’s rise to power and all the horror that was to follow. Essinger’s bravery and clear-eyed understanding of what was happening around her is amazing. This is a thrilling and fascinating biography readers will no doubt find inspirational.

The Escape Artist: The Man who Broke out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland

Freedland is a British journalist who has written this thoroughly engrossing book about Rudolf Vrba, a man who managed to escape from Auschwitz. It’s no surprise that this is a very important but difficult read. For those who can manage it, I highly recommend immersing oneself in this historical nonfiction biography about a man who survived some of the darkest events of human history.

That is my list of the best biographies of 2022, with a few memoirs for those who are interested. And now of course, I need to mention several titles I have yet to get to from 2022: Hua Hsu’s Stay True , Zain Asher’s Where the Children Take Us , Fatima Ali’s Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More , and Dan Charnas and Jeff Peretz’s Dilla Time , to name a few!

Also Bernardine Evaristo published Manifesto: On Never Giving Up in 2022 and somehow it slipped through the cracks of my TBR. I will have to make time for that one soon.

If you still need more titles to explore, try these 50 best biographies or 20 biographies for kids . And to that latter list, I might add that a children’s biography came out about Octavia Butler in 2022 called Star Child by Haitian American author Ibi Zoboi, so you might want to check that out too!

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The Best New Biographies and Memoirs to Read in 2024

This year sees some riveting and remarkable lives—from artist ai weiwei to singer-songwriter joni mitchell—captured on the page..

A life story can be read for escapist pleasure. But at other times, reading a memoir or biography can be an expansive exercise, opening us up to broader truths about our world. Often, it’s an edifying experience that reminds us of our universal human vulnerability and the common quest for purpose in life.

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Biographies and memoirs charting remarkable lives—whether because of fame, fortune or simply fascination—have the power to inspire us for their depth, curiosity or challenges. This year sees a bumper calendar of personal histories enter bookshops, grappling with enigmatic public figures like singer Joni Mitchell and writer Ian Fleming , to nuanced analysis of how motherhood or sociopathy shape our lives—for better and for worse.

SEE ALSO: The Best Addiction Memoirs for the Sober Curious

Here we compile some of the most rewarding biographies and memoirs out in 2024. There are stories of trauma and recovery, art as politics and politics as art, and sentences as single life lessons spread across books that will make you rethink much about personal life stories. After all, understanding the triumphs and trials of others can help us see how we can change our own lives to create something different or even better.

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei and illustrated by Gianluca Costantini

Ai Weiwei , the iconoclastic artist and fierce critic of his homeland China, mixes fairy tales with moral lessons to evocatively retrace the story of his life in graphic form. Illustrations are by Italian artist Gianluca Costantini . “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist,” Weiwei writes in Zodiac , as he embraces everything from animals found in the Chinese zodiac to mystical folklore tales with anamorphic animals to argue the necessity of art as politics incarnate. The meditative exercise uses pithy anecdotes alongside striking visuals to sketch out a remarkable life story marked by struggle. It’s one weaving political manifesto, philosophy and personal memoir to engage readers on the necessity of art and agitation against authority in a world where we sometimes must resist and fight back.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

Already well-known for her experimental writings, Sheila Heti takes a decade of diary entries and maps sentences against the alphabet, from A to Z. The project is a subversive rethink of our relationship to introspection—which often asks for order and clarity, like in diary writing—that maps new patterns and themes in its disjointed form. Heti plays with both her confessionals and her sometimes formulaic writing style (like knowingly using “Of course” in entries) to retrace the changes made (and unmade) across ten years of her life. Alphabetical Diaries is a sometimes demanding book given the incoherence of its entries, but remains an illuminating project in thinking about efforts at self-documentation.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

Unlike her previous work The Empathy Exams , which examined how we relate to one another and on human suffering, writer Leslie Jamison wrestles today with her own failed marriage and the grief of surviving single parenting. After the birth of her daughter, Jamison divorces her partner “C,” traverses the trials and tribulations of rebound relationships (including with “an ex-philosopher”) and confronts unresolved emotional pains born of her own life living under the divorce of her parents. In her intimate retelling—paired with her superb prose—Jamison charts a personal history that acknowledges the unending divide mothers (and others) face dividing themselves between partners, children and their own lives.

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch

Whether dancing figures or a “radiant baby,” the recognizable cartoonish symbols in Keith Haring ’s art endure today as shorthand signs representing both his playfulness and politicking. Haring (1958-1990) is the subject of writer Brad Gooch ’s deft biography, Radiant , a book that mines new material from the archive along with interviews with contemporaries to reappraise the influential quasi-celebrity artist. From rough beginnings tagging graffiti on New York City walls to cavorting with Andy Warhol and Madonna on art pieces, Haring battled everything from claims of selling out to over-simplicity. But he persisted with work that leveraged catchy quotes and colorful imagery to advance unsavory political messages—from AIDS to crack cocaine. A life tragically cut short at 31 is one powerfully celebrated in this new noble portrait.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul Charles

In The House of Hidden Meaning , celebrated drag queen, RuPaul , reckons with a murky inner world that has shaped—and hindered—a lifetime of gender-bending theatricality. The figurative house at the center of the story is his “ego,” a plaguing barrier that apparently long inhibited the performer from realizing dreams of greatness. Now as the world’s most recognizable drag queen—having popularized the art form for mainstream audiences with the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race —RuPaul reflects on the power that drag and self-love have long offered across his difficult, and sometimes tortured, life. Readers expecting dishy stories may be disappointed, but the psychological self-assessment in the pages of this memoir is far more edifying than Hollywood gossip could ever be.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Patric Gagne is an unlikely subject for a memoir on sociopaths. Especially since she is a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Still, Gagne makes the case that after a troubled childhood of antisocial behavior (like stealing trinkets and cursing teachers) and a difficult adulthood (now stealing credit cards and fighting authority figures), she receives a diagnosis of sociopathy. Her memoir recounts many episodes of bad behavior—deeds often marked by a lack of empathy, guilt or even common decency—where her great antipathy mars any ability for her to connect with others. Sociopath is a rewarding personal exposé that demystifies one vilified psychological condition so often seen as entirely untreatable or irreparable. Only now there’s a familiar face and a real story linked to the prognosis.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare is an acclaimed novelist and an astute biographer, delivering tales that wield a discerning eye to subjects and embrace a robust attention to detail. Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the legendary creator of James Bond, is the latest to receive Shakespeare’s treatment. With access to new family materials from the Fleming estate, the seemingly contradictory Fleming is seen anew as a totally “different person” from his popular image. Taking cues from Fleming’s life story—from a refined upbringing spent in expensive private schools to working for Reuters as a journalist in the Soviet Union—Shakespeare reveals how these experiences shaped the elusive world of espionage and intrigue created in Fleming’s novels. Other insights include how Bond was likely informed by Fleming’s cavalier father, a major who fought in WWI. A martini (shaken, not stirred) is best enjoyed with this bio.

Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie , while giving a rare public lecture in New York in August 2022, was violently stabbed by an assailant brandishing a knife . The attack saw Rushdie lose his left hand and his sight in one eye. Speaking to The New Yorker a year later , he confirmed a memoir was in the works that would confront this harrowing existential experience: “When somebody sticks a knife into you, that’s a first-person story. That’s an ‘I’ story.” Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder is promised to be his raw, revelatory and deeply psychological confrontation with the violent incident. Like the sword of Damocles, brutality has long stalked Rushdie ever since the 1989 fatwa issued against the author, following the publication of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses . The answer to such barbarity, Rushdie is poised to argue, is by finding the strength to stand up again.

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019–2022 by Peter Schjeldahl (Release: May 14)

Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022), longstanding art critic of The New Yorker , confronted his mortality when he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2019. The resulting essay collection he then penned, The Art of Dying , is a masterful meditation on one life preoccupied entirely with aesthetics and criticism. It’s a discursive tactic for a memoir that avoids discussing Schjeldahl’s coming demise while equally confirming its impending visit by avoiding it. Acknowledging that he finds himself “thinking about death less than I used to,” Schjeldahl spends most of the pages revisiting familiar art subjects—from Edward Hopper ’s output to Peter Saul ’s Pop Art—as vehicles to re-examine his own remarkable life. With a life that began in the humble Midwest, Schjeldahl says his birthplace was one that ultimately availed him to write so plainly and cogently on art throughout his career. Such posthumous musings prove illuminating lessons on the potency of American art, with whispered asides on the tragedy of death that will come for all of us.

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Release: June 11)

Joni Mitchell has enjoyed a remarkable revival recently, even already being one of the most acclaimed and enduring singer/songwriters. After retiring from public appearances for health reasons in the 2010s, Mitchell, 80, has returned to the spotlight with a 2021 Kennedy Centers honor , an appearance accepting the 2023 Gershwin Prize and even a live performance at this year’s Grammy Awards . It’s against this backdrop of public celebration of Mitchell that NPR music critic Ann Powers retraces the life story and musical (re)evolution of the singer, from folk to jazz genres and rock to soul music, across five decades for the American songbook. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell,” she writes in the introduction. Instead, Powers’ project is one showing how Mitchell’s many journeys—from literal road trips inspiring tracks like “All I Want” to inner probings of Mitchell’s psyche, such as the song “Both Sides Now”—have always inspired Mitchell’s enduring, emotive and palpable output. These travels hold the key, Powers says, to understanding an enigmatic artist.

• SEE ALSO : Will Keen On Playing Vladimir Putin On Broadway in ‘Patriots’

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The 7 Best New Movies Coming to Hulu in June 2024

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As summer kicks off, Hulu is gearing up to offer a fresh batch of cinematic delights to keep viewers entertained all month long. Whether you're a fan of thrilling blockbusters, heartwarming dramas, biopics , or quirky indie gems, June’s lineup has something for everyone. From highly-anticipated premieres of Hulu originals to timeless classics, the movie selection this month promises to deliver endless hours of entertainment. This article will serve as a jumping point as we dive into this month's pool of must-watch films hitting the streaming service this month, ensuring your summer movie nights are packed with excitement and variety.

'Marmalade' (2024)

In the directorial debut of Keir O’Donnell ( Wedding Crashers ), Marmalade is a darkly comedic heist film that follows a young man named Baron, played by Stranger Things ’ Joe Keery , from a small town who finds himself in jail. He bonds with his cellmate, Otis ( Aldis Hodge ), over their shared experiences with terminally ill mothers, and regales him with the story of how he landed in jail after meeting the enigmatic Marmalade ( Camila Morrone ). After losing his job, Baron learns that his mother’s medication has increased in price. Shortly after, he meets Marmalade , who convinces him to join her in robbing a bank. Baron promises a large sum of money to Otis if he helps him escape so he can reunite with Marmalade . With many twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end , this movie is similar to the 1995 film, The Usual Suspects .

'Red Right Hand' (2024)

Set deep in an Appalachian town, Red Right Hand stars Orlando Bloom ( The Lord of the Rings ) as Cash, a hardworking man who lives with his niece, Savannah ( Chapel Oaks ), and his brother-in-law. When the kingpin of Otis County, “Big Cat" ( Andie MacDowell ) has her men pay them a visit about unpaid debts, he has to find a way to protect Savannah and prevent her from becoming an orphan. He strikes a deal with Big Cat to pay off his brother-in-law’s debts to her, but she has other plans for his unique set of skills, and he soon realizes that he will do whatever it takes to save what little family he has left.

'Origin' (2024)

Origin is a biographical drama that tells the life story of Pulitzer Prize-winner Isabel Wilkerson ( Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor ) as she writes her New York Times bestseller, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents . In the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing, she decided to travel throughout the United States, Germany, and India to research and study the way each country utilizes caste systems and how race is not the only factor in discrimination and bigotry. She makes controversial correlations between the extermination and displacement of Native Americans in the United States and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany but also acknowledges that the subjugation of different classes or castes in India has nothing to do with skin color. She argues that the reason she decided to write her book was to encourage people to better understand and fight bigotry. “You don’t escape trauma by ignoring it, you escape trauma by confronting it.” Wilkerson’s book went on to become the number one New York Times nonfiction bestseller around the same time as the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

'Prey' (2024)

After Andrew ( Ryan Phillippe ) and Sue ( Mena Suvari ), a young missionary couple in the Kalahari Desert, are forced to leave their village post by an extremist militant gang, they board a flight on a small plane, piloted by Grun ( Emile Hirsch ). Due to the plane being overloaded with too much weight, it struggles with turbulence and ultimately crashes in the Ngala Reserve, where lions and cheetahs live and hunt. Sue is trapped in the rubble of the plane, so when the other survivors of the crash decide to set out to find help from a nearby village, Andrew stays behind with her, despite the warnings about potentially being attacked by lions.

As the other party wanders the desert, suspicion and mistrust cause them to fight and separate. The African wildlife might pose a large threat, but some of the members of the group are not entirely trustworthy either. In addition to surviving the elements and the large predatory animals lurking nearby, there are also armed Zulus in the territory who have major issues with Grun’s illegal smuggling of rhino horns on his plane. If you’re a fan of survival movies like The Grey or The Revenant , this is the movie for you as it places the protagonists in the complex predicament of “Man vs. Nature,” as well as “Man vs. Man.”

'Somewhere Quiet' (2023)

After being abducted and held captive for six months, Meg ( Jennifer Kim ) manages to escape and return to her home and husband, Joe ( Kentucker Audley ). As she struggles with the aftermath and trauma, Joe suggests they go Somewhere Quiet , and he takes her to his family’s remote cabin in the middle of a heavily wooded area. He assures her that they will be able to stay there alone with his elderly mother with no other visitors, but shortly after their arrival, his cousin, Madeline ( Marin Ireland ), shows up. Madeline’s demeanor immediately rubs Meg the wrong way, causing her to question her gut instincts as she attempts to regain normalcy in her life. Director Olivia West Lloyd has stated that as a fan of slasher films, she always wanted to make a movie that told the story of what happens to the “Final Girl” after the credits start rolling. Somewhere Quiet showcases the paranoia and subsequent survival instincts that a Final Girl would have after experiencing and surviving something horrific.

'The Batman' (2022)

The latest addition to the DC Comics Batman franchise offers a gritty new take with Robert Pattinson as the titular Batman/Bruce Wayne. Unlike Christian Bale ’s previous Batman trilogy, Pattinson’s character is still grappling with his vigilante alter ego and his responsibilities as the heir to Wayne Enterprises. Instead of showing off as a billionaire playboy, he is reclusive and spends his free time hunting the criminals of Gotham with vengeance as his main motivator. When the mayor of Gotham is assassinated by a masked serial killer known as The Riddler ( Paul Dano ), he is swept into a web of mobsters like The Penguin ( Colin Farrell ), betrayal, and corruption. If you were a fan of the 2019 film Joker and how dark the Batman villain’s origin story was, you will definitely enjoy this recent rebranding of how The Batman went from being a vengeful vigilante to “Gotham’s Hero.”

'Van Helsing' (2004)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Van Helsing , a delightfully campy movie based on three literary horror classics; Dracula , by Bram Stoker , Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley , and The Wolf Man , by George Waggner . The movie follows the notorious monster-hunter, Van Helsing , played by Hugh Jackman , as he is assigned to a special mission in Transylvania. There, he faces vampires, werewolves, and the monster created by Victor Frankenstein, equipped with steampunk weapons designed by the Knights of the Holy Order who have protected mankind “since time immemorial.” By his side is Carl ( David Wenham ) who is a friar and weapons designer, as well as Anna Velarious ( Kate Beckinsale ), the last living member of an ancient and cursed aristocratic Romanian family. If you’re a fan of the 1999 cinematic masterpiece, The Mummy , starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz , then you’ll love Van Helsing... both of which were written and directed by Stephen Sommers .

Stay tuned to see what Hulu will be bringing to the table for July!

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Who Is Nick Pasqual: The Actor Arrested Over The Hollywood Makeup Artist Stabbing

H ollywood makeup artist and special effects producer Allie Shehorn's former boyfriend, actor Nick Pasqual, has been arrested for allegedly breaking into her home on May 23, stabbing her 20 times, and leaving the scene. Pasqual is a screen actor who's appeared in over 30 projects, which include including an appearance in "How I Met Your Mother" Season 7, Episode 5, "Field Trip," as Will. He also has a small uncredited role in Zack Snyder's Netflix movie "Rebel Moon," a project Shehorn also worked on. Pasqual allegedly tried to flee to Mexico after the attack, and the authorities arrested him at the border.

Shehorn was discovered by her surrogate mother Christine White. "I found her and I had to go into the bedroom where it happened," White described the incident to KTLA5 . "That wasn't a pretty sight." Fortunately, Shehorn survived her critical injuries after three surgeries, and is in the process of recovering. The alleged attack happened in the wake of Shehorn -- an award-winning professional who's worked on projects like the aforementioned "Rebel Moon" film and its sequel, as well as Damien Chazelle's star-studded "Babylon"  -- had filed a restraining order against Pasqual.

Read more: Actors You May Not Know Are Dead

Nick Pasqual Has Played Many Small Roles

Nick Pasqual has been appearing onscreen since 2015, and he's been a part of 31 movies and TV shows -- mostly in small guest roles or comparatively minor projects. Apart from the aforementioned "Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire" and "How I Met Your Mother," the biggest projects his name has been attached to are the Netflix horror drama "Archive 81" and "American Gangsters: Trap Queens." He has one guest star appearance in each in his résumé. Pasqual's biggest roles, on the other hand, are a co-starring turn in the 2023 comedy "Poor Paul" and 44 appearances in the sketch show podcast "National Day Riff." As such, he's not what you'd call a well-known actor, but rather somewhere around the level of "NCIS" actor Nolan Freeman, who was arrested for the January 6 Capitol riot in March.

Pasqual's alleged attack might not land him on a list of actors who have killed people , but he's facing charges of attempted murder, burglary, and causing injury. According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, his office is very keen to deal with the case, too. "This heinous incident is a stark reminder of the dangers of domestic violence," Gascón said in a statement. "We will ensure that the individual responsible for this egregious act is held accountable for their actions."

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website .

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Ali MacGraw on Her Natural, Beautiful Life

By Guy Trebay

The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time. Below, Ali MacGraw explains, in her own words, what continues to motivate her.

You know, I’m a strange old bird at this point. I live north of Santa Fe, kind of in nature, and I’m very involved with the community. I’m blessed to be in good health. and I know so many people who don’t have that choice. I have a life that makes me happy.

Looking back, it seems so strange that — overnight, at 30 — I became a “movie star.” I’m relieved I got out of that often exciting, often terrifying decade alive. I’d been working since I was 14, but I hadn’t gone to school for acting. I was chosen to be in “Goodbye, Columbus,” and then everything exploded with the stupefying surprise of “Love Story” — this cost-nothing project nobody expected to be a success.

Suddenly I was carried into a place I had never imagined. Before the movies, I’d been a photographer’s assistant. I’d had a job working as an assistant for Diana Vreeland, as the girl who did the trivial stuff. I was around people, like her, who have never been equaled in their vision and passion for history and astonishing imagery.

I’d also had amazing parents who worked hard their whole lives but who gave us a home that was filled with amazing books and art stuff and left us with inspiring values. So when this freaky moment of stardom suddenly came along, I did the best I could.

I failed and failed and got my share of deservedly horrific reviews in conspicuous vehicles. And, believe me, I didn’t feel like I was being misjudged. Unlike a lot of people, though, I did not swallow the Kool-Aid. I’m reasonably intelligent. I behaved well. But I would have preferred to have been good at what I was applauded for.

I’m grateful I had all that, but I live a very different life now. I don’t care at all about being seen in the latest piece of clothing or knowing the latest song. I don’t feel diminished by not knowing those things. I did it all and was looked at, and that was for another time.

Current and upcoming projects: Featured alongside Penélope Cruz and Margot Robbie in a Chanel J12 watch campaign; is an ambassador for a variety of animal welfare and educational rights groups in New Mexico, where she lives.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Guy Trebay is a reporter for the Style section of The Times, writing about the intersections of style, culture, art and fashion. More about Guy Trebay

A Guide to Aging Well

Looking to grow old gracefully we can help..

The “car key conversation,” when it’s time for an aging driver to hit the brakes, can be painful for families to navigate . Experts say there are ways to have it with empathy and care.

Calorie restriction and intermittent fasting both increase longevity in animals, aging experts say. Here’s what that means for you .

Researchers are investigating how our biology changes as we grow older — and whether there are ways to stop it .

You need more than strength to age well — you also need power. Here’s how to measure how much power you have  and here’s how to increase yours .

Ignore the hyperbaric chambers and infrared light: These are the evidence-backed secrets to aging well .

Your body’s need for fuel shifts as you get older. Your eating habits should shift , too.

People who think positively about getting older often live longer, healthier lives. These tips can help you reconsider your perspective .

• Cast & crew

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Plot under wraps Plot under wraps Plot under wraps

• Jeff Fowler
• Josh Miller
• John Whittington
• Ben Schwartz
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey

• Maddie Wachowski

• Commander Walters

• Tom Wachowski

• Dr. Robotnik

• Agent Stone

• Captain Rockwell

• Party Guest

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The film makers of the prior movies have mentioned playing both "Sonic Adventure 2" and the "Shadow The Hedgehog" solo game for inspiration. The film also has elements from the 1993 television series "The Adventures Of Sonic the Hedgehog" like Scratch and Grounder.
• Connections Follows Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
• When will Sonic the Hedgehog 3 be released? Powered by Alexa
• December 20, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Nhím Sonic 3
• London, England, UK
• Paramount Pictures
• Sega Sammy Group
• Original Film
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Dolby Digital
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