The Right Stuff (1983)

The Right Stuff (1983)

[7] Writer/director Philip Kaufman chronicles the birth of the U.S. space program in The Right Stuff, beginning with the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Based on Tom Wolfe's…
Stand and Deliver (1988)

Stand and Deliver (1988)

[7] In this film based on a true story, Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner) stars as Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at a Hispanic high school in L.A. As the school is in danger of losing its funding…
Goodfellas (1990)

Goodfellas (1990)

[8] Director Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Raging Bull) returns to the gangster subgenre that made him a household name. Goodfellas is based on the true story of Henry Hill, a Brooklyn youth who quit his primary education to start working…
The Basketball Diaries (1995)

The Basketball Diaries (1995)

[5] Leonardo DiCaprio gives a strong early-career performance in this film based on the life of Jim Carroll, a promising young basketball player and writer whose life was derailed by drug addition in the late '60s and early '70s. The…
Bridge of Spies (2015)

Bridge of Spies (2015)

[7] Steven Spielberg dramatizes the true Cold War-era story of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an American lawyer tasked with defending a Russian spy named Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in court. When Abel is convicted, Donovan pleads to keep the death…
Missing (1982)

Missing (1982)

[7] Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek star in this true story about the disappearance of American journalist Charles Horman (John Shea) who went missing during the U.S.-sponsored 1973 Chilean coup. Spacek plays Horman's wife and Lemmon plays his father. When…
Michael (2026)

Michael (2026)

[8] The undisputed 'King of Pop' gets a music-heavy biopic from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) that covers his life from the early days of the Jackson 5 in Gary, Indiana, up to the 'Bad' tour in 1988, with the…
Inherit the Wind (1960)

Inherit the Wind (1960)

[9] Conscientious director Stanley Kramer (Judgment at Nuremberg, The Defiant Ones) tackles America's clashing beliefs in evolution and creationism in Inherit the Wind, a stage play adaptation inspired by the 1925 Scopes 'Monkey Trial'. Names and locations are changed and…
In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

[7] Director Ron Howard tackles the (more or less) true story that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. Chris Hemsworth stars as the determined first mate of the New England whaling ship Essex, which is destroyed by a mammoth…
Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

[8] Steven Spielberg directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in this odd, beguiling caper about a 17-year-old con man (DiCaprio) pursued across the globe by a dogged FBI agent (Hanks) for successfully impersonating a doctor, a lawyer, and a commercial…