The Best Movie Musicals of the 21st Century

Movies and musicals take our normal, ho-hum human experiences and turn them into ginormous explosions of emotion. We shoot and edit footage, we write and sing music when mere words can no longer suffice. On their own, these forms provide tons of catharsis. But when you combine those suckers? Buckle your culture-lovin' seatbelts, baby.

Movie musicals have been around since the very beginning of film history, a history that begins with the borrowing of devices and talent from the creators of stage musicals. With the ability to finesse and craft set pieces you simply could not in a real-life time-and-space theatrical setting, movie musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg became the symbols of filmic creativity, ingenuity, prestige, and good old-fashioned popcorn fun.

But as we've made our way into this 21st century, beginning with the year 2000, the movie musical has become something of an exception rather than a rule of cinematic expectations and impulses. In other words, when a contemporary movie musical comes out, it "means something." So, with the 2021 release of a certain "heightened" movie musical, we thought it time to analyze these 21st-century exceptions, these celebrations of just about every art form and craft you can throw into something, and list out the best movie musicals of the 21st century. Start those toes-a-tappin'!

Anna and the Apocalypse

There are two types of people in the world: Those who read the words "Scottish zombie Christmas high-school musical horror comedy" and shake their head in disappointment or embarrassment, and those with hearts and souls. Anna and the Apocalypse manages not only to be a funny and gory horror-comedy that's perfect for Halloween and a heartfelt and sweet movie that's perfect for Christmas, but is also a delightfully catchy and energetic musical that will make you laugh, cry, and sing along in holiday glee.

Dickinson's Ella Hunt gives a star-making performance as the titular Anna, a high schooler with relatable high schooler problems that feel like the end of the world even if they may be relatively small. Of course, that changes when the literal end of the world happens, and she finds herself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse forced to fight, kill, and sing her way through a zombie-infested Scottish town to save her dad. Director John McPhail injects the film with equal parts George A. Romero and John Hughes, and you really feel for these teenagers and their problems even as you're jollily singing along to the music and relishing in the zombie-horror goodness. - Rafael Motamayor

Burlesque

Burlesque is a heavy favorite for me on this list and might be my pick for the most underrated musical movie of the 21st Century so far. It’s campy in excess and silly in spades, but that’s what I love about it. That and watching two all-time pop divas tear up the stage. Christina Aguilera stars as the archetypal small-town girl who makes her move to the big city with dreams of stardom. That leads her to the local burlesque, run by none other than Cher, and if you can’t already tell how decadently fabulous this is going to get, maybe this one isn’t for you. The supporting cast is also a doozy, with Stanley Tucci professing the powers of wigs and Kristen Bell serving up scathing stage rival for Aguilera. With a soundtrack comprised mostly of beloved jazz, pop, and rock favorites, Burlesque‘s costumes are glittering, the quips are cheeky - actually, the costumes are quite cheeky too, it’s Burlesque after all - but perhaps most importantly, the singing and stage productions are genuinely good. Of course they are, because we’re talking about Christina Aguilera and freaking Cher. - Haleigh Foutch

Carmen: A Hip Hopera

Carmen: A Hip Hopera, a made-for-MTV movie from 2001, may play with a level of superficial datedness or nostalgia. But by tracking both its narrative and many of its musical motifs over one of our great pieces of artwork — Georges Bizet, Ludovic Halévy, and Henri Meilhac's stupendous opera Carmen — director Robert Townsend ensures a level of interior timelessness, even classicism that subtly punches this piece well above its weight class.

But as for that nostalgic level of enjoyment? I mean, this is '90s/2000s hip-hop culture on a silver platter, and for those who love that era (I raise my hand and immediately start rocking it to the beat), this will give you everything you want and more. Startling talents like Beyoncé Knowles, Rah Digga, Mos Def, Da Brat, Jermaine Dupri, and Mekhi "Surprisingly Very Good at Rapping" Phifer pounce all over this material, giving it a purposeful sense of emotional commitment, spitting and singing their bars with panache and brio (and to hear these folks rap over interpolations of Bizet's perfect music is just, wow). Townsend's visual constructions of these sequences are cheeky and formally experimental, messing with color correction, frame rate, and split screens to mimic the language of the channel he's creating for — all bolstered, again, with one of our most classic plots to hang it all up.

I'm just gonna say it... Carmen: A Hip Hopera > Hamilton. - Gregory Lawrence

Chicago

The 75th Academy Awards recognized Chicago as the best film of 2002, and there’s a strong case to be made for Rob Marshall’s stunning adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway musical. For years, an adaptation had vexed various screenwriters until Bill Condon managed to crack it and Marshall gave it a dazzling visual look that he’s been chasing (but never quite matching) with his subsequent musicals like Nine, Into the Woods, and Mary Poppins Returns. The story of the fame-seeking Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) who lands in jail for the murder of her lover (Dominic West) still speaks to our crime-as-entertainment culture despite the 1920s setting. The most impressive aspect of Chicago is how it’s able to take its lineup of terrific tunes, like the "Cell Block Tango" and "We Both Reached for the Gun," and craft stunning sequences around them. Given the distance from awards chatter, Chicago has lost none of its edge. – Matt Goldberg

Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark, like many of Lars von Trier's films, can feel overly, even unfairly punitive. Björk's leading character, a poor factory worker with an eye condition and a desire to help her son, does not deserve the horrible things that happen to her as a result of vile circumstances and, more tellingly, vile human nature. But happen to her they do, in unsparing, grimly constructed detail; one of von Trier's more smeary Dogme 95 works shot on gnarly DV tape.

But if you stare amid this path toward human annihilation, you will find a ton of beauty, a ton of escape, and one of the wildest usages of the musical form you'll ever see. When the banal evils of Björk's life become too much to bear, she subsumes herself into a musical fantasy world. Suddenly the colors brighten, the cameras become more intentionally composed, and the world turns into a song-and-dance fantasia where things dip their toes into the pool of "making sense." This dichotomy in styles, in truth versus fantasy makes for a gripping, gritty watch, a film that retains a blunt power of efficacy in all kinds of emotional directions. - Gregory Lawrence

Dreamgirls

A crowdpleaser, a whirlwind, an absolute force of a film. Dreamgirls is translated to the screen by writer/director Bill Condon, who packs the runtime with so much music, emotion, broad efficacy, and pained nuance. The powerful cast members — including Beyoncé Knowles, an Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Eddie Murphy, and Jamie Foxx — arrive at this material hungry and eager, giving these songs (by Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen) a sense of drive and passion you must pay attention to. And yet, skillfully and subtly, Condon plays with whether or not the film's language pays attention to them, somewhat ruthlessly sliding the show-stopper, Hudson's "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," directly into the next song, representing a greedy world eager to move on if it's advantageous for those leading the charge. Astonishing on a scene-to-scene level and neatly constructed as an overall statement, Dreamgirls continues to clobber. - Gregory Lawrence

Enchanted

Musicals went hand-in-hand with Disney for decades until the early 2000s, when the Mouse House started to move away from films that were so song-oriented. But Disney’s 2007 film Enchanted brilliantly brought musicals back in a smart way, as it bridged the gap between Shrek and The Little Mermaid by taking a self-referential approach to their Disney brand. The plot of Enchanted is basically: What if an animated Disney princess came to life and had to navigate real-world Manhattan? Amy Adams is perfectly cast here as Giselle, nailing the wide-eyed wonderment that permeates through most Disney animated films, but also making the character feel real and dimensional. That’s no small feat, and it’s a testament to Kevin Lima’s direction and catchy songs by Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken that the movie strikes the perfect balance between snark and earnestness. – Adam Chitwood

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Heartwarming, emotional, and an effectively constructed crowdpleaser, Everybody's Talking About Jamie will remind you of the fundamental powers of being yourself. Featuring future star Max Harwood in the title role, the film follows a young, gay teen from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England who dreams of being a loud, proud drag queen despite his town's rural sleepiness. While Jamie faces his share of hardships and challenges — from classmate bully Samuel Bottomley to unencouraging teacher Sharon Horgan to deadbeat dad Ralph Ineson — the tone of Jamie is founded on celebration, perseverance, and a hell of a lot of joy to be found in that process. Jamie is surrounded by supportive figures in his life — from mother Sarah Lancashire to best friend Lauren Patel to drag mentor Richard E. Grant — and this integral level of support gives the film a sense of infectiousness and good cheer (while allowing its more harrowing plot moves to feel organic, not exploitative or melodramatic). And the tunes absolutely slap, especially the ones that feel like queer-influenced top 40 pop bangers, a rare genre for narrative musicals to explore; though the most show-stopping musical number is an Elton John-feeling piano ballad that tells the beautiful, heartbreaking history of the queer movement in Margaret Thatcher's pulverizing England. If you see Everybody's Talking About Jamie, you'll be talking about it for some time to come. - Gregory Lawrence

Frozen

Frozen is clearly one of Disney’s most popular and most successful films in the 21st century, but it’s also one of their best. The movie feels like an adaptation of a Broadway musical, even though it’s really a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. The songs drive the story, and songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez expertly weave a tale of rejection, familial love, and acceptance throughout this phenomenal soundtrack. “Let It Go” was a years-long earworm for a reason, but the childlike wonder of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and the silly hilarity of “In Summer” solidify this as one of the best musicals and musical soundtracks of the 21st century. – Adam Chitwood

Frozen II

As you just read, Frozen is one of Disney's best, and most smoothly professional musical films of recent. It's tight, efficient, and crafted for success.

Frozen II, conversely, is a mess. And thank God for that, as this sequel is given free rein to roam in all kinds of strange discursions, emotionally complicated avenues (sometimes physicalized in ice caves of regret!), and sequences that feel abjectly uninterested in catering to its ostensibly youthful target audiences. "You all look a little bit older," tells Olaf (Josh Gad) to us directly in the cheerfully melodic opening number "Some Things Never Change," an ironically titled piece given just how much sloppy, jagged change is a-coming for all of our characters. I'll go so far as to say the songs in Frozen II, again from Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, go harder than their predecessor; I love the genre parodies of tunes like "When I Am Older" and "Lost in the Woods," think "Show Yourself" is one of Disney's all-time moments of beauty, and "Into the Unknown" just goes, baby.

Frozen II finds status quos getting mucked up and characters getting musical soliloquies and hard self-aware jokes careening into blunt sorrow; all the time, I'm sitting there wondering, "How did Disney let this weird art-musical get released to the masses as a popcorn sequel to one of their biggest, safest hits?" Thank God they did. - Gregory Lawrence

The Greatest Showman

The one requirement for The Greatest Showman is to simply accept that it is not (nor does it really attempt to be) a truthful account of P.T. Barnum’s life, which is oddly fitting given its main character. Instead, The Greatest Showman constantly shoots for uplift and joy with a terrific litany of songs from Benj Pasek & Justin Paul constructed with some really artful and impressive direction from Michael Gracey, making his feature debut. You also have a terrific cast leaning into this version of Barnum’s story with Hugh Jackman perfectly endearing as the sweet-if-misguided showman. Like any good musical, these songs are bound to get stuck in your head, but you’re not going to mind when you’re fist-pumping to “This Is Me” for the 400th time. – Matt Goldberg

Hairspray

Hairspray is one of John Waters’ most beloved and accessible comedies, and the 2002 musical was arguably even more beloved, and definitely more accessible. Composer Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Whitman’s songs sparked a sensation for musical theater nerds (roasting myself here), with the production taking home eight Tonys, including Best Musical and Best Score. So when the film adaptation came along in 2007, it courted one hell of an ensemble cast of A-list stars and musical favorites, including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, and Allison Janney.

But the secret ingredient is the discovery and casting of Nikki Blonsky, starring in her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the relentlessly bright-spirited teenager who just loves dancing and determines to make it on her beloved Corny Collins Show. Set during the movement for integration during the 60s, Hairspray is a pure-spirited story about acceptance, not just of others but of yourself. Tracy Turnblad beat the body-pos movement to the punch by decades, but it never gets old watching her dance her heart out for pure love of dancing, a statement that's as true of Waters' film as it is of Adam Shankman's vibrant, vivacious musical remake. - Haleigh Foutch

Happy Feet

George Miller's odd, dark, and often fun animated look at the lives of singing and dancing penguins belongs on this list if for no other reason than this: When Prince was screened the film to get his approval to use his song "Kiss," he ended up liking it so much that he wrote an original song for it. Beyond the Prince of it all, though, the concept of a movie musical is baked into the core DNA of Happy Feet, as we learn an important fact about penguins previously unknown to the human world — when adult penguins are trying to find their perfect mates, they sing their "heartsongs" to find out what songs might be compatible. The mash-ups of pop/rock favorites like "Boogie Wonderland," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Somebody to Love," "I Wish," and more are very solid (with the added bonus of the great voice cast lending their vocal talents — never knew how badly I wanted to see Hugh Jackman do an Elvis biopic until now). While some slight emotional scarring may occur after viewing (those seals were fucking scary), Miller remains a master of the slightly disturbing but ultimately charming family film. - Liz Shannon Miller

High School Musical 2

In many ways, you could say that High School Musical 2 is The Dark Knight or The Empire Strikes Back of the High School Musical trilogy. It's bigger, louder, better made, and it's got a darker edge to it as the franchise finally realizes that it's got the perfect villain in Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale). Free from the constraints of a high school, the sequel moves the action to a country club, which gives the film more freedom in terms of setting and look for the musical numbers so they don't "Stick to the Status Quo." The film is full of wonderful set pieces, from beach-side singing and dancing to a number set in the club's kitchen to a jazz dance-off that's also a baseball game. And of course, there's what may very well be the single greatest musical number of our time — "Bet on It," also known as Zac Efron's take on Kevin Bacon's angry warehouse dance in Footloose.

The fact that there hasn't been an entire oral history about that song is a crime against music and journalism, but I digress. "Bet on It" is the emotional crux of the film, as Troy contemplates whether he should turn to the dark side (he's wearing all black during the scene!) by embracing capitalism and befriending a bunch of rich country club members. The first movie is all well and good, but this song also represents Efron's big solo debut in the franchise after having had his voice secretly redubbed in post-production for the first HSM. When Troy is singing that you should bet everything on him and that he's taking the reins of his life, you're also listening to Efron taking the reins of his career and fighting to get his voice out to the masses, and for that, we are very grateful. - Rafael Motamayor

In the Heights

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s best-known musical may now be Hamilton, but that doesn’t make his first Tony-winning musical a slouch. If anything, In the Heights feels like a more personal story about the immigrant experience and what it’s like to wrestle with expectations of what kind of life you should have. With its ensemble cast, the story wrestles with the tension of whether you should leave to pursue individual goals or if it’s better to stay in your community and invest in your home. The screen version takes on an entirely new life thanks to Jon M. Chu’s excellent direction that brings a fresh energy to Miranda’s catchy tunes while never losing the emotional core that made this breakout work so endearing in the first place. – Matt Goldberg

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Coen Brothers’ 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis is somewhat divisive among fans of these distinct directors. Some find it to be a minor work in their varied filmography, while others hail it as one of their masterpieces. I’m in the latter camp, as I find Inside Llewyn Davis to be a heartbreakingly personal film about artistic struggle, and the lives so many artists who don’t become Bob Dylan live. Oscar Isaac breathes Llewyn Davis to life with such passion and anger and jealous rage, and when he picks up that guitar he bares his broken soul to the world even more. The folk-inspired soundtrack is equal parts gut-wrenching and beautiful, with hilarious ditties like “Please, Mr. Kennedy” thrown in for good measure (just because the film is dramatic doesn’t mean it’s devoid of the Coens’ distinct sense of humor). That the Coen Brothers can just toss off a brilliant musical ode to artists and the folk scene of the '60s in between an epic Western (True Grit) and an old Hollywood comedy (Hail, Caesar!) is a testament to their range and talent as two of our greatest living filmmakers. – Adam Chitwood

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

It only came out in November 2020 so it's a bit early to declare this one to be a Christmas classic, but the Netflix holiday film written and directed by David E. Talbert will definitely be worth revisiting when 'tis the season again this year. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey stars Forest Whitaker as an inventor and toymaker who completely shuts down after a series of personal tragedies, only to be reawakened by his adorable granddaughter (Madalen Mills) when she comes for a visit and reveals her own talents for invention. The film's outstanding cast, which also includes Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Davina Phillip, and Ricky Martin, gets to perform some truly great original musical numbers, with songs written by Philip Lawrence, Davy Nathan, Michael Diskint, and John Legend. It's both a very old-school flashback to the days of lavish theatrical musicals (including big group dance numbers!) with a number of modern flourishes and some great family-friendly action. Also, it's a beautiful film, rich with colors and some of the best costumes of 2020. If this one flew under your radar last year, make a point of checking it out — though maybe wait until closer to the holidays, because if you celebrate, it's a great way to amp up your own Christmas spirit. - Liz Shannon Miller

Josie and the Pussycats

Thanks to its recent 20th anniversary, ​Josie and the Pussycats is finally getting the reappraisal it deserves and some long-overdue recognition as one of the best, most slept-on satires of its generation. In other words, Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever, join the army! It’s also unequivocally one of the best soundtracks of the early 2000s, jam-packed with incredible original songs, with Letters to Cleo singer Kay Hanley providing Josie's vocals.

Written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, Josie and the Pussycats stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the iconic trio of cat-eared musicians, and their giddy energy is as infectious as the songs. But it's not just the music or the cast that makes Josie such a slept-on gem, it's the genuinely brilliant and incisive commentary on consumer culture, the fearlessly over-the-top aesthetic, and the purity of the film's belief in the power of friendship, even in the face of evil megacorporations, subliminal messages, and nefarious multi-industry capitalistic schemes. It's an understatement to say that Josie was ahead of the conversation, but even if the film's sweetness and sense of humor didn't hold up so well, I would have had to insist it had a spot on this list in honor of the countless hours I drained into this soundtrack as a kid. - Haleigh Foutch

La La Land

"City of Stars, are you shining just for me?"

Watching this magical Hollywood musical, it sure felt like the answer was "yes," even though I'm sure millions of others could relate just as easily to Damien Chazelle's impassioned ode to the fools who dream. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both fantastic as ill-fated lovers Seb and Mia, one a jazz musician, the other an aspiring actress. The two have excellent chemistry together, whether they're singing and dancing in the moonlight (oof, don't mention that word!) or arguing like most normal couples.

This film is full of stylistic flights of fancy, but it's also grounded in a timeless kind of realism; in the real world, things don't always work out, and not everyone gets a happy ending. Though La La Land la-la-lost Best Picture in dramatic fashion, it remains a beautiful movie about love, loss, and the things we sacrifice for the sake of art. Plus, it deserves credit for helping to put the now-formidable songwriting duo of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul on the map along with Dear Evan Hansen, which could very well wind up on this list before the end of the year. - Jeff Sneider

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

There are classic sequels that are regarded as vast improvements over their predecessors. The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, High School Musical 2. Then, there's Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, a movie that takes the Godfather Part II approach of being both a sequel and a prequel to the first film.

Where the first film was a cute, charming movie that basically felt like a group of great actors just going on vacation to Greece and doing an epic week of drinking, dancing, and karaoke singing while someone brought a camera along, Here We Go Again actually feels like a proper movie. The story has some nuance to it, the characters have depth and arcs to them, and the actors actually look like they give a shit and are putting some effort into their craft. And even if you lose one Meryl Streep, you win Lily James, Andy Garcia, and freaking Cher — and Cher makes everything better. This as close as you get to a contemporary take on a classic Hollywood musical-turned-summer blockbuster. The musical numbers actually move the story along through visual storytelling while the choreography is shot like classic MGM musicals, and there are some visually impressive camera movements and editing tricks done to merge timelines and story threads.

As for the songs themselves, out is the feeling of watching your parents singing casually drunk on a Saturday night; in is the feeling of a proper Broadway production with bombastic numbers and fantastic (and funny) singing. The summer of 2018 may have given us Mission: Impossible — Fallout, but the true pinnacle of cinema came with Here We Go Again's set-piece where we see all the wedding guests arriving at a European beach in a fleet of boats like the climax to a Christopher Nolan war movie — but instead, everyone is singing ABBA's "Dancing Queen." - Rafael Motamayor

Mary Poppins Returns

Emily Blunt is a star, the Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman songs are stupendous, and the production design is simply astonishing in Mary Poppins Returns, an underrated return to live-action splendor from Disney. Offering a wheelbarrow full of whimsy while welcomely undercutting it all with a sense of melancholy and maturity (Ben Whishaw's solo elegy "A Conversation" will always reduce me to tears), Rob Marshall's film has something for everyone. Or, rather, everything for everyone; the film takes a bit of a Fast Five approach to the Mary Poppins universe by packing the runtime with as many surreal set-pieces, flights of fancy, and choices made to produce joy over "a logical appreciation." When Mary Poppins returns, so too does my childlike smile. - Gregory Lawrence

Moana

With a resume of beloved Disney animated musical classics that includes The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Princess and the Frog, writers/directors Ron Clements and John Musker hit the mark again with 2016’s Moana. This time with a musical assist from In the Heights and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, who co-wrote the film’s songs alongside Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina. The result is a charming, catchy-as-hell reinvention of the Disney princess narrative.

Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) isn’t your average fairytale princess ready to risk it all for love, she’s the future leader of her people; an ambitious, clever, and athletic hero, who is chosen by the ocean for a mythic adventure that brings her face-to-face with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). The mythology and magic that made Clements and Musker’s previous films such favorites is on full display, but Moana‘s not-so-secret weapon is the enchanting soundtrack; a fusion of traditional music and belting Broadway numbers (and even a bit of Bowie), each an ear-worm in their own way. - Haleigh Foutch

Moulin Rouge!

I may have been on mushrooms the last time I watched Moulin Rouge!, but it still holds up! Did you know that this movie was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture? I wonder if it would've beaten Chicago had it come out the following year, or if Chicago would've won had this musical not lost the year before. But I digress...

I've always loved this bombastic jukebox musical from co-writer-director Baz Luhrmann, in which Ewan McGregor plays a poet who falls for a beautiful courtesan played by Nicole Kidman. Naturally, there's another man in the equation, the jealous Duke, who represents a career highlight for Australian actor Richard Roxburgh. Elsewhere, John Leguizamo's casting as Toulouse-Lautrec is inspired, and Jim Broadbent is his usual brilliant self as Harold Zidler, the owner and operator of the Moulin Rouge. Broadbent would win the Supporting Actor Oscar this year for a different movie, Iris, though his campaign was surely bolstered by his performance in this film. Instead, Moulin Rouge! settled for two Oscars for its gorgeous costumes and stunning production design en route to grossing nearly $200 million worldwide and countless millions more in soundtrack sales thanks to the femme-powered radio hit "Lady Marmalade."

This was the third and final entry in Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy, and the director uses a colorful mix of Bollywood influences and French can-can dancers to create an operatic tale with a style and energy all its own. Forget "Your Song," this was our anthem, and I make no apologies for loving this movie. After all, love lifts us up where we belong... - Jeff Sneider

The Muppets / Muppets Most Wanted

How about a double feature of joy, invention, satire, and catchy tunes? Our two 21st century Muppets movies — The Muppets in 2011 and Muppets Most Wanted in 2014 — give fans of these felt-constructed mischief-makers (and Kermit, who's just trying to hold the mischief together) everything they'd want in a musical comedy version while charting identities of their own. The Muppets, featuring star and co-writer Jason Segel, is full of heart, its standout songs being tearjerkers like "Pictures in My Head" and Oscar winner "Man or Muppet." Muppets Most Wanted, which loses a single live-action focus for a caper-driven ensemble cast, is full of jokes, its standout songs being genre pastiches like "The Big House" and "I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu)." Taken together, both films give a broad, clean overview of what The Muppets can provide us, while making us keenly aware of the prodigious talents of director James Bobin and songwriter Bret McKenzie. - Gregory Lawrence

Once

John Carney’s 2007 indie Once remains as tender and beautiful as it was when it was first released. The story follows two struggling musicians (played by real musicians and the film’s composers Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová) who end up falling in love with each other. It’s such a simple story, and yet the creative force behind it shows us the power of music to forge a connection with each other and convey a depth of emotion that simple words sometimes fail to do. It’s impossible not to feel a twinge in your heart during “Falling Slowly” but every song, whether it’s “When Your Mind’s Made Up” or “Say It to Me Now,” is absolutely lovely. – Matt Goldberg

Pitch Perfect

The 21st century has been dominated by pop music, and in that way, 2012’s Pitch Perfect may be one of the musicals that best encapsulates the dominating musical taste of an era. Directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon, the film started as a witty twist on the boon of competitive a capella groups, but somewhere along the way morphed into a sharp college comedy packed with killer renditions of pop songs. Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson lead a cast that’s heavy on both vocal and comedic talent, and while the sequels fell far short of the same kind of magic that made Pitch Perfect a hit, the first film still stands as a tremendously watchable and catchy good time. – Adam Chitwood

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

There’s some confusion about what exactly qualifies a film as a "musical." It feels like the correct answer is somewhere along the lines of “any film featuring non-diegetic musical numbers performed by the characters to explain their motivations and advance the narrative,” but that definition would exclude movies like Sing and Rock of Ages (although in fairness, Rock of Ages should be omitted from every discussion about films of any genre). Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the 2016 comedy from The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer), isn’t a musical in the sense of Hairspray or Oklahoma! But it is 100% a comedy about music, featuring roughly a dozen hilarious original songs by narcissistic fictional megastar Connor4Real (Samberg). The film follows Connor as he embarks on a massive tour to promote the release of his hotly-anticipated sophomore album. In addition to being a razor-sharp satire of pop music superstars and the superficial lifestyle of social media influencers, the songs are legitimate bops, and many of them are performed in elaborate stage numbers that are both funny as hell and legitimately impressive. It also features a number of fun cameos from the music industry, including standout bits involving P!nk, Adam Levine, Seal, and Justin Timberlake. If for some wild reason you’ve never seen Popstar, now is the perfect time to check it out. Just make sure you keep the cameras rolling in the event of a surprise bee attack. - Tom Reimann

The Princess and the Frog

In the pantheon of killer Disney "I Want" songs, "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog might take the cake for me (er, the beignet). Like the rest of the film, it's energetic and dazzling, combining impulses both retro and new (the entire film has beautifully hand-drawn animation, but this sequence goes even further into animation's past for something wholly beautiful). And it centers and endears us to Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) perfectly, making her one of Disney's most relatable protagonists even as she's flung into a fantastical love story involving a dang frog (Bruno Campos). The film bustles with energy, charisma, heart (for the moon of all things!), and some welcomely incendiary satire on class politics. Plus, beyond "Almost There," Randy Newman's New Orleans jazz-tinged tunes are simply rollicking. Oh, and Keith David is chewing up the scenery as our villain, which immediately should put this film in the Film Hall of Fame (if that doesn't exist, get on it, please). - Gregory Lawrence

Rocketman

Forget Bohemian Rhapsody — this is how you do a musical biopic. Aside from a stunning lead performance by Taron Egerton, the secret sauce of Rocketman to make it excel past a simple jukebox musical is that it’s willing to paint Elton John as far less than a saint on a rise-fall-redemption arc. Instead, it has no hesitation in showing John and his inner turmoil of a talented young man looking for love in all the wrong places in an unflattering light. When you’ve got the emotional core intact, then you’re free to use “Tiny Dancer” to convey longing or “Rocket Man” to convey his personal nadir, because you’re relying on the strength of character and story rather than simply playing hit songs. Throw in Dexter Fletcher’s vibrant visuals, and you’ve got a movie that does justice to John without trying to canonize him. – Matt Goldberg

Romance & Cigarettes

And now for something completely different. In John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes, the "jukebox musical" is refracted into something more resembling a "karaoke musical." A lively, eclectic cast of performers including James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Mandy Moore, and Bobby Cannavale burst out into musical numbers by "singing over" needle drops from artists like Cyndi Lauper and James Brown. These performances, while rendered with a stylish filmmaking splash, do not make any attempt at feeling like professionally performed musical numbers, instead feeling like an intoxicated barfly crooning along to the overhead speakers.

What does this experimentation entail? Raw, sweeping emotion made out of the most basic of human experiences. Issues with infidelity, with inadequacy, and with lust become issues worth singing about, worth putting on a show while still being "yourself." It's a unique, canny, and satisfying magic trick Mr. Turturro pulls off here, one you won't soon forget. - Gregory Lawrence

Sing Street

It's a tale as old as time. Boy likes girl, boy starts a band to impress girl. But Sing Street isn't any old band — or movie, for that matter. Set in Ireland in the 1980s, it's a delightful coming-of-age film that stands right alongside Once, also from writer-director John Carney who elicits marvelous performances from his young cast here. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is excellent as the film's sweet protagonist and band's lead singer, and Jack Reynor is a true scene-stealer as his wise older brother.

This feel-good film about young love has an infectious energy that sweeps you up in the story, and I love the lo-fi '80s of it all, from the terrible clothes to the even worse haircuts, all captured on a grainy VHS camera, of course. The soundtrack features three legit original bops -- "Girls," "The Riddle of the Model" and the true toe-tapper, "Drive It Like You Stole It."

Sing Street is based on Carney's own upbringing in Dublin and the authenticity of this film speaks to that personal connection. It's a true crowd-pleaser and one that will have you clapping along and dancing in your seat. Naturally, it grossed only $3.2 million at the domestic box office. This is why we can't have nice things, people! - Jeff Sneider

Tangled

As far as Disney animated films go, Tangled is a bit of an odd duck due to the way it was re-engineered from being a classic princess tale to more of a two-hander adventure, featuring aspiring criminal outlaw Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) to lure in the boys who might normally reject a direct Rapunzel adaptation. But if appreciated solely on its qualities as a movie musical, it's damn solid, adhering to the classic traditions and proving why they've been so effective for decades, while also bringing a modern spin to its storytelling. Also, the songs slap — don't know if you've heard this before, but Alan Menken has a little game when it comes to writing killer songs (featuring the lyrics of the Tony-nominated Glenn Slater). "I've Got a Dream" deserves more recognition as a great tavern anthem, and "I See the Light" brings tears to my eyes every. time. It's not packed with musical moments, but Tangled represented a new era for Disney animation that proved its potential to evolve with the times. - Liz Shannon Miller

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Full disclosure: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is my favorite musical. And the idea of late-period Tim Burton taking this complicated, intentional masterwork from intentionally complicated master Stephen Sondheim and turning it into a CGI-addled playground for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter to doink around in made me upset to think about.

Goodness, what a sigh of relief I felt when I finally watched the thing. Depp and Carter star, yes, and it is full of the unnaturally CGI-boosted camera swirling and production design favored by Burton in this time period. But he's dialing all of these screws in to say something fierce, funny, and fanged. Every piece of his adaptation is chosen with care, from the sparse handheld camerawork (this is how you do it, Tom Hooper!) to the oversaturated blood that splatters all over the desaturated frame. He even cuts some of the most well-known music from the original Broadway show, and he was right to do so. Burton and his team have taken the raw materials of Sondheim's work and turned them into a deliciously macabre slice of cinematic pie. - Gregory Lawrence

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Blending in-universe rock numbers, fantastical explosions of emotion, and the rare "voiceover song underscoring action montages," Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny remains an entertaining, smoothly watchable, and uproarious musical comedy to scratch a different kind of itch for the form. Jack Black and Kyle Gass show us their origin story and undergo a fun adventure finding that titular guitar pick that will allegedly give them the rock power of the gods. Along the way, we storm the gates of a rock and roll museum, make the acoustic guitar rock harder than ever before, and meet a Sasquatch and a Devil (both played by celebrities I dare not spoil). Liam Lynch directs these shenanigans with the utmost of visual intention, turning what could be rote juvenalia into something deeper. The Pick of Destiny will make you feel like a teenager again, all big emotions and stoned silliness and great jams with greater friends. - Gregory Lawrence

Tick, Tick... Boom!

After watching tick, tick... BOOM!, Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, an adaptation of Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical, I needed to do everything. From its relentlessly chugging, yet obviously splendorous opening number to its bittersweet usage of real footage at the end, the film heartily endorses the simple power and beauty of being alive. Andrew Garfield gives what might be his best performance as Larson himself, a struggling musical writer trying to create something great while time's clock keeps on ticking. He is a magnetic, charismatic, constantly kinetic force, an anchor to a powerful ensemble of musical ringers like Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesús. But thankfully, Miranda's film is not a pure hagiography, and it's more than willing to dive into the problematic compulsions and sacrifices that come with being such a single-minded artist. Existential crises never sounded so catchy, nor left one feeling so inspired. - Gregory Lawrence

Source - https://collider.com/best-movie-musicals-of-the-21st-century/