Best Music Movies of 2015

An aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. The film follows her life from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph.

Richie Lanz (Bill Murray), a has-been rock manager takes his last remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan. When Richie finds himself in Kabul, abandoned, penniless and without his U.S. passport, he discovers a young Afghan girl named Salima with an extraordinary voice and manages her through Afghanistan's version of American Idol..

Sam, a divorced ad exec, loses his son in a university shooting. At the wake at his ex wife's house, he meets his son's SO, Kate. Two years later, after many bottles of booze, he lives on his yacht and works as a house painter. He meets up with his two workmates after work at a bar. He keeps his past a secret. When his ex finally tracks him down to get his signature to sell their house, she leaves him their son's music things including recordings of his own songs. Sam brings his guitar to the open mic night at the bar and sings his son's song. He gets his first fan, Quentin, who sees potential. Quentin manages to convince Sam to start a band/quartet (Rudderless) playing "Sam's" songs.

Musician Cat Power narrates this documentary on Janis Joplin's evolution into a star from letters that Joplin wrote over the years to her friends, family, and collaborators.

LIKE SUNDAY, LIKE RAIN tells the story of Reggie, a 12 year old rich prodigy who lives in a castle in New York, surrounded by wealth but living a lonely life as his parents are frequently absent. Eleanor is a young musician going through the pains of growing up, who is having problems with her boyfriend and was recently fired from her job. This is a beautiful story about discovery and acceptance.

The story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist

Hannah (Hall) is beginning to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed musician and the subject of her latest biography, when she meets Andrew (Sudeikis), a brash writer from New York, who has a different take on her husband's life - and death. The unlikely pair must collaborate to put together the famous singer's story and begin to write the next chapter of their lives.

The Fits is a psychological portrait of 11-year-old Toni-a tomboy assimilating to a tight-knit dance team in Cincinnati's West End. Enamored by the power and confidence of this strong community of girls, Toni eagerly absorbs routines, masters drills, and even pierces her own ears to fit in. When a mysterious outbreak of fainting spells plagues the team, Toni's desire for acceptance is twisted.

The mid-life crisis of a husband and father who, on his 40th birthday, decides to revisit his punk-rock past by throwing an extravagant party in the presidential suite of the Drake Hotel - where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend and former bandmates who have since moved on to bigger and better things.

In 1966, an unknown guitarist named James Hendrix leaves New York for London, changes his name to Jimi and begins to make his mark in the world of rock music. With his defining performance at Monterey Pop festival still a year away, Hendrix learns the tricks of the trade before eventually transforming into a triumphant icon of sixties counterculture.

Romance ignites between a troubled young singer on the cusp of stardom, and a handsome young cop with political ambitions in this drama about the power of walking your own path. Noni Jean (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a talented singer whose ethereal voice has taken the world of music by storm. A glimpse beneath the surface, however, reveals a girl who's cracking under the pressure to top the charts. When Noni tries to end it all, concerned cop Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker) pulls her back from the ledge, and shows her that life is still worth living. Along the way, Noni and Kaz fall head over heels in love. Meanwhile, the powers that be conspire to keep them apart as well as focused on their respective careers. But without Kaz's love, Noni may never find her true voice..

Rattling around in his mansion in the Hamptons, faded Sinatraesque crooner and notorious ladies man Paul Lombard stews over the acclaim that eluded him in his career and the trail of romantic wreckage he left in his wake. Matters are complicated when his punk rocker daughter Jude arrives in need of a place to stay and burdened with problems of her own....including a rivalry with her overachieving sister, her own ruinous love life, and above all, a fraught relationship with her famous father.

Born to be Blue starring Ethan Hawke is a re-imagining of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's life in the 60's. When Chet stars in a film about himself, a romance heats up with his costar, the enigmatic Jane (Carmen Ejogo). Production is shelved when Chet's past comes back to haunt him and it appears he may never play music again but Jane challenges him to mount a musical comeback against all the odds.

It's been three years since Tampa based Mike Lane transitioned from the life of a stripper - his stage name being Magic Mike - to his dream of starting his own custom furniture business, those three years mixed in terms of the goods and bads for him personally. His ex-troupe, the Kings of Tampa, minus who was their boss, Dallas, stop off in Tampa from their current home base in Miami on a road trip to a stripper convention in Myrtle Beach. As the remaining troupe members are nearing the end of their stripping lives, they, like Mike, who are at an advanced age beyond that of most strippers, they see this convention as their final hurrah in this life. Mike decides to join his old friends on the road trip to this send off. The current troupe members start to have their own dreams about their futures in being with Mike, while Mike has his own envy of his friends in his current life not being everything he hoped it would be. But especially without Dallas at the helm, the troupe members are feeling a bit lost, with Mike trying to inspire them, which he may or may not be able to do. As they make several stops along the way, they encounter many groups of women, which may demonstrate whether their thoughts about what to do at the convention is a good idea in if they still have what it takes. Beyond these encounters with women, the trip itself hits its bumps, with Mike needing to call in some favors and mend some bridges even to make it to Myrtle Beach, it not certain if those at the other end will accept Mike's pleas for help or his apologies.

Director Ethan Hawke explores the life and lessons of piano teacher Seymour Bernstein.

A look at the life of pianist Joe Albany from the perspective of his young daughter, as she watches him contend with his drug addiction during the 1970s jazz scene.

Follows three screwed up young people and their equally screwed up parents in the age of CBGB's, yuppies and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Park Riots in New York's East Village in the 1980s.