The 10 Best Corporate Biopics of All Time
Corporations are people. The Supreme Court said so. Basically back in 2010 when it was clarified that businesses have the same First Amendment rights as real people. It’s a kind of tracking: a life spent bathing in brands has made our relationships with corporations as vital as the relationships we share with flesh-and-blood people. So why not make some biopics about them?
The biopic is a time-honored, important cinematic genre dating back to at least 1900 and Georges Méliès about the life of Joan of Arc. Unsurprisingly, the corporate biopic that chronicles the rise and/or fall of a company (and the people who run it) is a growing sub-genre, given that we all live in their thrall. Given the advent of AI and the ever-increasing presence of corporations in our lives, individuals will soon become completely obsolete. Which, admittedly, sounds a little terrible… but all of these movies are actually pretty good.
Founder (2016)
Business: McDonald’s Corporation
The story of businessman Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), The Founder, traces the rise… not of the real founders of McDonald’s, whom Kroc screwed up pretty well, but of the guy who turned it into a global (but distinctly American) franchise. The film is wittily ambiguous about whether we should consider Croc as a villain. Of course, the McDonald brothers (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) would never have turned their small restaurant into a multi-billion dollar chain, and the story of the rise of a global icon is both culturally important and truly interesting. The film understands that while there may be great strides in American-style capitalism, there are no heroes.
Where to stream: Netflix
Social Network (2010)
Business: Facebook
Facebook, while still more or less at the top of the social media pile, seems a little odd from our perspective of 2023 – a drug of sorts that opens up access to more overtly destructive forms of the medium. However, his ascent is very similar to one of the key events on the way from there to here, and if David Fincher ( Seven , Fight Club ) seemed like an odd choice of director at the time, the pretty terrible impact social media had on our culture and politics in the years to come make it seem like the perfect choice and sage: the film is as relevant today as it was when it was released almost 15 years ago.
Where to broadcast: Digital rental
Guru (2007)
Business: Reliance Industries
This biopic depicts the rise of the Shakti Corporation and its founder Gurukanth Desai—actually the thinly veiled deputies of the multinational Reliance Industries, now the largest publicly traded company in India, and its founder Dhirubhai Ambani. Like a real-life business mogul, the film’s Guru starts life in a small Indian village before going big in polyester (a topic surprisingly well dramatized here) and continues to take over the Indian business scene. It is a brilliantly crafted and entertaining film, but it argues that the ethical scandals that plagued the Guru/Ambani in later years were simply the result of a mere peasant’s attempt to rise through a corrupt system. It’s not entirely convincing.
Where to stream: Netflix
Joy (2015)
Business: Clean Boss (also commercials)
Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for an Oscar (and won a Golden Globe) for her portrayal of Joy Mangano, the inventor and entrepreneur who created, most memorablely, the Miracle Mop. As shown in the film, Mangano goes from a struggling airline agent supporting his children, mother and ex-husband, turning his inventive talent into lucrative deals with QVC and HSN and starting his own companies. Lawrence does a great job in a decent film, but he’s also the antidote to boardroom-oriented, male-dominated stories about other American business successes.
Where to stream: Freevee
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Business: Gardner Rich & Co.
Chris Gardner’s company may not be a conglomerate on the level of some of the others featured here, at least in terms of name recognition, but it’s hard to argue that his rise story isn’t one of the most compelling. Will Smith plays a child prodigy who spent a year on the streets of San Francisco before finding a job at a brokerage firm – a job that eventually led him to start his own company that grew into a multi-million dollar concern before Gardner sold his stake. in 2006 year.
Where to stream: Netflix
Tetris (2023)
Business: Tetris Company
The origin story of Tetris cannot be compared to any other business movie or any other video game origin story you may have seen or read. Taron Egerton as Dutch-Indonesian developer Henk Rogers, who was introduced to Tetris at the 1988 Consumer Electronic Show. The game was created by a programmer from the Soviet state-owned company ELORG, and the distribution rights were sold to a British game publisher, who in turn transferred the rights to Nintendo in Japan. The film follows Rogers through a very entertaining (to the outsider at least) labyrinth of the international video game market at the height of the Cold War, all the while under the watchful eye of the KGB.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Business: Stratton Oakmont, Inc.
In Martin Scorsese’s ode to the cocaine glut of 1980s capitalism (as opposed to the glut of Provigil, Adderall and Xanax in the 2020s), Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, who founded brokerage Stratton Oakmont thanks in large part to his pump. “Flipping” skills – this does not refer to the popular sexual practice of the era (although there were quite a few of them too), but to the trick of buying penny stocks and artificially inflating their price, in essence, by lying, and then flipping them while they are high (stocks and usually brokers too). It’s kind of a deal of ups and downs.
Stream Where: Prime Video, Paramount+
Citizen Kane (1941)
Business: Hearst Communications
If anything, even less veiled than The Guru , Citizen Kane plays fast and loose with the personal life of William Randolph Hearst (sorry: Charles Foster Kane), kind of mixing his story with that of a couple of other prominent media moguls. era. The film describes the growth of Hearst Communications more thoroughly, albeit with fictional brilliance. Starting with the purchase of the tiny San Francisco Daily Examiner, Hearst increased its circulation by millions through a clever mixture of sensationalism, false populism, and clever poaching of journalists from other publications. Hirst’s “You make the pictures, I make the war” of Cuba becomes Kane’s “You make the prose poetry, I make the war,” but both reflect the birth of old-fashioned yellow journalism. move into the media environment at any cost that we know and hate today.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Blackberry (2023)
Business: BlackBerry, of course.
This one hasn’t even come out yet, but it’s worth mentioning, especially since it received impressive reviews at the recent Berlin International Film Festival. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton star in the story of the once-ubiquitous scheduler/smartphone that became an afterthought before dying an ignominious death (a murdered iPhone).
Where to stream: TBD
Air (2023)
Business: Nike, Inc. and Air Jordan
It took me a while to grasp the idea of a film about the origins of the Air Jordan shoe, in which Michael Jordan himself is more or less a supporting character. But of course, the birth of the most iconic sneaker in modern history began with Sonny Vaccaro (played here by Ben Affleck) and company founder Phil Knight (Matt Damon), who was on the verge of shutting down Nike’s basketball shoe division. completely before coming up with the idea of wooing Jordan, arguably (probably) the greatest basketball player of all time.
Where to stream: Nowhere yet, but the movie was funded by Amazon and intended to be a Prime original, so there’s a good chance you’ll see it there soon.