The most important part of a biopic movie is that it captures the essence and emotional truth of its subject. Many biopics, like "Amadeus" and "Oppenheimer" explore themes of tortured genius and how these individuals greatly impact history. Some stories take the lives of real people and embellish them with additional dramatic elements, like in "The Social Network."

Biopics are a difficult movie genre to perfect, but the best biopic movies of all time all transcend the traditional format and find new ways to engage the audience. Typically, biopics center on a famous figure in history and tell the story of their life, but a person's life never unfolds the way a movie does. While there may be plenty of dramatic events across the subject's lifetime, a good biopic knows what to omit and where to dramatically embellish to tell a story that holds more emotional truths rather than a dry recounting of hard facts.