Film

Behind the Candelabra

Name: Behind the Candelabra
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2013
Cast: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe

Soderbergh's HBO film tracks the unlikely, explosive romance between Liberace and his much younger lover Scott Thorson across six turbulent years. It's a character study wrapped in '70s excess, glittering and sad—a story about performance, obsession, and the loneliness hiding beneath the rhinestones. For anyone curious about real lives lived in extremis.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like backstage portraits of glamour curdling into control, where Michael Douglas and Matt Damon play the mismatch with sharp, funny, sad precision and the excess is the point.

Skip it if you want a brisk, plot-driven biopic; this runs nearly two hours at a deliberately lingering pace, and its tone shifts between camp and quiet unease.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a full feature-length stretch of close, observational scenes, with patience for slow domestic moments rather than a steady drive forward.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

Scorching portrait of a man whose appetites consume everything around him, told with the same visual excess and dark humour. DiCaprio commands the screen the way Douglas does here—charismatic and deeply unwell.

But Nearly three hours of unrelenting depravity. If you wanted the story to make you feel good, you will leave hollowed out.

Carol2015

Another Rooney Mara film about a relationship built on secrecy and desire, but from inside the emotional truth rather than the scandal. Heartbreaking and restrained where Candelabra is baroque.

But Slow-burn intimacy rather than fireworks. The stakes are internal, which means if interior work bores you, you'll feel the length.

The Queen2006

Scodelph's other great portrait of a public icon in private crisis. Mirren and MacGregor navigate grief and duty with the same emotional precision Douglas brings here.

But Political drama about constitutional monarchy isn't for everyone. It moves quietly, and some will find it mannered.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Behind the Candelabra

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mank2020

Both are Soderbergh-influenced character studies of complicated men, but Mank reframes the power dynamic—the younger figure here is secondary, watching the older man's self-destruction from outside.

Fincher's black-and-white film about screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and the creation of Citizen Kane. Like Candelabra, it's about a flawed genius, the people he uses, and the gap between public myth and private ruin—but it's about art-making rather than romance.

But Glacial pacing and a colour palette that's deliberately punishing. The dialogue is dense, the structure is fragmented, and if you want warmth, look elsewhere.

Rocketman2019

Another musical legend's interior chaos laid bare, this time with Egerton's raw vulnerability. Understands that showmanship is often a way of running from yourself.

But Swings between theatrical excess and genuine pain, which some find tonally confused. The tonal whiplash is intentional, but it won't work for everyone.

Postcards from the Edge1990

Nichols' film about a daughter in the shadow of a famous, damaged mother. Similar DNA: addiction, performance, and a relationship where love and resentment are inseparable.

But Feels of its era in ways that date it. Streep and Arkin are magnificent, but the film itself is uneven.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street2007

Depp and Carter in a Gothic song-and-murder spectacle about performance masking violence. Sondheim's score and Burton's visuals are intoxicating.

But Tonally unstable by design. If you want emotional clarity or conventional narrative, this will frustrate you.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street poster

All About Eve1950

Mankiewicz's masterpiece about an older star and the younger predator orbiting her. The template for every story about ego, desire, and betrayal in the spotlight. Essential.

But 1950. The pacing is theatrical, the dialogue is pitched high, and if you hate artifice you'll bounce off immediately.

Velvet Goldmine1998

Haynes' kaleidoscopic glam-rock biography (loosely Bowie) is all mirrors and ambiguity. Captures the intoxication and delusion of that era and that music in ways straightforward biography cannot.

But Deliberately fragmented and obscure. If you want clarity about who did what when, you will hate this.

La Cage aux Folles1978

Veber's comedy about an aging drag performer and his long-term lover navigating a world that wants them invisible. It's funny and genuinely moving—a precursor to everything Candelabra is doing.

But Broad farce with a 1970s sensibility. The humour lands differently now, and some bits feel creaky.

Sweat2020

Both examine the cost of performance, but Sweat gives voice to the person who was exploited rather than the person doing the exploiting. It's the other side of the same coin.

Durso's documentary follows porn performer Christy Mack as she builds a life away from the industry. Where Candelabra is about spectacle and exploitation, this is raw testimony about survival and reclamation—same world, completely different register.

But Explicit and unflinching about sex work. Not a comfortable film. It demands you sit with difficulty rather than watching from a safe distance.

I, Daniel Blake2016

Both track the disintegration of a man's life, but where Liberace implodes through excess and emotional dysfunction, Daniel Blake is destroyed by indifference. Same trajectory, opposite causes.

Loach's film about a carpenter navigating bureaucratic cruelty after a stroke. Completely different world, but same moral engine: a person's dignity crushed by systems larger than them. Unsentimentally heartbreaking.

But Angry social realism with no glamour, no score, no mercy. If you're watching Candelabra for the spectacle, this will feel like punishment.