Film

Purple Rain

Name: Purple Rain
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Released: 1984
Cast: Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, Jerome Benton, Olga Karlatos

Musical

Prince's only starring film is a thin romance wrapped around a showcase for his music and Minneapolis club scene. The plot doesn't matter much—you're here for the artistry, the magnetism, and the shock of seeing a generational talent before he became a legend. It works if you surrender to it.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

Prince: Sign 'o' the Times1987

Prince's concert film is pure performance mastery: he plays every instrument, commands the stage absolutely, and the setlist is transcendent. It's what Purple Rain wanted to be.

But It's ninety minutes of concert footage with almost no narrative. If you need a story, this won't hold you.

Crossroads1986

Ralph Macchio and Joe Satriani in a race-the-devil blues film that captures the same spiritual hunger for music as Purple Rain, but with genuine dramatic weight and a legendary guitar duel.

But The acting is earnest to the point of stiffness, and the plot hits every cliché of the possession-blues subgenre.

Wild at Heart1990

A rock-and-roll lovers-on-the-run film from Lynch with the same dreamlike intensity and visual wildness. Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern burn up the screen with volatile passion.

But It's surreal, grotesque, and willfully difficult. If you wanted straightforward storytelling, Purple Rain already didn't give it to you.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Performance.1970

Both are about the seductive danger of artistic ego, the musician as natural predator, and the blur between performance and identity. Prince's Kid and Jagger's Turner are the same beast.

A rock star and a criminal swap identities in a hallucinatory London townhouse. Mick Jagger's only film is erotic, violent, and genuinely trippy—the visual language of ego collapse and artistic obsession.

But It's murky, sexually explicit, and deliberately difficult to parse. The drug-addled storytelling will lose you if you're not surrendering to mood.

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Brian De Palma's operatic thriller about a composer's corruption and obsession in the music world. Stylish, nasty, and genuinely frightening in ways Purple Rain never tries to be.

But It's a horror film dressed as a rock opera. The tonal whiplash takes adjustment.

Dreamgirls2006

The other great music film of the 80s: ambition, betrayal, and the cost of stardom, anchored by Jennifer Beals' raw vocal power and a narrative that actually builds.

But It's a Broadway adaptation, so it can feel theatrical rather than cinematic. The glamour might feel distant.

Absolute Beginners1986

A visually stunning musical about artistic ambition in 1950s London. The energy is infectious and the craft is dazzling in ways that feel genuinely experimental.

But The plot is gossamer-thin and the tonal shifts are jarring. It's more art installation than narrative film.

Pennies from Heaven1981

Steve Martin in a Depression-era musical where working-class longing and depression collide with fantasy sequences and standards. Gorgeous and genuinely melancholic.

But It's grim under the glamour, and the tone is bittersweet in ways that can feel depressing rather than uplifting.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

An indie rock opera about a transgender rock star in Kansas and Berlin, mixing raw performance with genuine emotional devastation. The songs are unforgettable.

But It's deliberately theatrical and campy. If you find gender presentation confrontational, this will challenge you.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band1978

The Bee Gees' fever-dream adaptation of The Beatles' album is camp, bizarre, and committed to its vision in ways that are almost admirable in their wrongness.

But It's widely considered a disaster. The plot makes no sense and the '70s design hasn't aged into charm.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band poster

Phantom Thread2017

Like Purple Rain, it's about an artist so consumed by their work that relationships become secondary—a vehicle for ego rather than connection. Both films are uncomfortable with how little their protagonists grow.

An obsessive artist and his muse locked in a power struggle that's simultaneously romantic and suffocating. Paul Thomas Anderson's most beautiful film, with Daniel Day-Lewis at maximum intensity.

But It's slow, controlled, and utterly airless. The relationship dynamic is unhealthy in ways the film doesn't condemn, which bothers some viewers.

Merry-Go-Round1923

Both films see the musician as a figure of unconscious magnetism in a limited world. Both use music as the character's primary language when words fail. But Stroheim's warmth and comic generosity stand in sharp relief to Prince's frozen cool.

A silent Erich von Stroheim comedy where a trumpeter and a working-class girl navigate Vienna's class system and romantic chaos. It's precise, funny, and visually rapturous about music and desire.

But It's a silent film from 1922. If subtitled black-and-white cinema feels like a chore, this won't overcome that.