Film

The Rose

Name: The Rose
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Released: 1979
Cast: Bette Midler, Alan Bates, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton, Barry Primus

Drama

Bette Midler at full power as a self-destructive rock star spiralling under fame's weight. The Rose is a raw, unflinching portrait of addiction, desire and the cost of performance—part biopic, part fever dream, entirely uncompromising. For anyone who's ever wondered what it costs to be that brilliant and that broken.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a raw, hard-edged backstage drama about a performer burning through herself, with Midler's wild live numbers doing the heavy lifting.

Skip it if its rock-star excess can feel familiar, and at just over two hours the cycle of tour, binge and bruise may wear thin for some.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, emotionally heavy evening: 125 minutes of sharp highs and bruising lows, with quieter stretches that need patience before the concert set-pieces land.

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

If you liked this

A Star Is Born1976

Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in the definitive version of this story: fame lifting you up while it slowly crushes you. Devastating and beautiful.

But The pacing sags in the middle, and Kristofferson's character gets less interesting as the film goes on. It's long, and sometimes it feels like it.

Roustabout1964

Elvis as a lost drifter joining a carnival, caught between respectability and the road. Barbara Stanwyck as his unlikely anchor. Pure, strange charisma.

But It's a musical, and not all the songs work. The plot is thin. If you're not prepared to love Elvis just because he's Elvis, you might feel stranded.

The Wrestler2008

Mickey Rourke in a portrait of physical and emotional devastation that matches The Rose's unflinching intensity. Relationship failure, aging, the thing you're good at destroying you.

But It's bleak without relief. The climax is genuinely hard to watch. If you need hope, this film doesn't have it to give.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Rose

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I'm Not There2007

Both films refuse the biopic template. They understand that performers contain multitudes, and that the search for the 'real' person is often the problem, not the solution.

Six actors play Bob Dylan in different eras and guises—young folkie, rock rebel, born-again Christian. It's not biography; it's the impossibility of capturing genius in a single narrative. Formally wild.

But It's a jigsaw puzzle of a film, deliberately fragmentary. If you need linear storytelling, this actively works against you. Some segments drag.

Crazy Heart2009

Jeff Bridges as a country star in freefall—booze, women, the desperate charm that keeps people around you even as you wreck their lives. It understands that world.

But It's gentler than The Rose, sometimes too forgiving. If you want unsparing, this softens things with redemption. The plot can feel predictable.

Sid and Nancy1986

Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb as a couple destroying each other with perfect, terrible chemistry. It's punk rock as pure self-annihilation. Visceral and sympathetic.

But Extremely graphic drugs use and sexual content. The narrative is deliberately messy. It's not interested in making you comfortable or providing resolution.

Performance.1970

Mick Jagger as a reclusive rock star, identity and reality warping in a hallucinatory London house. Wild, arty, deeply strange. About fame as psychological dissolution.

But Experimental and deliberate in ways that can feel pretentious. The narrative dissolves on purpose. If you want clarity, this is the wrong film.

Inside Llewyn Davis2013

Oscar Isaac as a folk singer drowning in his own talent and failure. Bleak, funny, and heartbreaking. The Coen Brothers understand how gifted people sabotage themselves.

But Nothing really happens. Nobody learns anything. It's as much about disappointment as The Rose is, but with less drama and more quiet despair.

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Paul Williams's darkly funny rock opera about a composer whose music is stolen by a corrupt producer. Horror-comedy about ambition, revenge and rock and roll excess.

But It's campy and theatrical in ways that undercut the darkness. If you need your tragedy played straight, the tone-shifting will throw you off.

Pennies from Heaven1981

Steve Martin in a Depression-era musical-drama hybrid about desire and disappointment. Odd and melancholic, it shares The Rose's interest in performance as survival.

But It's tonally strange and genuinely depressing. The fantasy musical numbers contrast uncomfortably with the bleak reality. Many people found it baffling.

The Decline of the American Empire1986

Like The Rose, it's about intelligent, articulate people unable to live up to their own understanding of themselves. Talk is not salvation. Self-awareness is not protection.

Denys Arcand's film about academics and their relationships—a conversation piece where everyone is smart, self-aware and still capable of stunning cruelty. Witty and devastating.

But Almost entirely dialogue-based. It's a 1980s film that feels very of its moment, with some attitudes that now feel dated. No plot to speak of.

The Decline of the American Empire poster

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both films understand that genius and self-destruction are not separate things for certain people. The same drive that makes you great can hollow you out completely.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theatre director whose life and art collapse into each other in a maze of his own design. Surreal, devastating, about the self-destruction of the perpetually dissatisfied.

But Aggressively strange and often incomprehensible. It's a descent into psychological chaos without a map. Many viewers find it frustrating rather than revelatory.