Countless movies begin with the text card “Based on a true story.”

A number thats inflated if it includes the variations that explicitly remind us of an unreliable narrator. Though not a movie, Manhattan Theatre Club’s Poor Yella Rednecks contains one such example, when the main character introduces this new off-Broadway play as based on a true story . . . according to his mother.

Well, in the name of arts-journalism completism, here are two recent and . . . wilder big-screen approaches to this age-old title card.

Your Lucky Day starts with, “Based on the American Dream.”

And Journey to Bethlehem, a movie about the birth of Jesus, takes us back to the Bible with an introductory, “Inspired by a true story . . . The greatest one ever told.”