Top Documentary Movies


The Top Documentary Movies List is calculated by overall movie ratings and members' "Top Documentary List". Lists are calculated daily.

201. Generation Wealth

Year of Release: 2018
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Lauren Greenfield
Actors: Florian Homm, Tiffany Masters, Jaqueline Siegel
Plot: Where once the American Dream was raising a family and making a comfortable life for them, now that dream has become twisted where fame, beauty and fortune are prized above all else. Lauren Greenfield turns a critical eye to a new narcistic materialism, even including herself and her own family, and shows how rampant capitalism and the quest for fame has turned the American Dream into a nightmare.

202. Vito

Year of Release: 2011
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Biography
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Actors: Vito Russo, Charles Russo, Lily Tomlin, Rob Epstein, Armistead Maupin, Jenni Olson
Plot: Vito Russo was one of the pioneering voices in the gay liberation movement and wrote "The Celluloid Closet" - the first book to openly criticize the portrayal of homosexuals iby Hollywood. When the AIDS crisis hit, he continued to sound his voice, becoming an advocate in ACT UP before his death in 1990.

203. RBG

Year of Release: 2018
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Julie Cohen, Betsy West
Actors: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gloria Steinem, Nina Totenberg

204. Cartel Land

Year of Release: 2015
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Action
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Matthew Heineman
Actors: Dr. Jose Mireles, Tim "Nailer" Foley
Plot: This is the real war on drugs - on the border between the U.S and Mexico, various agencies, vigilante groups and the Mexican drug cartels battle. Matthew Heineman gives us access to each group, and the people behind them, and asks if meeting violence with violence will solve anything.

205. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Year of Release: 2004
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Deb Ellis, Denis Mueller
Actors: Matt Damon, Howard Zinn, Daniel Berrigan, Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, John Silber

206. Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Year of Release: 2010
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Daniel Farrands, Andrew Kasch
Actors: Robert Englund, Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, Mick Garris, Alice Cooper, Renny Harlin
Plot: A documentary that discusses the films, people and legacy of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

207. Dear Mr. Watterson

Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Joel Allen Schroeder
Actors: Berkeley Breathed, Seth Green, Stephan Pastis, Bill Amend, Jef Mallett, Dave Kellett
Plot: Fans, celebrities and fellow comic strip writers look back on Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes and the impact it had on the medium and on people.

208. A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope

Year of Release: 2004
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Gary Leva
Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Dalva, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese

209. Jazz on a Summer's Day

Year of Release: 1960
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Aram Avakian, Bert Stern
Actors: Jimmy Giuffre, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, Henry Grimes, Sonny Stitt
Plot: Bert Stern shot this documentary of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Among the performers featured in luminous, crowd-pleasing performances under open skies are Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, and Mahalia Jackson. It's a treat for jazz lovers.

210. Murder on a Sunday Morning ( coupable idéal, Un )

Year of Release: 2001
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Actors: Ann Finnell, Patrick McGuinness, James Williams, Michael Glover, Dwayne Darnell, Brenton Butler

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