Top Documentary Movies


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

71. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Year of Release: 2001
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Actors: Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelly, Jason Baldwin, John Mark Byers, Steven Branch, Christopher Byers

72. Gimme Shelter

Year of Release: 1970
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Actors: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, Meredith Hunter
Plot: Follows the Rolling Stones on their 1969 tour, mainly focusing on their free concert at Altamont Speedway in California where the decision to use Hell's Angels as security leads to tragic consequences.

73. Searching for Sugar Man

Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Malik Bendjelloul
Actors: Rodriguez, Malik Bendjelloul, Steve Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore, Dan Dimaggio
Plot: For two South Africans, Rodriguez became an unlikely inspiration in the 1970s. In Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul sets out to find out what happened to the obscure, mysterious rocker.

74. I Am Divine

Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Actors: Jayne Mansfield, John Waters, Divine, Ricki Lake, Tab Hunter, Mink Stole

75. Red Obsession

Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: David Roach, Warwick Ross
Actors: Debra Meiburg, Russell Crowe
Plot: Bordeaux has always been a rare, prized wine among connoisseurs but the long-standing French label finds itself stretched to the brink after China makes the expensive wine their new status symbol.

76. Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

Year of Release: 2014
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: David Gregory
Actors: Richard Stanley, Kier-La Janisse, Michael Gingold, Graham Humphreys, Edward R. Pressman, Robert Shaye

77. Oklahoma City

Year of Release: 2017
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Barak Goodman
Plot: An in-depth look into Timothy McVeigh and what led to his choice to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

78. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Year of Release: 2021
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Questlove
Actors: Stevie Wonder, Sal Masekela, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chris Rock, Mahalia Jackson, Moms Mabley

79. No End in Sight

Year of Release: 2007
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Charles Ferguson
Actors: Campbell Scott, Gerald Burke, Ali Fadhil, Omar Fekeiki, Robert Hutchings, Paul Hughes
Plot: An unflinching look at how Iraq dissolved into a chaotic state after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Information is supported with interviews from those initially placed in charge of rebuilding Iraq.

80. When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Year of Release: 2006
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Spike Lee
Actors: Spike Lee, Al Sharpton, Sean Penn, Jay Asevedo, Shelton 'Shakespeare' Alexander, Wynton Marsalis
Plot: Spike Lee presents an unflinching, artistic, gritty look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. government's response.

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