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Dogtown and Z-Boys poster

Movies that feel likeDogtown and Z-Boys (2002)

This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.

If you loved Dogtown and Z-Boys, the closest films we have are Riding Giants (2004), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) and Overnight (2003). All three share Dogtown and Z-Boys' contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997).

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Stacy Peraltacontemplative
8 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · OVID · AMC+

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If Dogtown and Z-Boys hit the spot, these will too

Riding Giants poster
Riding Giants
2004 · dir. Stacy Peralta
🍅 93%★ 7.8documentary

Stacy Peralta working the same nerve twice

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. poster
🍅 100%★ 7.5documentary

Documentary built on stillness, twice over

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the case of a man who became an authority on capital punishment, but was discredited when he got involved on the wrong side of a court case. Leuchter, a meek man whose appearance belies his grim expertise, develops what he says is a more effective electric chair. Before long, he's in demand from officials who want his opinions on other execution methods. But when called to aid the case of an accused Holocaust denier, Leuchter's problems begin.

Overnight poster
Overnight
2003 · dir. Mark Brian Smith
🍅 78%★ 7.1documentary

Both lean on stillness more than on documentary

Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Overnight chronicles one man's misadventures of making a Hollywood movie. It starts out as a rags to riches story as Troy Duffy, a Boston-bred bartender, sells his first screenplay for The Boondock Saints.

Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary poster
Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary
1997 · dir. S.R. Bindler
🍅 84%★ 7.6documentary

Documentary with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Filmmaker S.R. Bindler profiles Texas contestants trying to win a truck by keeping one hand on it longer than everyone else.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly poster
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
1997 · dir. Werner Herzog
🍅 93%★ 8documentaryPrime Video

Both are documentary through and through

Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.

The Gleaners and I poster
The Gleaners and I
2000 · dir. Agnès Varda
🍅 93%★ 7.7documentary

Both play documentary straight

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

Naqoyqatsi poster
Naqoyqatsi
2002 · dir. Godfrey Reggio
🍅 48%★ 6.4documentary

The same documentary instincts

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

Lost in La Mancha poster
Lost in La Mancha
2002 · dir. Louis Pepe
🍅 94%★ 7.3documentary

Cut from the same documentary cloth

Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.

Nostalgia for the Light poster
Nostalgia for the Light
2010 · dir. Patricio Guzmán
🍅 100%★ 7.6documentary

Both working the same documentary territory

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

Marwencol poster
Marwencol
2010 · dir. Jeff Malmberg
🍅 98%★ 7.5documentary

Documentary approached the same way

After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in "Marwencol", a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard.

We Live in Public poster
We Live in Public
2009 · dir. Ondi Timoner
🍅 80%★ 7.1documentary

Documentary in the same key

In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities, and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.

Kumaré poster
Kumaré
2012 · dir. Vikram Gandhi
🍅 60%★ 7.5documentary

Both know what they want from documentary

A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona. At the height of his popularity, the Guru Kumaré must reveal his true identity to his disciples and unveil his greatest teaching of all.

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The best-reviewed films that share Dogtown and Z-Boys’ defining feeling.