feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Salesman (1969)

If you loved Salesman, the closest films we have are Grey Gardens (1976), F for Fake (1973) and Harlan County U.S.A. (1977). 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel and HBO Max and others, checked against today's data.

This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.

πŸ… 100% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.7 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. David Maysles

When is Salesman streaming? β†’

If Salesman hit the spot, these will too

Grey Gardens poster
Grey Gardens
1976 Β· dir. Muffie Meyer
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.5documentary

The same preoccupation in both: direct cinema

Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.

Feels alike?
F for Fake poster
F for Fake
1973 Β· dir. Orson Welles
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.7documentary

Both are documentary through and through

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

Feels alike?
Harlan County U.S.A. poster
Harlan County U.S.A.
1977 Β· dir. Barbara Kopple
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.2documentary

Cut from the same documentary cloth

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

Feels alike?
Gates of Heaven poster
Gates of Heaven
1978 Β· dir. Errol Morris
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.3documentary

Documentary approached the same way

A documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.

Feels alike?
Sans Soleil poster
Sans Soleil
1983 Β· dir. Chris Marker
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.7documentary

The same documentary instincts

A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.

Feels alike?
Burden of Dreams poster
Burden of Dreams
1982 Β· dir. Les Blank
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.9documentary

Cut from the same documentary cloth

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

Feels alike?
Vernon, Florida poster
Vernon, Florida
1981 Β· dir. Errol Morris
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7documentary

Documentary approached the same way

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

Feels alike?
Streetwise poster
Streetwise
1984 Β· dir. Martin Bell
πŸ… 92%β˜… 8.2documentary

Documentary approached the same way

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

Feels alike?
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse poster
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.1documentary

The same documentary instincts

The difference: 22 years apart, and the 1990s show

A chronicle of the production problems β€” including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more β€” which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.

Feels alike?
The Gleaners and I poster
The Gleaners and I
2000 · dir. Agnès Varda
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.7documentary

Documentary approached the same way

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.

Feels alike?
Crumb poster
Crumb
1995 Β· dir. Terry Zwigoff
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8documentary

Documentary approached the same way

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

Feels alike?
When We Were Kings poster
When We Were Kings
1996 Β· dir. Leon Gast
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.9documentary

Documentary approached the same way

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

Feels alike?