A Documentary Feel
Movies that feature acting and direction that evoke an organic, documentary-like realism. Some of the elements that characterize this style include:
Handheld cameras
Visual drabness (muted colors, grainy film-stock, etc)
Lack of flashy techniques (visual effects, narration, pop soundtrack, etc)
Nonprofessional actors in key or tertiary roles. Related: actors with looks or speech atypical in films (obesity, "low class" accents, etc)
Improvised or prosaic dialogue and natural conversation rhythms (interruptions, stammering, "ums," etc)
Silence: scenes with little or no dialogue
Ambient noises in place of musical score (traffic, fluorescent lights, birds, etc)
Stillness: scenes with little or no action
A realistic plot; often with difficult ("gritty") subject matter and a lower socio-economic setting.
This mostly unclassified documentary-like style (Sometimes, ridiculously, labeled "Neo-neorealism") has antecedents in Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, and New Hollywood. It shares elements with (but is not equivalent to) Dogme 95 and Mumblecore, and is mostly a post-2000 phenomenon (kickstarted and most heavily influenced by the 90s films of the Dardenne brothers). International hotspots include France, America, Romania, and Iran.
Please leave suggestions! I will add more. Keep in mind that "Mockumentary" films like Borat, Man Bites Dog, Blair Witch, Spinal Tap, etc, are a different animal and do not qualify.
Handheld cameras
Visual drabness (muted colors, grainy film-stock, etc)
Lack of flashy techniques (visual effects, narration, pop soundtrack, etc)
Nonprofessional actors in key or tertiary roles. Related: actors with looks or speech atypical in films (obesity, "low class" accents, etc)
Improvised or prosaic dialogue and natural conversation rhythms (interruptions, stammering, "ums," etc)
Silence: scenes with little or no dialogue
Ambient noises in place of musical score (traffic, fluorescent lights, birds, etc)
Stillness: scenes with little or no action
A realistic plot; often with difficult ("gritty") subject matter and a lower socio-economic setting.
This mostly unclassified documentary-like style (Sometimes, ridiculously, labeled "Neo-neorealism") has antecedents in Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, and New Hollywood. It shares elements with (but is not equivalent to) Dogme 95 and Mumblecore, and is mostly a post-2000 phenomenon (kickstarted and most heavily influenced by the 90s films of the Dardenne brothers). International hotspots include France, America, Romania, and Iran.
Please leave suggestions! I will add more. Keep in mind that "Mockumentary" films like Borat, Man Bites Dog, Blair Witch, Spinal Tap, etc, are a different animal and do not qualify.
List activity
3.9K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
45 titles
- DirectorLukas MoodyssonStarsOksana AkinshinaArtyom BogucharskiyPavel PonomaryovSixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.
- DirectorPaul GreengrassStarsDavid Alan BascheOlivia ThirlbyLiza Colón-ZayasA real-time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11th, 2001 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
- DirectorCristian MungiuStarsAnamaria MarincaLaura VasiliuVlad IvanovA woman assists her friend in arranging an illegal abortion in 1980s Romania.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsJérémie RenierDéborah FrançoisJérémie SegardBruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.The Dardenne brothers may well be the purest and most influential purveyors of this style. I've added three of their films to this list.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorSean BakerStarsBrooklynn PrinceBria VinaiteWillem DafoeSet over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.
- DirectorJohn CarneyStarsGlen HansardMarkéta IrglováHugh WalshA modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.
- DirectorRyan FleckStarsRyan GoslingAnthony MackieShareeka EppsAn inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
- DirectorLaurent CantetStarsAurélien RecoingKarin ViardSerge LivrozetAn unemployed man finds his life sinking more and more into trouble as he hides his situation from his family and friends.
- DirectorAndrea ArnoldStarsKatie JarvisMichael FassbenderKierston WareingEverything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsElias McConnellAlex FrostEric DeulenSeveral ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsOlivier GourmetMorgan MarinneIsabella SoupartA joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsMickey RourkeMarisa TomeiEvan Rachel WoodA faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenYi-ching LuA watch salesman meets a young woman soon leaving for Paris and becomes infatuated, so he begins to change all the clocks in Taipei to Paris time.
- DirectorKelly ReichardtStarsMichelle WilliamsLucyDavid KoppellOver the summer, a series of unfortunate happenings triggers a financial crisis for a young woman and she soon finds her life falling apart.Not hard to interpret as an updated US version of Umberto D. The modern documentary-like style of this movie makes the experience much more authentic-feeling (and rewarding) than De Sica's movie, in my opinion.
- DirectorSebastián SilvaStarsCatalina SaavedraClaudia CeledónMariana LoyolaA drama centered on a maid trying to hold on to her position after having served a family for 23 years.
- DirectorJohn CassavetesStarsGena RowlandsPeter FalkFred DraperAlthough wife and mother Mabel is loved by her husband Nick, her mental illness places a strain on the marriage.
- DirectorDoris DörrieStarsElmar WepperHannelore ElsnerAya IrizukiAfter Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorLynne RamsayStarsSamantha MortonKathleen McDermottLinda McGuireAfter her beloved boyfriend's suicide, a mourning supermarket worker and her best friend hit the road in Scotland, but find that grief is something that you can't run away from forever.
- DirectorBob FosseStarsDustin HoffmanValerie PerrineJan MinerThe story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establishment as too obscene for the public.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsYûya YagiraAyu KitauraHiei KimuraIn a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
- DirectorGuillem MoralesStarsSteve PembertonOlly Hudson-CrokerDebbie RushTrevor and Julia always want to make Christmas really special for their family but with money tight, it won't be easy. As each door of the advent calendar opens, everyone will have to do their bit to make Christmas happen.
- DirectorLance HammerStarsMicheal J. Smith Sr.JimMyron RossTarra RiggsA drama set in the Mississippi delta, where one man's suicide affects three people's lives.
- DirectorJoshua MarstonStarsCatalina Sandino MorenoGuilied LopezOrlando TobónA pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately-needed money for her family.
- DirectorJohn CrowleyStarsAndrew GarfieldPeter MullanShaun EvansThe story of a young Jack, newly released from serving a prison sentence for a violent crime he committed as a child.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruno S.Eva MattesClemens ScheitzIn Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin.
- DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsVladimir GarinIvan DobronravovKonstantin LavronenkoIn the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.
- DirectorFlorin SerbanStarsGeorge PistereanuAda CondeescuMihai ConstantinTwo weeks before his release, a teenage prisoner learns that his mother has returned home. Meanwhile, he finds himself in love with a student working in the penitentiary as an intern.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsDavid BradleyBrian GloverFreddie FletcherA working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
- DirectorDerek CianfranceStarsRyan GoslingMichelle WilliamsJohn DomanThe relationship of a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as the two leads in this documentary-like feature is certainly a nod to their respective roles in Half Nelson (2006) and Wendy & Lucy (2008).
- DirectorSo Yong KimStarsCarolyn EbyTaegu Andy KangMadgalena KarasinskaA Korean immigrant falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.
- DirectorSo Yong KimStarsChae Gil ByoungJung Gil JaShin Hyun JeIn Seoul, Korea, two sisters must look after each other when their mother leaves them to search for their estranged father.
- DirectorLaurent CantetStarsFrançois BégaudeauAgame Malembo-EmeneAngélica SancioTeacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
- DirectorBill DouglasStarsStephen ArchibaldHughie RestorickJean Taylor SmithThe First part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsAnne HathawayRosemarie DeWittDebra WingerA young woman who has been in and out of rehab for the past ten years returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.
- DirectorLodge KerriganStarsDamian LewisLiza Colón-ZayasJohn TormeyA disheveled man desperately searches New York City for his young daughter.
- CreatorLouis C.K.StarsLouis C.K.Hadley DelanyUrsula ParkerThe life of Louie C.K., a divorced comedian living in New York with two kids.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsHossain EmadeddinKamyar SheisiAzita RayejiAn Iranian pizza delivery man sees the worst of corruption and social unbalance in his city and is driven to crime.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsÉmilie DequenneFabrizio RongioneAnne YernauxYoung and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
- DirectorCristi PuiuStarsDoru AnaMonica BarladeanuAlina BerzunteanuMr. Lãzãrescu, a dying old man, is shuttled from hospital to hospital by a loyal paramedic as doctors refuse to operate and no one can agree on a diagnosis.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsDebbie DoebereinerOmar CowanDustin James AshleySet against the backdrop of a decaying Midwestern town, a murder becomes the focal point of three people who work in a doll factory.
- DirectorPaul GreengrassStarsJames NesbittTim Pigott-SmithNicholas FarrellA dramatization of the Irish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972.
- DirectorJordan MelamedStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittMichael BacallZooey DeschanelAfter attacking another player with a bat during baseball at school, Lyle's sent to the psych ward. He meets other teenagers with problems. Will group therapy help?
- DirectorJustin KurzelStarsLucas PittawayDaniel HenshallLouise HarrisBased on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.