Best Documentary Movies

The best documentaries out-plot fiction: stranger twists, higher stakes, real consequences. Music docs, true crime, nature epics and portraits of obsessive people doing improbable things, ranked by audience rating. Find where each one streams and build a watchlist of the real world.

The American West of John Ford (1971)

Histoire(s) du Cinéma 3a: The Coin of the Absolute (2006)

ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads (2019)

Richard Pryor: Icon (2014)

Ballplayer: Pelotero (2011)

Star Wars: Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel (2015)

… But Film Is My Mistress (2010)

If These Walls Could Sing (2022)

The Real Miyagi (2015)

ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff (2018)

The Greatest Love Story Never Told (2024)

Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making 'A Clockwork Orange' (2007)

Moments Like This Never Last (2021)

Speed (1984)

The Netflix Afterparty: The Best Shows of the Worst Year (2020)

Being Eddie (2025)

The End of the Line (2009)

Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)

Spaced: Skip to the End (2004)

Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks (2019)

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event (2022)

Leonardo DiCaprio: Most Wanted! (2021)

Searching for Debra Winger (2002)

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½ (2005)

Aftermath: Population Zero (2008)

Trespassing Bergman (2013)

Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini (2015)

Gilbert (2017)

City of God: 10 Years Later (2013)

Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras (1997)

The Blues: Another Story of France (2016)

In Search of Tomorrow (2022)

Running from Crazy (2013)

Exhausted: John C. Holmes, the Real Story (1981)

Mary Poppins Returns: Behind the Magic (2018)

Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time (2017)

Divine Madness (1980)

David Blaine: Real or Magic (2013)

Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only (2023)

What Is Cinema? (2013)

Dying Laughing (2017)

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)

You Cannot Kill David Arquette (2020)

The Gospel According to André (2018)

Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)

The Velvet Underground (2021)

The Magical World of Ella Enchanted (2004)

Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps - World Premiere (2025)

I Am Evel Knievel (2014)

Tell Them Who You Are (2004)

The Earth Day Special (1990)

The Search for Life in Space (2016)

Building Star Trek (2016)

Bisping (2021)

1925 Studio Tour (1925)

Not Quite Hollywood (2008)

Trekkies 2 (2004)

Spider-Man: All Roads Lead to No Way Home (2022)

The Pigeon Tunnel (2023)