This Is Spinal Tap is one of the most quotable films in cinema history and defined the genre of film known today as the mockumentary.
Rob Reiner’s 1984 directorial debut about an aging English metal band chronicled fame, groupies and their fateful tour and would set the bar for the style of film to satirize a subject depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. They often use the conventions of traditional documentaries, such as interviews and narration, to tell a fictional or exaggerated story.
Christopher Guest, who portrayed Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap, would go on to direct and star with an incredible ensemble cast in many of his productions that included Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge in the classic mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration and Mascots.
Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi would take the genre and push its boundaries with the 2014 horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows, about three flat-sharing vampires from Auckland, New Zealand. Writer-star Sacha Baron Cohen tapped into the market with 2006’s Borat, followed by Bruno in 2009. He reprised his titular character from the earlier pic for the controversial follow-up Borat Subsequent Moviefilm in 2020.
Not all mockumentaries are meant to be comedic in nature, and some have teetered on black comedy like the shocking Man Bites Dog (1992) and the politically charged Punishment Park (1971), which portrays a dystopian take on the criminal system. It was filmed during the Nixon era as a faux documentary covering a group of prisoners who partook in antiwar protests and are given the option of serving prison time or entering “punishment park,” with detrimental results.
Scroll through the list of classic mockumentaries from The Beatles 1964 classic A Hard Day’s Night to The Gods Must Be Crazy; Mind, Body & Soul; District 9, and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
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MIND, BODY & SOUL – 2024
Directed by Robert Lang; starring Conr Kinman, Melissa Bergland and Eric Wu.
An existential mockumentary of Satan trying to adapt again to a modern society that he may not fit into.
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THEATER CAMP – 2023
Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman; starring Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Ayo Edebiri and Amy Sedaris.
The eccentric staff of a rundown theater camp in upstate New York must band together with the beloved founder’s bro-y son to keep the camp afloat.
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MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON – 2022
Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp; voiced by Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp and Isabella Rossellini.
A cash-strapped documentary maker decides to make his newest documentary about a mollusk shell he finds living in his Airbnb with his friends.
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BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM – 2020
Directed by Jason Woliner; starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova.
Full title: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Borat returns to America from Kazakhstan to America, this time to reveal more about the American culture, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the political elections.
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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND – 2018
Directed by Orson Welles (released postumously); starring John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar.
At a media-swamped party to celebrate his 70th birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.
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WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS – 2014
Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi; starring Clement, Waititi, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Jonny Brugh.
Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are struggling with the mundane aspects of modern life, like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.
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BRUNO – 2009
Dir. Larry Charles, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale and Chibundu Orukwowu.
Flamboyant, gay Austrian Brüno looks for new fame in America.
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DISTRICT 9 – 2009
Directed by Neill Blomkamp; starring Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope and Nathalie Boltt.
Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.
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BORAT (BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN) – 2006
Directed by Larry Charles; starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian and Luenell.
Kazakh TV talking head Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the greatest country in the world. With a documentary crew in tow, Borat becomes more interested in locating and marrying Pamela Anderson.
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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION – 2006
Directed by Christopher Guest; starring Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Christopher Guest, Jennifer Coolidge, Ricky Gervais and Larry Miller.
Three actors learn that their respective performances in the film “Home for Purim,” a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.
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A MIGHTY WIND – 2003
Directed by Christopher Guest; starring Guest, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey and Chris Moynihan.
Mockumentary captures the reunion of 1960s folk trio the Folksmen as they prepare for a show at The Town Hall to memorialize a recently deceased concert promoter.
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BEST IN SHOW – 2000
Directed by Christopher Guest; starring Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch.
A behind-the-scenes look into the highly competitive and cut-throat world of dog shows through the eyes of a group of ruthless dog owners.
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DROP DEAD GORGEOUS – 1999
Directed by Michael Patrick Jann; starring Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin and Allison Janney.
A small-town beauty pageant turns deadly as it becomes clear that someone will go to any lengths to win.
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WAITING FOR GUFFMAN – 1996
Directed by Christopher Guest; starring Guest, Fred Willard, David Cross, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey and Eugene Levy.
An aspiring director and the marginally talented amateur cast of a hokey small-town Missouri musical production go overboard when they learn that someone from Broadway will be in attendance.
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FEAR OF A BLACK HAT – 1994
Directed by Rusty Cundieff; starring Mark Christopher Lawrence, Larry B. Scott and Cundieff.
A mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of NWH, a not particularly talented–or particularly bright but always controversial–hip-hop group.
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BOB ROBERTS – 1992
Directed by Tim Robbins; starring Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito and Alan Rickman.
A conservative folk singer turns his hand to politics, running for the US Senate. He is not above dirty tricks and smear campaigns to gain an advantage over his opponent.
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MAN BITES DOG – 1992
Directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde; starring Poelvoorde, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert and Hector Pappaert.
A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin lending a hand.
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THIS IS SPINAL TAP – 1984
Directed by Rob Reiner; starring Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner.
Spinal Tap, one of England’s loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.
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ZELIG – 1983
Directed by Woody Allen; starring Allen, Mia Farrow and Patrick Horgan.
“Documentary” about a man who can look and act like whoever he’s around, and meets various famous people.
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THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY – 1980
Directed by Jamie Uys; starring N!Xau, Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo.
A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
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REAL LIFE – 1979
Directed by Albert Brooks; starring Robert Stirrat, Lisa Urette, Charles Grodin and Brooks.
A film crew sets out to record a year in the life of an average family, but things quickly start going wrong.
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PUNISHMENT PARK – 1971
Directed by Peter Watkins; starring Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman and Carmen Argenziano.
“Punishment Park” is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews’s news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types across the desert in a type of capture the flag game.
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THE CLOWNS – 1971
Directed by Federico Fellini; starring Riccardo Billi, Gigi Reder and Tino Scotti.
A ragout of real memories and mockumentary, as Fellini explores a childhood obsession: circus clowns.
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TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN – 1969
Directed by Woody Allen; starring Allen, Janet Margolin and Marcel Hillaire.
The life and times of Virgil Starkwell, inept bank robber.
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A HARD DAY’S NIGHT – 1964
Directed by Richard Lester; starring George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.
Over two “typical” days in the life of The Beatles, the boys struggle to keep themselves and Sir Paul McCartney’s mischievous grandfather in check while preparing for a live TV performance.