Movies like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (1990)
The best movies like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (1990) are Lemmy (2010), Adele One Night Only (2021) and Daft Punk Unchained (2015). If Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella hooked you with its music and documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAvicii: True Stories (2017)8.0/10 from 365 votes
- NewestOasis: Don't Look Back in Anger (2026)Released 2026
Lemmy (2010)
Over four decades, Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has registered an immeasurable impact on music history. Nearly 65, he remains the living embodiment of the rock and roll lifestyle, and this feature-length documentary tells his story, one of a hard-living rock icon who continues to enjoy the life of a man half his age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdele One Night Only (2021)
A primetime special with performances from the superstar including Adele’s first new material in six years plus her chart-topping hits. The special will also feature an exclusive interview with Adele by Oprah Winfrey from her rose garden, in Adele’s first televised wide-ranging conversation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaft Punk Unchained (2015)
Daft Punk Unchained is the first film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy Awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution revealing a duo of artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWestern Stars (2019)
The incomparable Bruce Springsteen performs his critically acclaimed latest album and muses on life, rock, and the American dream, in this intimate and personal concert film co-directed by Thom Zimny and Springsteen himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wrecking Crew (2008)
A celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLive Aid (1985)
Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (2020)
The story of the triumphs and hurdles of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, otherwise known as the Bee Gees. The iconic trio, who found early fame in the 1960s, went on to write over 1,000 songs and have 20 No. 1 hits throughout their career, transcending more than five decades of changing tastes and styles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBritney: For the Record (2008)
An introspective documentary which chronicles pop music queen Britney Spears' return to the spotlight after her much-publicized professional and personal struggles. Honest, raw and revealing, the one-hour special shares some of Spears' most intimate moments in the span of 60 days, and gives fans an inside look at Britney in the recording studio and on set filming the music videos for one of music's most triumphant comebacks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJustin Bieber's Believe (2013)
A backstage and on-stage look at Justin Bieber during his rise to super stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnd of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (2003)
A years-in-the-making documentary on the legendary punk band the Ramones. Through a mixture of archival footage, archival and new interviews with all members of the band's various lineups, and new interviews with a number of their contemporaries, the film traces the peaks and valleys the band experienced over the course of its 20-plus year career before disbanding in 1995.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDavid Byrne's American Utopia (2020)
A filmed version of David Byrne's Broadway show, a unifying musical celebration that inspires audiences to connect to each other and to the global community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOasis: Don't Look Back in Anger (2026)
Experience the meteoric rise of Oasis through rare footage and untold stories as the band reunites for Oasis Live '25, chronicling their journey from Manchester streets to global rock stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Waltz (1978)
Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines footage from The Band's incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and other rock legends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAvicii: True Stories (2017)
Documentary about the arena-packing Swedish DJ, chronicling his explosive rise to fame and surprising decision to retire from live performances in 2016.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDavid Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017)
In the last five years of his life, David Bowie ended nearly a decade of silence to engage in an extraordinary burst of activity, producing two groundbreaking albums and a musical. David Bowie: The Last Five Years explores this unexpected end to a remarkable career. Made with remarkable access, Francis Whately’s documentary is a revelatory follow-up to his acclaimed 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years, which chronicled Bowie’s golden ‘70s and early-‘80s period.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (2011)
Having forged a 20-year run as one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of all time, the Queens NY collective known as 'A Tribe Called Quest' have kept a generation hungry for more of their groundbreaking music since their much publicized breakup in 1998. Michael Rapaport documents the inner workings and behind the scenes drama that follows the band to this day. He explores what's next for, what many claim, are the pioneers of alternative rap.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special (2020)
The cast of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” delivers an abundance of feel-good holiday cheer as they perform their favorite Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s songs and share their fondest holiday memories.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film) (2022)
Grammy® winner singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo takes a familiar road trip from Salt Lake City, where she began writing her debut album “SOUR,” to Los Angeles. Along the way, Rodrigo recounts the memories of writing and creating her record-breaking debut album and shares her feelings as a young woman navigating a specific time in her life. Through new live arrangements of her songs, intimate interviews and never-before-seen footage from the making of the album, audiences will follow Olivia along on a cinematic journey exploring the story of “SOUR.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMichael Jackson's This Is It (2009)
A compilation of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage of Michael Jackson as he prepared for his series of sold-out shows in London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoger Waters: The Wall - Live in Berlin (1990)
A global television broadcast of the event in which former Pink Floyd leader singer and composer Roger Waters led an all-star cast in a mammoth benefit performance of his acclaimed concept album, The Wall. Set in Berlin, Germany less than a year after the destruction of the hated Berlin Wall, Waters was accompanied by disparate talents such as Cyndi Lauper, James Galway, Joni Mitchell and Albert Finney in the classic dark musical tale of a rock star's descent into madness and back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCecil Taylor: All The Notes (2005)
Cecil Taylor was the grand master of free jazz piano. "All the Notes" captures in breezy fashion the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, regarded as one of the true giants of post-war music. Seated at his beloved and battered piano in his Brooklyn brownstone the maestro holds court with frequent stentorian pronouncements on life, art and music.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & music
Leucosélidophilie (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Space in the Brain (1969)
Image analysis in slow motion. Distortion and reversed reality perspective.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Celso: a portrait, a place (TBA)
"Celso: a portrait, a place" is a documentary that emerges from a year of sporadic visits by the documentary filmmaker (until then a convinced agnostic) to the Capuchin complex, a block that is, among other things, a place to preserve the memory of the Capuchin friars in the Serra Gaúcha, southern Brazil. The daily life of the space and the ramblings of the charismatic friar and artist Celso Bordignon are interspersed in an attempt to contemplate aspects of religious life, art, and the awareness of the nuances of the action of time on matter, body and spirit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Naked Truth (2023)
A painter, a naked woman, and a camera. In this triple constellation we explore the power of the gaze and the roles it imposes on us. An artist's studio turns into the setting for questions about how we look at and perceive women. The naked skin of the model becomes the canvas for an audiovisual exploration of the ways in which seeing and being seen anchors us in our body. And how this body shapes our experience of the world and our role in it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Like a Dream that Vanishes (1999)
"Like a Dream That Vanishes" continues Sternberg’s work in film both thematically and formally: the ephemerality of life echoed in the temporal nature of film, as the stuff of life echoed on the energy, life-force in rhythmic light pulses (Your life is like a candle burning). Imageless emulsion is inter-cut with brief shots of natural elements and mise-en-scene of the stages of human life: a little boy runs and falls; teens hang out together at night smoking; sun shines through tree branches; men pace, waiting; flashes of lightning; an elderly man speaks philosophically about miracles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure (2016)
British artist, academic, musician and activist Bob and Roberta Smith has been waging slightly odd political protests for years, in this documentary he investigates the age of activism and discovers what people are protesting about.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Gauguin: A Dangerous Life (2019)
Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who worked with the Impressionists and had a tempestuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. But he was also a competitive and rapacious man who left his wife to bring up five children and used his colonial privilege to travel to Polynesia, where in his 40s he took ‘wives’ between 13 and 15 years old, creating images of them and their world that promoted a fantasy paradise of an unspoilt Eden in the Pacific. Later, he challenged the colonial authorities and the Catholic Church in defence of the indigenous people, dying in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, sick, impoverished and alone.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella?
The closest matches to Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella are Lemmy (2010), Adele One Night Only (2021) and Daft Punk Unchained (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella?
Start with Lemmy (2010), the closest match to Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella.
What is the highest-rated movie like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella?
Avicii: True Stories (2017), rated 8.0/10 by 365 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella?
Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella?
Yes: Lemmy (2010), Adele One Night Only (2021) and Daft Punk Unchained (2015).
How are movies similar to Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.