Movies like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State (2014)
The best movies like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State (2014) are 13th (2016), The House I Live In (2012) and The Alabama Solution (2025). If Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated13th (2016)7.8/10 from 821 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe House I Live In (2012)
In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Alabama Solution (2025)
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLouis Theroux: Behind Bars (2008)
For two weeks, Theroux visits the San Quentin State Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the case of a man who became an authority on capital punishment, but was discredited when he got involved on the wrong side of a court case. Leuchter, a meek man whose appearance belies his grim expertise, develops what he says is a more effective electric chair. Before long, he's in demand from officials who want his opinions on other execution methods. But when called to aid the case of an accused Holocaust denier, Leuchter's problems begin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this49 Up (2006)
49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTime (2020)
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInto the Abyss (2011)
We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big One (1997)
The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne of Us (2017)
Penetrating the insular world of New York's Hasidic community, focusing on three individuals driven to break away despite threats of retaliation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Toxic Love Story (2026)
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020)
After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys State (2020)
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTiticut Follies (1967)
Employing methods of direct cinema–observation, limited stylization, and non-intervention–this stark look into the State Prison for the Criminally Insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts shows its denizens, who were often kept in barren cells and infrequently bathed, forced to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and the indifference and bullying by many of the hospital's staff.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Menendez Brothers (2024)
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAttica (2021)
Follows the largest prison uprising in US history, conducting dozens of new interviews with inmates, journalists, and other witnesses.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye (2022)
Join the likes of Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh, and Vincent D’Onofrio as they reveal how Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” was conceived and created. Witness firsthand what it took to pull off the show’s pulse-pounding action set pieces, and discover how iconic characters from the pages of Marvel Comics such as Kate Bishop were adapted and brought to life for the six-episode series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998)
This documentary follows superstar Bret Hart during his last year in the WWF. The film documents the tensions that resulted in The Montreal Screwjob, one of the most controversial events in the history of professional wrestling, in which Vince McMahon, Shawn Micheals, and others, legitimately conspired behind the scenes to go against the script and remove Bret Hart as champion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPostcard (Or, from afar, you are a mirage) (2024)
"The palm trees on the reverse are a delusion; so is the pink sand". This line, taken from a poem by Margaret Atwood, lights the path traced in "Postcard". As the years go by, landscapes transform, take on new meanings, and hold onto joys that will never be regained. The sea and the beach, once stages of happy summers, romances, and encounters, will turn into concentration camps or centers of detention and torture. This occurs across different times and places. In this piece, I embark on a journey through some of my works that explore the relationship between testimony, spaces, and time, engaging in dialogue with the beautiful film directed by Alejandro Segovia in 1972.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Syria's Woman at the Top (2026)
Lyse Doucet speaks to Hind Kabawat, Syria's minister for social affairs and labour and the only female minister in the transitional government.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Blood Amber (2017)
Somewhere in Myanmar is a forest rich in amber and controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Most of its inhabitants work in a mine, digging the earth night and days in the hope of finding the precious ore that will get them out of poverty. But on top of the excruciating hardship of the work, they also have to fear an attack from the army.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution (2003)
Every great cook secretly believes in the power of food. Alice Waters just believes this more than anybody else. She is certain that we are what we eat, and she has made it her mission in life to make sure that people eat beautifully. Waters is creating a food revolution, even if she has to do it one meal at a time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Pouvoir Oublier (2025)
Pouvoir Oublier is a political documentary first constructed from the words of the speakers whose lives changed on the tragic day of May 10, 1972 in Sept-Îles. Their word will be juxtaposed with archival material from the events, some of which are unpublished, which will reflect the collective euphoria in which Sept-Îles and all of Quebec were then bathed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Persecution Blues: the Battle for the Tote! (2011)
In 2010, the iconic Tote Hotel – last bastion of Melbourne’s vibrant music counterculture – was forced to close by unfair laws. Filmed over 7 years, “Persecution Blues” depicts the struggle of more than 20,000 fans – and the bands who inspire them – to preserve their history and protect their future, and puts the audience on the front line of an epic-scale culture war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The End of America (2008)
Based on her book of the same name, Naomi Wolf presents controversial evidence that America has begun a frightening descent into dictatorship and fascism. American democracy, as we know it, is under attack. By examining the chilling parallels between the current state of our nation and the ascent of dictators and fascism in other once-free societies, Wolf urges viewers to open their eyes to the horrors that lie ahead. From the increased use of paramilitary groups to the construction of secret prisons and the targeted suspension of the rule of law, the warning signs are all there for people to wake up and finally take notice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
But... Seriously (1994)
A documentary juxtaposing the events of the 20th century with the commentary of stand-up comedians.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Plutocracy III: Class War (2017)
The early struggles of the working class are placed under a microscope in Plutocracy III: Class War, the latest chapter in an exceptionally well produced series which explores the origins of America's growing economic divide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home (2006)
Every American who has listened to the radio knows Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." The music of the folk singer/songwriter has been recorded by everyone from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to U2. Originally blowing out of the Dust Bowl in Depression-era America, he blended vernacular, rural music and populism to give voice to millions of downtrodden citizens. Guthrie's music was politically leftist, uniquely patriotic and always inspirational.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State?
The closest matches to Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State are 13th (2016), The House I Live In (2012) and The Alabama Solution (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State?
Start with 13th (2016), the closest match to Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State.
What is the highest-rated movie like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State?
13th (2016), rated 7.8/10 by 821 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State?
Yes: 13th (2016), The House I Live In (2012) and The Alabama Solution (2025).
How are movies similar to Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Locked Up in America - Solitary Nation and Prison State, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.