Movies like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional (1986)
The best movies like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional (1986) are S4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026), Strip Down, Rise Up (2021) and A Toxic Love Story (2026). If The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Secret (2006)6.6/10 from 401 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
S4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026)
Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStrip Down, Rise Up (2021)
The feature documentary follows women of all walks of life, all ages and ethnic backgrounds, as they shed trauma, body image shame, sexual abuse and other issues locked in their bodies, and embark on a journey to reclaim themselves. The film also gives a rare window into the world of Pole artistry and expression.
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 thisDirected by John Ford (1971)
A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed (2021)
Bob Ross brought joy to millions as the world's most famous art instructor. But a battle for his business empire cast a shadow over his happy trees.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret (2006)
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeduced and Abandoned (2013)
SEDUCED AND ABANDONED combines acting legend Alec Baldwin with director James Toback as they lead us on a troublesome and often hilarious journey of raising financing for their next feature film. Moving from director to financier to star actor, the two players provide us with a unique look behind the curtain at the world's biggest and most glamourous film festival, shining a light on the bitter-sweet relationship filmmakers have with Cannes and the film business. Featuring insights from directors Martin Scorsese, 'Bernando Bertolucci' and Roman Polanski; actors Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain and a host of film distribution luminaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouston, We Have a Problem! (2016)
The cold war, the space race, and NASA’s moon landing are landmark events that defined an era. But they are also fodder for conspiracy theories. In Houston, We Have a Problem! filmmaker Žiga Virc adds new material to the discussion on both fronts. This intriguing docu-fiction explores the myth of the secret multi-billion-dollar deal behind America’s purchase of Yugoslavia’s clandestine space program in the early 1960s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Decade Under the Influence (2003)
A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOur Planet: Behind the Scenes (2019)
Years spent recording footage of creatures from every corner of the globe is bound to produce a bit of drama. Here's a behind-the-scenes look.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Art of the Steal (2010)
A gripping tale of intrigue and mystery in the art world, this film traces the history of a collection of Post-Impressionist paintings - worth billions - which became the subject of a power struggle after the death of its owner. Dr. Albert Barnes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEx Libris: The New York Public Library (2017)
A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)
Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMade You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020)
A woman walks into a New York gallery with a cache of unknown masterworks. Thus begins a story of art world greed, willfulness and a high-stakes con.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLouis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars (2012)
In 1997, Louis Theroux made a documentary about the world of male porn performers in Los Angeles. 15 years later, he returns to find a business struggling with the deluge of free porn on the internet. Louis revisits some of the original programme's contributors as well as meeting the latest crop of porn performers dreaming of porn stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLet It Be (1970)
A documentary chronicling the Beatles' rehearsal sessions in January 1969 for their proposed "back to basics" album, "Get Back," later re-envisioned and released as "Let It Be."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHinter dem Vorhang: Das Geheimnis Vermeer (2021)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Name of Action (2026)
A look at why Hamlet, a play that’s over 400 years old, holds a mirror up to society today. Filmed across four days of workshops with youth theatre groups across London: The Big House, Bush Theatre Young Companies, Centre 59, and Open Door.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
When Alan Yentob Met Jenny Saville (2025)
As a part of a tribute night to broadcaster and television executive Alan Yentob, he interviews leading British artist Jenny Saville. One of the most successful figurative painters working today, she came to prominence as part of the YBA movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She has been reluctant to discuss her work for many years on television, until now. Alan Yentob was working with her on a film for Imagine and caught up with her in Vienna on the eve of two major 2025 exhibitions she is mounting. This was the last interview Alan Yentob conducted in a career spanning six decades at the BBC, bringing many of the world’s leading artists and creatives to the screen. Alan also persuaded Jenny to allow cameras into her painting studio for the first time in almost three decades.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Víctor Millán (1968)
Victor Millan is a Venezuelan folk artist. The naive painter appears alongside his friends, in his environment, the real world that surrounds him. Here, inventions, myths, obsessions, the sun, the sea, music, and original philosophy are imbued with humor. The film's soundtrack includes commentary and dialogue from the artist himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
William Hogarth (1965)
According to Bernard Cohn's review, the directors "show that the painter of British society at the beginning of the 18th century was not only ahead of his time in his aesthetic theories, but that he carried within him the signs that allow us to recognize a creator." (Positif, no. 70, June 1965, p. 73.)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
En Plein Air (2024)
A short film documenting a day out with artists practicing their craft through plein air style paintings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Portable Studio (2026)
The Portable Studio is a short documentary following Jenny Aitken on a day of Plein-Air painting by the sea in Edinburgh. Jenny is a professional artist, in this documentary we get a glimpse into her life and her process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Grape Soda in the Parking Lot (2023)
Taqralik Partridge asks what if every language that had been lost to English — every word, every syllable — grew up out of the ground in flowers? Taqralik’s grandmother’s Scottish Gaelic and her father’s Inuktitut unfold in memories of her family, of pain, and of love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Alphabeticians (2025)
The film follows a turning point in the life of Lida Cardozo Kindersley, who runs a renowned lettercutting workshop in Cambridge, England. Having inherited the workshop from her husband and former teacher David Kindersley, Lida poured her soul into her work for nearly half a century. Approaching her seventieth birthday, she prepares for the next step: to hand the workshop on to her son and daughter-in-law. This moment of transition offers a portal to deeper themes: what significance do heritage crafts have in the modern world? And what legacies are we passing to future generations?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Youth (Spring) (2023)
This film was shot between 2014 and 2019 in the town of Zhili, a district of Huzhou City in Zhejiang province, China. Zhili is home to over 18,000 privately-run workshops producing children's clothes, mostly for the domestic market, but some also for export. The workshops employ around 300,000 migrant workers, chiefly from the rural provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan and Jiangsu.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional?
The closest matches to The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional are S4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026), Strip Down, Rise Up (2021) and A Toxic Love Story (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional?
Start with S4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026), the closest match to The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional?
The Secret (2006), rated 6.6/10 by 401 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional?
Yes: S4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026), Strip Down, Rise Up (2021) and A Toxic Love Story (2026).
How are movies similar to The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross Instructional, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.