Movies like If the Weather Permits (2003)
The best movies like If the Weather Permits (2003) are In the Realms of the Unreal (2004), RBG (2018) and Leviathan (2013). If If the Weather Permits hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRBG (2018)7.5/10 from 318 votes
- NewestEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)Released 2025
In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRBG (2018)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLeviathan (2013)
An experimental portrait of the North American commercial fishing industry through the lens of GoPro cameras placed on a fishing vessel off the coast of New England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016)
An intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty featuring Debbie Reynolds, Todd Fisher, and Carrie Fisher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaking 'The Shining' (1980)
Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this28 Up (1985)
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove, Gilda (2018)
Diaries, audiotapes, videotapes and testimonials from friends and colleagues offer insight into the life and career of Gilda Radner -- the beloved comic and actress who became an icon on Saturday Night Live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaidentrip (2014)
14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone.
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 thisMy Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMiss Representation (2011)
The film MISS REPRESENTATION exposes how American youth are being sold the concept that women and girls’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality. Explores the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America, and challenges the media's limited portrayal of what it means to be a powerful woman. It’s time to break that cycle of mistruths.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (2015)
A documentary directed by Winding Refn's wife, Liv Corfixen, and it follows the Danish-born filmmaker during the making of his 2013 film Only God Forgives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStories We Tell (2012)
Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending on their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIMAX Hubble (2010)
An IMAX 3D camera chronicles the effort of 7 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove, Marilyn (2013)
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCameraperson (2016)
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
In the center of the story is the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. The camera follows the protagonists in the village over a period of a year. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFeminists: What Were They Thinking? (2018)
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Age of Stupid (2009)
Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like this9-Man (2014)
'9-Man' is an independent feature documentary about an isolated and exceptionally athletic Chinese-American sport that's much more than a pastime. Since the 1930s, young men have played this gritty streetball game competitively in the alleys and parking lots of Chinatown. At a time when anti-Chinese sentiment and laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act forced Chinese restaurant workers and laundrymen to socialize exclusively amongst themselves, nine-man offered both escape and fraternity for men who were separated from their families in China and facing extreme discrimination and distrust. Pivoting between oil-spotted Chinatown parking lots and jellyfish-filled banquet scenes, the film captures the spirit of nine-man as players not only battle for a championship but fight to preserve a sport that holds so much history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Michael Ballhaus - Eine Reise durch mein Leben (2008)
One of Germany's stars of cinematography, embarks on the journey through his life. The film begins in the US and Hollywood - where Ballhaus established his international fame.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (2013)
"Plastic Paradise" is an independent documentary film that chronicles Angela Sun's personal journey of discovery to one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll, to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Along the way she encounters scientists, celebrities, legislators and activists who shed light on what our society's vast consumption of disposable plastic is doing to our oceans -- and what it may be doing to our health.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Rehje (2009)
After forty years living in Mexico City, Antonia longs to go back to her home town, a Mazahua village in the state of Mexico. When she returns, she discovers many things, including that a scarcity of water threatens life in her community.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Let Them Wear Towels (2013)
During the 1977 World Series, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke was denied access to the players' locker room. After a very public fight, the door was opened, but the debate about female journalists in the male sanctum of the clubhouse remained. Through interviews with pioneering female sports writers, Let Them Wear Towels captures the raw behavior, humorous retaliation, angry lawsuits and remarkable resolve that went into the struggle for equal access for women reporters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
King of the Cruise (2019)
A rich and extravagant Scottish Baron spends his time on outrageous cruise ships amongst romantic couples, wealthy families, hardworking staff and retired elderly. A floating micro-society appealing to some, revolting to others.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Dig! (2004)
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Cook Your Life (2007)
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Destiny in Space (1994)
Travel alongside the astronauts as they deploy and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, soar above Venus and Mars, and find proof of new planets and the possibility of other life forming around distant stars.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Nowhere Land (2015)
Documentary about filmmaker Bonnie Ammaaq's memories of life on Baffin Island, where her family moved for eleven years during her childhood from the hamlet of Igloolik to return to the traditional Inuit way of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like If the Weather Permits?
The closest matches to If the Weather Permits are In the Realms of the Unreal (2004), RBG (2018) and Leviathan (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after If the Weather Permits?
Start with In the Realms of the Unreal (2004), the closest match to If the Weather Permits.
What is the highest-rated movie like If the Weather Permits?
RBG (2018), rated 7.5/10 by 318 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like If the Weather Permits?
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to If the Weather Permits chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside If the Weather Permits, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.