Movies like Motel (1989)
The best movies like Motel (1989) are 13th (2016), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025). If Motel 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
- NewestYou Can See Everything (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 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 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 thisVoyeur (2017)
Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Walking Dead: The Return (2024)
Stars of "The Walking Dead," Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, walk down memory lane and visit iconic locations where pivotal moments between their characters, Rick and Michonne, were filmed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Crash (2026)
A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Can See Everything (2026)
Thirty-four days before she's sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 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 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 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 thisNo Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad (2013)
A documentary about the making of season five of the acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMaking The Witcher (2020)
Journey into the extraordinary world of "The Witcher" — from casting the roles to Jaskier's catchy song — in this behind-the-scenes look at the series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCon Mum (2025)
A chef's life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his long-lost mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJailbreak: Love on the Run (2024)
An Alabama corrections officer falls in love with a man awaiting trial for murder and risks it all to help him escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)
Go behind the scenes with stars, puppeteers and creators as they bring Jim Henson's magical world of Thra back to life in a sweeping fantasy series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrips and Bloods: Made in America (2009)
With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 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 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 thisEuropean Tour '73 (2020)
A 15 minute documentary utilizing archival Super 8 film footage and original animation about a father fulfilling his dream of reconnecting his 5 small children to the steps of his own father when he fought for the Canadian military in WW2 through a trip to Europe in 1973.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Seans : hommage á Antonin Artaud (1977)
A seance in which Antonin Artaud can be seen as a swirling depiction of a theater of freedom in the rubble of the hateful counter between actor and audience. Percival is the author of many books in Swedish and English. He has exhibited his paintings and photographs, composed experimental world music and directed some of his own plays and a play by Beckett.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Partisan (2018)
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 1992-2017. The end of the GDR gave rise to new artistic freedoms in reunited Berlin. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, rebel director Frank Castorf was appointed artistic director of the Volksbühne. His way of working altered the public’s perception of this theater. The chronological history of the Castorf era between 1992 and 2017 is told here in excerpts from the productions and in a series of conversations conducted on the long sofa in the theater's foyer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
My Letter to the South (2026)
This wasn’t meant to be a documentary. I’d always had an appreciation for the American South, but I’d never actually experienced it for myself. Aotearoa/New Zealand has always had a deep respect for Black American culture especially Southern Black American culture and I wanted to show people back home the things we don’t always get to see or fully understand. So I went. "My Letter to the South" is about the journey that followed, something I never expected. There was no script. No plan. Just two Kiwi fellas exploring a place we have always loved that we are seeing for the first time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Johnny Berlin 2: Notes From The Dumpster (2008)
Following his four-month sabbatical in Cambodia, we find Johnny broke and couch-surfing in Brooklyn, musing on his experience in the Far East, where he gambled his money away and found himself stranded in Phnom Penh, forced to claim destitution at the U.S. Embassy, with suicidal visions of leaping off of a bridge into the Mekong River. NOTES FROM THE DUMPSTER is the continuing saga of this oddball's journey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Without Getting Killed or Caught (2021)
Follow Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt as they rise from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists, and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDevil Come to Hell and Stay Where You Belong (2008)
From a small cabin in the mountains of New York, Nina Breeder and Massimilian Breeder begin a journey across the United States. California is just the initial destination, but just as the edge of the surrounding landscape expands, so does their ultimate destination. A contemplation of nature and time along a raw journey in the American landscape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Under the Stars (2022)
Paying tribute to some of America's only surviving drive-ins – and those who keep them running – this heartfelt documentary captures efforts to preserve these nostalgic theaters in small-towns across the country.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
A Life on the Farm (2023)
A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Motel?
The closest matches to Motel are 13th (2016), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Motel?
Start with 13th (2016), the closest match to Motel.
What is the highest-rated movie like Motel?
13th (2016), rated 7.8/10 by 821 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Motel?
You Can See Everything (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Motel?
Yes: 13th (2016), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025).
How are movies similar to Motel chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Motel, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.