Movies like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone (2017)
The best movies like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone (2017) are Amy (2015), Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019). If On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEverybody’s Everything (2019)8.4/10 from 311 votes
- NewestElton John: Never Too Late (2024)Released 2024
Amy (2015)
A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJanis: Little Girl Blue (2015)
Janis Joplin is one of the most respected and iconic rock & roll singers of all time, a tragic and misunderstood figure who captivated millions of listeners and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1970 at age 27. Director Amy Berg explored Joplin's story in depth. A portrait of a complicated, driven and often beleaguered artist. Joplin's own words recount a series of letters she wrote to her family over the years. Janis was a vessel of energy when she sang. Her rapid rise and untimely death changed music forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019)
An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLet's Get Lost (1988)
Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Includes interviews with his children and ex-wife, women companions, and musicians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElton John: Never Too Late (2024)
Sir Elton John looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts his struggles with adversity, abuse, and addiction, and how he overcame them to become the icon he is today.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverybody’s Everything (2019)
The story of artist Lil Peep from his birth in Long Island and meteoric rise as a genre blending pop star & style icon, to his death due to an accidental opioid overdose in Arizona at just 21 years of age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhitney: Can I Be Me (2017)
The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (2014)
James Brown changed the face of American music forever. Abandoned by his parents at an early age, James Brown was a self-made man who became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, not just through his music, but also as a social activist. Charting his journey from rhythm and blues to funk, MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN features rare and previously unseen footage, photographs and interviews, chronicling the musical ascension of “the hardest working man in show business,” from his first hit, “Please, Please, Please,” in 1956, to his iconic performances at the Apollo Theater, the T.A.M.I. Show, the Paris Olympia and more.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWoodstock (1970)
An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTINA (2021)
Tina Turner overcame impossible odds to become one of the first female Black artists to reach a mainstream international audience. Her road to superstardom is an undeniable story of triumph over adversity. It’s the ultimate story of survival – and an inspirational story of our times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWoodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation (2019)
50 years after the legendary fest, Barak Goodman’s electric retelling of Woodstock, from the point of view of those who were on the ground, evokes the freedom, passion, community, and joy the three-day music festival created.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDemi Lovato: Simply Complicated (2017)
A personal and intimate look into Demi Lovato's life as not only a regular 25 year old, but also one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Velvet Underground (2021)
Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChasing Trane (2017)
An account of the life of the brilliant jazz musician John Coltrane (1926-67), a gifted saxophonist, an extraordinarily talented thinker whose original, avant-garde work has impacted and influenced people all over the world. A story about music's ability to entertain, inspire and transform.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDig! (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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)
The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWho Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010)
The life and work of the enigmatic singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSœur Sourire: Who Killed the Voice of God? (2021)
1962. A crystalline voice becomes a planetary tube. A Belgian nun jostles Elvis and the Beatles on the world charts. Her name: Sister Smile. A popstar with the trajectory of a comet who understands her success no more than the double meaning of her words… The harder the fall will be. Even God does not protect sharks' appetites or pretenses of success! Who killed the little voice of God? Here is the tragic story of an innocent voice, of an extraordinary fate, almost of a curse ...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Society of the Spectacle (1974)
Guy Debord's analysis of a consumer society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Soviet Hippies (2017)
The hippie movement that captivated hundreds of thousands of young people in the West had a profound impact on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Within the Soviet system, a colorful crowd of artists, musicians, freaks, vagabonds and other long-haired drop-outs created their own system, which connected those who believed in peace, love, and freedom for their bodies and souls. More than 40 years later, a group of eccentric hippies from Estonia take a road trip to Moscow where the hippies still gather annually on the 1st of June for celebration that is related to the tragic event in 1971, when thousands of Soviet hippies were arrested by the KGB. The journey through time and dimensions goes deep into the psychedelic underground world in which these people strived for freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Tunnel to Freedom (2021)
13 August 1961: the GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin. The city is divided overnight. Escape to the West becomes more dangerous every day. But on September 14, 1962, exactly one year, one month and one day after the Wall was built, a group of 29 people from the GDR managed to escape spectacularly through a 135-meter tunnel to the West. For more than 4 months, students from West Berlin, including 2 Italians, dug this tunnel. When the tunnel builders ran out of money after only a few meters of digging, they came up with the idea of marketing the escape tunnel. They sell the film rights to the story exclusively to NBC, an American television station.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Disco: Spinning The Story (2005)
Hosted by the one and only Disco Diva, Gloria Gaynor, "Disco: Spinning the Story" takes a comprehensive look at the evolution of the music that defined the 70's. From the recording studios to the dance floors, "Disco: Spinning the Story" examines the phenomenon in a way it has never been told before. Hear funk pioneer George Clinton, Donna Summer producer Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers of Chic, Earl Young of the Trammps, hip-hop icon Kurtis Blow, remix legend Tom Moulton, "Saturday Night Fever" actress, Karen Lynn Gorney and even Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead talk about the roots of Disco, how it emerged, and how it has influenced music ever since. Included are vintage performance highlights from Donna Summer, KC & The Sunshine Band, Bee Gees, Chic, Gloria Gaynor, Rose Royce, Labelle, Hues Corporation and many more.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
A, B, C... Z (1971)
Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
In France with Madonna (2022)
France is at the heart of Madonna's life. She is inspired by French culture and its values and has surrounded herself with French artists for many years. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Queen of Pop's career, this film revisits the close and unique bond between Madonna and France and features testimonials from close collaborators and French friends who have helped create her unique artistic universe: Maripol, Jean Paul Gaultier, Julien d'Ys, Nicolas Huchard, and Marion Motin. Today's artists such as Florence Foresti, Leïla Slimani, Victor Weinsanto and HollySiz talk about the influence of this emancipating figure, which extends far beyond music.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
All This Mayhem (2014)
A searing account of what happens when raw talent and extreme personalities collide. In this unflinching, never-before-seen account of drugs and the dark side of professional skateboarding, brothers Tas and Ben Pappas' intense bond and charisma take them from the pinnacle of their sport into a spiraling world of self-destruction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria Bethânia: Música é Perfume (2005)
Brazilian singer Maria Bethania has a 40-year singing career. A documentary shows her concerts and famous family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone?
The closest matches to On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone are Amy (2015), Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone?
Start with Amy (2015), the closest match to On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone.
What is the highest-rated movie like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone?
Everybody’s Everything (2019), rated 8.4/10 by 311 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone?
Elton John: Never Too Late (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone?
Yes: Amy (2015), Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019).
How are movies similar to On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.