Movies like Waste Land (2010)
The best movies like Waste Land (2010) are Gerhard Richter Painting (2011), Shadowman (2017) and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1995). If Waste Land hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIsle of Flowers (1989)8.2/10 from 244 votes
- NewestOur Land (2026)Released 2026
Gerhard Richter Painting (2011)
Gerhard Richter has spent over half a century experimenting with a tremendous range of techniques and ideas, addressing historical crises and mass media representation alongside explorations of chance procedures. This first glimpse inside his studio in decades is exactly that: a thrilling document of the 79-year-old's creative process, juxtaposed with rare archival footage and intimate conversations with his critics and collaborators.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Shadowman (2017)
Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1995)
What happens when a dedicated husband and father quits his job, adopts the persona of a Western-Movie Singing Cowboy, takes on the entire art establishment (including Christo and Andy Warhol), and refuses to accept money for his art ? Meet Gerry Gaxiola, AKA The Maestro, an ex-wage slave who gave up everything to make art for art's sake. The Maestro's story could inspire a whole new generation of Van Goghs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2016)
56-year-old artist Mindy Alper has suffered severe depression and anxiety for most of her life. For a time she even lost the power of speech, and it was during this period that her drawings became extraordinarily articulate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Past Is a Grotesque Animal (2014)
A personal, accessible look at an artist - Kevin Barnes, frontman of the endlessly versatile indie pop band of Montreal - whose pursuit to make transcendent music at all costs drives him to value art over human relationships. As he struggles with all of those around him, family and bandmates alike, he's forced to reconsider the future of the band, begging the question - is this really worth it?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Pixo (2009)
The film discusses the cultural impact of "pichação", a Brazilian form of graffiti, on the streets of São Paulo and its international influence as one of the main cornerstones of Street Art.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Million Dollar Duck (2016)
Six artists from different walks of life vie to win the Federal Duck Stamp Contest, the only juried art competition sponsored by the U.S. government.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Kedi (2017)
A profile of Istanbul and its unique people, seen through the eyes of the most mysterious and beloved animal humans have ever known, the Cat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisF for Fake (1973)
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Salt of the Earth (2014)
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEstamira (2004)
Estamira is a 63-year-old woman who suffers from schizophrenia. She leads a tough life and has supported herself for the past 20 years by picking through garbage at the Jardim Gramacho Disposal Area in Rio de Janeiro. The film follows her starting in 2000, the year she begins treatment in a psychiatric clinic. At first, it is hard to understand her in her stream-of-consciousness sentences, delusions and obsessions. Gradually, however, we get to know her as a woman who can have quiet and lucid moments despite her illness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGretchen Road Movie (2010)
In 2008, Gretchen divided her twerking between the stage and the podium. The singer and dancer – also known as the "Booty Queen" – traveled through villages in the northeast of Brazil, making a living as an artist in local circuses and making noise in her campaign for mayor of Itamaracá Island, in Pernambuco. From circus to circus, the film records the performer's experiences to face her political opponents and her new audience, the electorate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Space in Between: Marina Abramović and Brazil (2016)
Marina Abramović travels through Brazil, in search of personal healing and artistic inspiration, experiencing sacred rituals and revealing her creative process. The route is comprised of poignant encounters with healers and sages from the Brazilian countryside, exploring the limits between art and spirituality. This external trip triggers in Marina a profound introspective journey through memories, pain and past experiences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMarina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (2012)
Performance artist Marina Abramovic prepares for a major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTim's Vermeer (2013)
Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Spanning a decade, Jenison's adventure takes him to Holland, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artista David Hockney, and eventually even to Buckingham Palace. The epic research project Jenison embarques on is as extraordinary as what he discovers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisManufactured Landscapes (2006)
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWatermark (2013)
Following their triumph with Manufactured Landscapes, photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal reunite to explore the ways in which humanity has shaped, manipulated and depleted one of its most vital and compromised resources: water.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) (2007)
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) is a cinematic bullet into the cerebral cortex, a documentary that unflinchingly exploring the cycles of violence that plague Brazil's upper and lower economic classes in fits of rampant corruption and violent kidnappings. The film chronicles these cycles by utilizing highly personalized stories that reflect the growing truth about Brazil's huge economic disparities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Territory (2022)
The Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people have seen their population dwindle and their culture threatened since coming into contact with non-Native Brazilians. Though promised dominion over their own rainforest territory, they have faced illegal incursions from environmentally destructive logging and mining, and, most recently, land-grabbing invasions spurred on by right-wing politicians like President Jair Bolsonaro. With deforestation escalating as a result, the stakes have become global.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Aquarela (2018)
From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Our Land (2026)
In 2009, a man and two accomplices try to evict members of the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta in northern Argentina. Claiming ownership of the land and armed with guns, they kill the community’s leader, Javier Chocobar. The murder is caught on video. It takes nine years of protests before court proceedings are finally opened in 2018. During all this time, the killers remain free. The film combines the voices and photographs of the community with courtroom footage to explore the long history of colonialism and land dispossession that led to this crime.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Finding Vivian Maier (2014)
Vivian Maier's photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she'd collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof's discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlaying (2007)
Following a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPina (2011)
Pina is a feature-length dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMakala (2017)
Kabwita, a young man living with his wife and daughters in Kolwezi, a town in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, dreams of buying land to build a house. To do so, he produces charcoal (makala), extracted from the ashes of a mighty hardwood tree. Carrying the sacks of charcoal on the back of his bicycle, he embarks on a dangerous journey to sell them on the market.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012)
An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIsle of Flowers (1989)
A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBurden (2016)
A probing portrait of Chris Burden, an artist who took creative expression to the limits and risked his life in the name of art.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Waste Land?
The closest matches to Waste Land are Gerhard Richter Painting (2011), Shadowman (2017) and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1995). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Waste Land?
People who watched Waste Land most often go on to Gerhard Richter Painting (2011), Shadowman (2017) and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1995).
What is the highest-rated movie like Waste Land?
Isle of Flowers (1989), rated 8.2/10 by 244 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Waste Land?
Our Land (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Waste Land?
Yes: Gerhard Richter Painting (2011), Shadowman (2017) and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1995).
How are movies similar to Waste Land chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Waste Land, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.