Movies like Carts of Darkness (2008)
The best movies like Carts of Darkness (2008) are 12 O'Clock Boys (2013), The Endless Summer (1966) and Bustin' Down the Door (2008). If Carts of Darkness 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 Cove (2009)8.0/10 from 705 votes
- NewestIsland of the Hungry Ghosts (2019)Released 2019
12 O'Clock Boys (2013)
Pug, a wisecracking 13 year old living on a dangerous Westside block, has one goal in mind: to join The Twelve O'Clock Boys; the notorious urban dirt-bike gang of Baltimore. Converging from all parts of the inner city, they invade the streets and clash with police, who are forbidden to chase the bikes for fear of endangering the public. When Pug's older brother dies suddenly, he looks to the pack for mentorship, spurred by their dangerous lifestyle. Pug's story is coupled with unprecedented, action-packed coverage of the riders in their element. The film presents the pivotal years of change in a boy's life growing up in one of the most dangerous and economically depressed cities in the US.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Endless Summer (1966)
Documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown, himself a competition-level surfer, follows surfers Michael Hynson and Robert August on an around-the-world surfing adventure. With Brown's wry, sardonic narration and a twangy, guitar-driven instrumental soundtrack by The Sandals playing over the silent footage, Mike and Rob leave their California home to visit Hawaii, Australia, South Africa and other secluded surfing spots in a search for the surfer's holy grail that Brown dubs "The Perfect Wave.”
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBustin' Down the Door (2008)
During the winter of 1975 in Hawaii, surfing was shaken to its core. A group of young surfers from Australia and South Africa sacrificed everything and put it all on the line to create a sport, a culture, and an industry that is today worth billions of dollars and has captured the imagination of the world. With a radical new approach and a brash colonial attitude, these surfers crashed headlong into a culture that was not ready for revolution. Surfing was never to be the same again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Workingman's Death (2005)
Is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Where can we still find it in the 21st century? Workingman's Death follows the trail of the HEROES in the illegal mines of the Ukraine, sniffs out GHOST among the sulphur workers in Indonesia, finds itself face to face with LIONS at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, mingles with BROTHERS as they cut a huge oil tanker into pieces in Pakistan, and joins Chinese steel workers in hoping for a glorious FUTURE.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (2012)
When six teenage boys came together as a skateboarding team in the 1980s, they reinvented not only their chosen sport but themselves too – as they evolved from insecure outsiders to the most influential athletes in the field.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Motivation (2013)
Go inside the lives and training regimes of eight of the world’s gutsiest professional skateboarders. These fearless stars face unique obstacles on the way to the Street League Championship and the coveted title of best skateboarder in the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Racing Dreams (2010)
From go-kart champs, NASCAR winners are bred -- or so goes the thinking of the drivers (and their families) involved in the World Karting Association's National Pavement Series. This documentary follows three of the series' top contenders. Although small in stature, the adolescent racers harbor big dreams as they hit speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour in their quest to ascend the first rung on their way to NASCAR in this film from Marshall Curry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes (2011)
Documentary on the marijuana pipe glassblowing industry and culture surrounding it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Streetwise (1984)
This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDogtown and Z-Boys (2002)
This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Like Killing Flies (2004)
In the cramped, cluttered confines of Shopsin’s, a legendary hole-in-the-wall diner in New York’s Greenwich Village, eccentric chef Kenny Shopsin holds court—serving up an absurdly massive menu alongside his razor-sharp wit and unfiltered philosophies on life, food, and human nature. As the family-run institution faces a forced relocation, this intimate documentary captures the controlled chaos of Kenny’s world, where every customer is a character and every meal is a performance. A love letter to stubborn individuality and the art of doing things your own way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Riding Giants (2004)
Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.
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 thisCentral Park (1990)
The famous New York City landmark is given the spotlight, as well as the variety of ways in which people make use of it: running, boating, walking, skating, music, theatre, sports, picnics, parades and concerts. Further illustrated are the complex problems the NYC Parks Department deals with in order to maintain and preserve the park and keep it open and accessible to the public.
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 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: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Crasy Life (1992)
Jean-Pierre Gorin’s gripping and unique film about a Samoan street gang in Long Beach, California, is, like other works by the filmmaker, a probing look at a closed community with its own rules, rituals, and language. Part observational documentary, part fiction invisibly scripted and shaped by the director, My Crasy Life, which won a special jury prize at Sundance, is an enthralling and intensely focused contemplation of violence and dislocation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Motivation 2: The Chris Cole Story (2015)
The story of a man that earned his place as an innovator, motivator and legend in skateboarding that now creates inspiration and opportunity for a new generation. Cole's progression from humble neighborhood beginnings to the world of elite street skateboarding is revealed through recently discovered archival footage, presenting a skater that went on to achieve the highest amount of skate contest wins, a list of defining video parts, being twice selected as Thrasher magazine's Skater of the Year, back-to-back X-Games gold medals, and becoming the 2013 Street League Super Crown World Champion
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Cruise (1998)
Affectionate portrait of Timothy "Speed" Levitch, a tour guide for Manhattan's Gray Line double-decker buses.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Spellbound (2002)
This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Endless Summer II (1994)
Bruce Brown, king of surfing documentaries, returns after nearly thirty years to trace the steps of two young surfers to top surfing spots around the world. Along the way we see many of the people and locales Bruce visited during the filming of Endless Summer (1966).
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
SlingShot (2014)
An intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world's safe water crisis. SlingShot focuses on noted Segway inventor Dean Kamen and his work to solve the world's water crisis. An eccentric genius with a provocative world view, Kamen is an inspiration for future scientists. His inventions help people in need and ease suffering.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Momentum Generation (2018)
In the 1990s, a motley band of teen surfers from the north shore of Oahu brought professional surfing to new heights. But as their stars rose, the competition threatened to tear their group apart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Dark Days (2000)
A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBorn into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004)
A documentary filmmaker befriends children living in Calcutta's red-light district and teaches them photography, offering them a chance to pursue a better future beyond their difficult circumstances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine (2017)
A look at the rise and fall of the subversive skateboarding magazine Big Brother, which rose to prominence in the mid-1990s and had a profound effect on the skating subculture with its unfiltered approach.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBomb It (2007)
Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on five continents, the documentary tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2019)
Christmas Island, Australia is home to one of the largest land migrations on earth—that of forty million crabs journeying from jungle to sea. But the jungle holds another secret: a high-security facility that indefinitely detains individuals seeking asylum.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Other Side (2015)
In an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, lives a wounded community that is trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love, ex-special forces soldiers still at war with the world, floundering young women and future mothers, and old people who have not lost their desire to live. Through this hidden pocket of humanity, the door opens to the abyss of today's America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Carts of Darkness?
The closest matches to Carts of Darkness are 12 O'Clock Boys (2013), The Endless Summer (1966) and Bustin' Down the Door (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Carts of Darkness?
People who watched Carts of Darkness most often go on to 12 O'Clock Boys (2013), The Endless Summer (1966) and Bustin' Down the Door (2008).
What is the highest-rated movie like Carts of Darkness?
The Cove (2009), rated 8.0/10 by 705 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Carts of Darkness?
Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2019) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Carts of Darkness?
Yes: 12 O'Clock Boys (2013), The Endless Summer (1966) and Bustin' Down the Door (2008).
How are movies similar to Carts of Darkness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Carts of Darkness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.