Movies like American Tragedy (2019)
The best movies like American Tragedy (2019) are All the Empty Rooms (2025), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Come See Me in the Good Light (2025). If American Tragedy hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTower (2016)7.6/10 from 213 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
All the Empty Rooms (2025)
A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
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 thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirected by John Ford (1971)
A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMurder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020)
After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (2019)
This investigation examines the mysterious shooting of soul icon Sam Cooke, whose death silenced one of the most vital voices in the civil rights movement.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys State (2020)
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978)
Martin Scorsese spends an evening with larger-than-life raconteur Steven Prince—a former drug addict, road manager for Neil Diamond, and actor—as he recounts stories from his colorful life.
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 thisMea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012)
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisOprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now (2019)
Oprah Winfrey talks with the exonerated men once known as the Central Park Five, plus the cast and producers who tell their story in "When They See Us."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTo Kill a Tiger (2023)
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
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 thisTower (2016)
Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation, Tower reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America's first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSidney (2022)
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like this35 Up (1991)
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisColumbine: Understanding Why (2002)
Why did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murder a dozen students and one teacher—and then kill themselves—at Columbine High School? In this A&E Special, the renowned Threat Assessment Group comes to Littleton, Colorado, to perform a psychiatric autopsy to better understand why Harris and Klebold killed. Armed with that information, TAG hopes to educate parents, teachers, and students on how to see the warning signs of impending violence and intervene appropriately to stop such tragedies before they take place somewhere else.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High (2004)
This movie covers the final hour leading up to the Columbine High Massacre. On April 20, 1999, two boys from Columbine High School in Colorado embarked on a massacre and killed 12 students, one teacher, and injured 21 other students, before turning the guns on themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Jeff Weise: My Personal Documentary (2010)
Documentary about the Red Lake school shooting and its perpetrator, Jeff Weise.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Echoes of Columbine (2019)
This documentary explores the issue of school shootings and what schools, parents, and law enforcement can do to help prevent these attacks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Untold Stories of Columbine (2000)
Darrell Scott tells stories of his daughter, high school student, Rachel Joy Scott. Also included is footage from her funeral.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Elephant (2003)
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBang Bang You're Dead (2003)
A troubled and bullied high school student fights against judgement from his community after threatening to bomb the football team.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisO (2001)
Even though he's the only black student at the elite Palmetto Grove Academy, star basketball player Odin James has the adoration of all, including the team's coach and the Dean's beautiful daughter Desi. Odin's troubled friend Hugo, the coach's son, deeply resentful of his father's preference of Odin on and off the court, plots a diabolical scheme to sow the seed of mistrust between O and Desi, setting in motion a disturbing chain of events which erupts into a firestorm of breathtaking intensity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisDuck! The Carbine High Massacre (1999)
Derwin and Derick, Neo-Nazis, plan to commit a school shooting and kill themselves after a sick joke by school jocks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like American Tragedy?
The closest matches to American Tragedy are All the Empty Rooms (2025), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Come See Me in the Good Light (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after American Tragedy?
Start with All the Empty Rooms (2025), the closest match to American Tragedy.
What is the highest-rated movie like American Tragedy?
Tower (2016), rated 7.6/10 by 213 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like American Tragedy?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like American Tragedy?
Yes: All the Empty Rooms (2025), A Toxic Love Story (2026) and Come See Me in the Good Light (2025).
How are movies similar to American Tragedy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside American Tragedy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.