Movies like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries (2020)
The best movies like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries (2020) are Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars (2012), Seven Up! (1985) and The Godfather Family: A Look Inside (1990). If Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries hooked you with its documentary and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: The Waters of Mars (2009)7.9/10 from 242 votes
- NewestMy Mom Jayne (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchUncle Yanco (1967)Also in French
Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars (2012)
In 1997, Louis Theroux made a documentary about the world of male porn performers in Los Angeles. 15 years later, he returns to find a business struggling with the deluge of free porn on the internet. Louis revisits some of the original programme's contributors as well as meeting the latest crop of porn performers dreaming of porn stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeven Up! (1985)
A group of British children aged 7 from widely ranging backgrounds are interviewed about a range of subjects. The filmmakers plan to re-interview them at 7 year intervals to track how their lives and attitudes change as they age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Godfather Family: A Look Inside (1990)
A documentary on the making of the three Godfather films, with interviews and recollections from the film makers and cast. This feature also includes the original screen tests of some of the actors for "The Godfather" film, and some candid moments on the set of "The Godfather: Part III."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBehind the Planet of the Apes (1998)
Roddy McDowall takes you, film by film, from production meetings to make-up sessions, then right onto the movie set to see the actual filming of the science fiction masterpiece. The most comprehensive history of Planet of the Apes ever created, this fascinating 127-minute documentary explores one of the most imaginative and influential series in movie history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this4 Little Girls (1997)
On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998)
This documentary follows superstar Bret Hart during his last year in the WWF. The film documents the tensions that resulted in The Montreal Screwjob, one of the most controversial events in the history of professional wrestling, in which Vince McMahon, Shawn Micheals, and others, legitimately conspired behind the scenes to go against the script and remove Bret Hart as champion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Same Breath (2021)
This documentary recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the novel coronavirus and the way two countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972)
Jonas Mekas weaves an elegiac diary film from his 1971–72 return to Lithuania, chronicling a visit to his birthplace of Semeniškiai after decades in exile. Blending personal memory with documentary observation, the film becomes both a portrait of homecoming and a meditation on displacement, family, and the passage of time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPublic Speaking (2011)
Martin Scorsese’s portrait of writer and social commentator Fran Lebowitz, celebrated for her sharp wit and observations on modern life. Filmed at New York’s Waverly Inn and intercut with archival footage and interviews, the documentary captures Lebowitz’s distinctive worldview through her spontaneous monologues and public appearances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAvatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20 (2022)
An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUncle Yanco (1967)
While in San Francisco for the promotion of her last film in October 1967, Agnès Varda, tipped by her friend Tom Luddy, gets to know a relative she had never heard of before, Jean Varda, nicknamed "Yanco". This hitherto unknown uncle lives on a boat in Sausalito, is a painter, has adopted a hippie lifestyle and loves life. The meeting is a very happy one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)
Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWho Are You, Charlie Brown? (2021)
Lupita Nyong'o narrates a documentary about Peanuts and its creator, Charles M. Schulz. Famous fans—including Drew Barrymore, Kevin Smith, and Al Roker—share its influence on them, and a new animated story finds Charlie Brown on a quest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEx Libris: The New York Public Library (2017)
A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
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 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 thisWhat Is a Woman? (2022)
Matt Walsh's controversial doc challenges radical gender ideology through provocative interviews and humor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBacteria Killers (2019)
More and more bacteria are becoming insensitive to antibiotics, not least due to excessive drug consumption. According to the EU, this problem could soon become as explosive as the environmental issue - and antibiotic resistance threatens to become one of the main causes of death worldwide. Research must therefore find alternatives - not miracle cures, but permanently effective drugs. There has already been one in the past: One hundred years ago, the French biologist Félix d'Hérelle discovered mysterious "bacteria-eating" viruses, known as bacteriophages or phages for short. He used these to successfully treat bacterial infections before the development of antibiotics, but his method was forgotten again. Is bacteriophage therapy the miracle medicine of the future?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Wise Guys: The Lost Show (2022)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, two college students set out to make a revolutionary television show. The pilot episode was uncovered and presented alongside exclusive interviews with the cast and crew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Dirty War on the NHS (2019)
John Pilger unearths the hidden agenda behind the NHS crisis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Coronavirus (2020)
Struggling with fear, tension, and anxiety amid the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a high school student reflects upon what really matters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Lid pečuje o své zdraví (1953)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hacking at Leaves (2024)
Hacking at Leaves documents artist and hazmat-suit aficionado Johannes Grenzfurthner as he attempts to come to terms with the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker movement. The story hones in on a small tinker space in Durango, Colorado, that made significant contributions to worldwide COVID relief efforts. But things go awry when Uncle Sam interferes with the film's production.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hard ♡ (2022)
Since 2013, the Casual Gabberz collective has been storming dancefloors and the stages of the biggest festivals with its gabber surge, that hardcore techno sound born in Holland in the 90s. Until a virus causes the planet to go haywire. And triggered an existential crisis within the collective.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Se Siembran Flores (2021)
In the midst of the social unrest caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Calpan, Puebla, there is a small corner where hope is harvested daily: the people's asylum.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Voices from the Shadows (TBA)
‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (2009)
In a Mars base, the inhabitants are being infected by a mysterious water creature which takes over its victims. The Doctor is thrust into the middle of this catastrophe, knowing a larger one is waiting around the corner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
Like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries?
The closest matches to Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries are Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars (2012), Seven Up! (1985) and The Godfather Family: A Look Inside (1990). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries?
Start with Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars (2012), the closest match to Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries.
What is the highest-rated movie like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries?
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (2009), rated 7.9/10 by 242 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries?
My Mom Jayne (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries?
Yes: Uncle Yanco (1967), Bacteria Killers (2019) and Hard ♡ (2022).
How are movies similar to Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.