Movies like The Meaning of Vanlife (2019)
The best movies like The Meaning of Vanlife (2019) are Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (2015), Baraka (1992) and Harmontown (2014). If The Meaning of Vanlife hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBaraka (1992)8.2/10 from 735 votes
- NewestBillie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (2026)Released 2026
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (2015)
How might your life be better with less? The popular simple-living duo The Minimalists examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from various walks of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaraka (1992)
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHarmontown (2014)
A comedic, brutally honest documentary following self-destructive TV writer Dan Harmon as he takes his live podcast on a national tour.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)
Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDavid Byrne's American Utopia (2020)
A filmed version of David Byrne's Broadway show, a unifying musical celebration that inspires audiences to connect to each other and to the global community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this49 Up (2006)
49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKoyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)
After Kai saves a woman's life, he turns into an overnight hero and viral sensation — until disturbing truths about his erratic behavior come to light. This shocking documentary chronicles a happy-go-lucky nomad's ascent to viral stardom and the resulting steep downward spiral.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Repair Shop (2024)
In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of this city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Decline of Western Civilization Part III (1998)
A musical study of Los Angeles in the late 90s, where homeless teens roam the streets and profess to live a punk lifestyle of music, drugs, and flouting authority.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherman's March (1986)
Documentarian Ross McElwee originally set out to make a travelogue of sorts tracing General William T. Sherman's infamous scorched-earth march through the Confederacy in the latter stages of the Civil War. Instead, haunted by a recent breakup with a girlfriend, McElwee ends up documenting his progress -- or lack thereof -- in starting a new relationship. His journey then becomes one of self-reflection and self-discovery rather than a historical/sociological exploration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBillie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (2026)
Captured during Billie Eilish's sold-out world tour, a concert experience from one of the most celebrated and successful artists of her generation, presented in immersive 3D.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTrainwreck: The Real Project X (2025)
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988)
An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalftime (2022)
Global superstar Jennifer Lopez reflects on her multifaceted career and the pressure of life in the spotlight in this intimate documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (2026)
A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity, and explores the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what's at stake if we get it wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne More Time with Feeling (2016)
Andrew Dominik's One More Time With Feeling is a remarkable black and white documentary which chronicles the creation of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' album Skeleton Tree. Originally a performance based concept, the film evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. The result is stark, fragile and raw, and a true testament to an artist trying to find his way through the darkness. It documents the writing, recording and performing of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisUntold: The Liver King (2025)
He built a supplement empire by devouring raw meat on social media. And he had the muscles to prove it. But, really, how did the Liver King get so huge?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlice: A Social Media Journey (2015)
A very sociable person, Alice has used her many social media accounts as a visual scrapbook of her life – the highs and lows, the happiness and heartache. But what do these collected words and images really say about Alice and her real life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
What You'll Remember (2021)
Homelessness in the United States takes many forms. For Elizabeth Herrera, David Lima and their four children, housing instability has meant moving between unsafe apartments, motels, relatives’ couches, shelters, the streets and their car. After 15 years of this uncertainty, the family moved into their first stable housing — an apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area — in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Social Dilemma (2020)
This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBody (2026)
In conservative Pakistan, a photographer and his ambitious muses challenge social norms while chasing recognition and self-worth in a social media-driven world, engaging in candid conversations about culture, identity, body image, and vulnerability during a photoshoot.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Who Owns New Zealand Now? (2017)
Award-winning documentary maker Bryan Bruce investigates New Zealand's housing crisis and what might be done to solve it. Bruce consults with recognised world experts (in Canada, Ireland and Germany) to discuss their global research – this time on foreign capital and housing affordability and the effect of immigration on house prices. Bruce also looks at some of the many possible solutions (available particularly in Germany) that would provide families with stability of tenure that don’t involve private ownership.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed (2003)
Award winning documentary filmmakers, Robin, Kathy and Shelly Beeck, with the help of filmmaker Michael Moore, have spent the last five years filming a 60-minute feature-length documentary on Bredo Morstoel, a Norweigan who was frozen by his grandson in 1983. Since then, the world famous...well...stiff has been lying under 800 pounds of dry ice in a TUFF SHED behind his grandsons' castle-like house in the 9000-ft Colorado ski town of Nederland. The grandson, Trygve Bauge, has long since been deported back to Norway, but Grandpa Bredo has remained, unwittingly becoming a worldwide symbol of the legal rights of the temporarily dead....
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
LIKE (2018)
LIKE is an IndieFlix Original documentary that explores the impact of social media on our lives and the effects of technology on the brain. The goal of the film is to inspire us to self-regulate. Social media is a tool and social platforms are a place to connect, share, and care … but is that what's really happening?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Desert Wagon (2024)
A couple of artists travels through the Mexico desert to present their puppet show.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hot Tubs (2010)
1973 was a turbulent time. The world was overcome with war and social change. Yet on Mountain Drive, deep in the hills of Santa Barbara, California- the good times were rollin'. The redwood tub was in and clothes were out. Author, publisher, Noel Young, was there to document it in Hot Tubs, the book that launched a movement. Come steam a while...dream a while- with the group that revolutionized the way we relax and gave birth to the modern day spa. This is the story of....Hot Tubs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Meaning of Vanlife?
The closest matches to The Meaning of Vanlife are Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (2015), Baraka (1992) and Harmontown (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Meaning of Vanlife?
Start with Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (2015), the closest match to The Meaning of Vanlife.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Meaning of Vanlife?
Baraka (1992), rated 8.2/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Meaning of Vanlife?
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Meaning of Vanlife?
Yes: Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (2015), Baraka (1992) and Harmontown (2014).
How are movies similar to The Meaning of Vanlife chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Meaning of Vanlife, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.