Movies like Waiting for Beckett (1993)
The best movies like Waiting for Beckett (1993) are The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020), For the Love of Spock (2016) and I Am Heath Ledger (2017). If Waiting for Beckett hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Am Heath Ledger (2017)7.4/10 from 233 votes
- NewestCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)Released 2025
The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFor the Love of Spock (2016)
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGilbert (2017)
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
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 thisStruggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski (2018)
Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisJoan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017)
Literary icon Joan Didion reflects on her remarkable career and personal struggles in this intimate documentary directed by her nephew, Griffin Dunne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHawking (2013)
The extraordinary story of the planet’s most famous contemporary scientist, told in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking’s private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen's world, both past and present.
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 thisNo Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad (2013)
A documentary about the making of season five of the acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe September Issue (2009)
A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHamilton's America (2016)
This documentary delves deeper into the creation of the Hamilton musical, revealing Lin-Manuel Miranda's process of absorbing and then adapting Hamilton's epic story into ground-breaking musical theater.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisLooking for Richard (1996)
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCristiano Ronaldo: World at His Feet (2014)
Cristiano Ronaldo: The World at His Feet follows the footballer from his beginnings in Portugal, breakthrough start with Manchester United and current career at Real Madrid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisCameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Curse of the Dragon (1993)
A 1993 documentary film about Bruce Lee. The film includes interviews from some of his fellow students and opponents who worked alongside him in his movies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Beggar's Description (2006)
It's a sensitive, moving doc chronicling the life of Tétrault's brother Philip , a Montreal poet, musician and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. A promising athlete as a child, Philip began experiencing mood swings in his early 20s. His extended family, including his daughter, share their conflicted feelings love, guilt, shame, anger with the camera. They want to make sure he's safe, but how much can they take?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive (2017)
How the inventor of the detective story became his own greatest mystery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Merton: A Film Biography (1984)
In his lifetime, Thomas Merton was hailed as a prophet and censured for his outspoken social criticism. For nearly 27 years he was a monk of the austere Trappist order, where he became an eloquent spiritual writer and mystic as well as an anti-war advocate and witness to peace. Merton: A Film Biography provides the first comprehensive look at this remarkable 20th century religious philosopher who wrote, in addition to his immensely popular autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, over 60 books on some of the most pressing social issues of our time, some of which are excerpted here. Merton offers an engaging profile of a man whose presence in the world touched millions of people and whose words and thoughts continue to have a profound impact and relevance today.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Pra Milan i Rtanjska bića (TBA)
Pra-Milan (73) is a poet, philosopher, and two-time presidential candidate from the 1990s. After winning a lawsuit against the state for the persecution he endured under the communist regime, he leases a neglected tourist complex on the mystical mountain of Rtanj.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Richard Hugo: Kicking the Loose Gravel Home (1976)
Filmed on location in Montana and Washington State, this 1976 biography of poet and teacher Richard Hugo features readings of some of his most famous poems as well as interviews with his family and friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hello My Dear (2021)
The documentary is titled after Arkadaş Z. Özger’s poem “Hello My Dear” which had caused much controversy in the period it was first published. Considered to be in defiance of heteronormativity, the said poem includes references to the poet’s personality, his family, his relationship to the society, and his “unexpected” death, which came three years after its publication. Today, 50 years after it was written, the documentary follows these same lines in the poem utilising cinematic elements. The documentary also rediscovers the poetics; reaches out to the family, the comrades, the friendships, departing from the official historical accounts, cognizant of his experience of otherness, in pursuit of the “lost” portrait of Arkadaş Z. Özger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Prisoners of Beckett (2005)
The meeting of two worlds that never met. One of poetry and freedom, and the other of silence and darkness. A story that begins in a maximum security prison in Sweden where a young actor, Jan Jönson, decides to stage " Waiting for Godot "with five prisoners as actors.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Albert Camus, la tragédie du bonheur (1999)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough (2025)
One of the most controversial writers of our times, join Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh as he undergoes a remarkable trip to find new meaning in his work, life and legacy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Bukowski: The Last Straw (2008)
The Last Straw is a film documenting the very last live poetry reading given by Charles Bukowski at The Sweetwater, a music club in Redondo Beach, California on March 31, 1980
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Waiting for Beckett?
The closest matches to Waiting for Beckett are The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020), For the Love of Spock (2016) and I Am Heath Ledger (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Waiting for Beckett?
Start with The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020), the closest match to Waiting for Beckett.
What is the highest-rated movie like Waiting for Beckett?
I Am Heath Ledger (2017), rated 7.4/10 by 233 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Waiting for Beckett?
Come See Me in the Good Light (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Waiting for Beckett?
Yes: The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020), For the Love of Spock (2016) and I Am Heath Ledger (2017).
How are movies similar to Waiting for Beckett chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Waiting for Beckett, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.