Movies like In Spite of Ourselves (2021)
The best movies like In Spite of Ourselves (2021) are The Age of Stupid (2009), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022). If In Spite of Ourselves hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKoyaanisqatsi (1983)7.9/10 from 814 votes
- NewestShipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishPsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial (2023)Also in Spanish
The Age of Stupid (2009)
Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Truth (2006)
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisObi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022)
This special explores the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to the screen, as well as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their classic roles. Director Deborah Chow leads the cast and crew as they create new heroes and villains that live alongside new incarnations of beloved Star Wars characters, and an epic story that dramatically bridges the saga films.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNaqoyqatsi (2002)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFire of Love (2022)
A doomed love triangle between intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and their beloved volcanoes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)
In 2019, Nepalese mountain climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja set out to do the unthinkable by climbing the world’s fourteen highest summits in less than seven months. (The previous record was eight years). He called the effort “Project Possible 14/7” and saw it as a way to inspire others to strive for greater heights in any pursuit. The film follows his team as they seek to defy naysayers and push the limits of human endurance.
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 thisOcean with David Attenborough (2025)
David Attenborough takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean. Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisJaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (2025)
The authorized documentary celebrating the film that redefined Hollywood, 50 years after its premiere. Featuring rare archival footage and interviews with acclaimed Hollywood directors alongside Steven Spielberg, top shark scientists, and conservationists, the film uncovers the behind-the-scenes chaos and how the film launched the summer blockbuster, inspired a new wave of filmmakers, and paved the way for shark conservation that continues today.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Irishman: In Conversation (2019)
Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in conversation about The Irishman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this9/11 (2002)
An on-the-scene documentary following the events of September 11, 2001 from an insider's view, through the lens of two French filmmakers who simply set out to make a movie about a rookie NYC fireman and ended up filming the tragic event that changed our lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCapitalism: A Love Story (2009)
Michael Moore comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)
Never-before-seen footage and survivor accounts trace the 2012 shipwreck of a luxury cruise and the disaster that ensued, in this immersive documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025)
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe War Room (1993)
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIMAX Hubble (2010)
An IMAX 3D camera chronicles the effort of 7 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing Like a Dame (2018)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElstree 1976 (2015)
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJoshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017)
When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisService public (2022)
Salhia Brakhlia has filmed the set and behind the scenes of Franceinfo's breakfast show during a year. How to inform at the time of social media and fake news ? How careful are journalist with those news ? How do they connect to politicians during an presidential election campaign ? This unique immersion gives us a part of the answer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Secret Order (2022)
Phil Comeau shines a spotlight on the Ordre de Jacques-Cartier, a powerful secret society that operated from 1926 to 1965, infiltrating every sector of Canadian society and forging the fate of French-language communities. Through never-before-heard testimony from former members of the Order, along with historically accurate dramatic reconstructions, this film paints a gripping portrait of the social and political struggles of Canadian francophone-minority communities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Vigilantes INC. - America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen (2024)
Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen The 2024 election is in danger: 8,500 self-proclaimed vigilante vote-fraud hunters have already challenged the rights of 851,000 voters of color. Investigative reporter Greg Palast (Guardian/Rolling Stone) hunts down the MAGA vigilantes including one dressed like Doc Holliday—with his loaded 6-guns—who blocked the vote of 4,000 Black soldiers including MAJ Gamaliel Turner. Palast and Major Turner confront the vote rustlers in scenes humorous, weird and dangerous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
PsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial (2023)
PsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial is a documentary that presents and discusses the psychological impact that colonialism has had on the Puerto Rican people. The director analyzes the traumas generated in Puerto Rican society by that colonial experience.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Ukrainians in Exile (2022)
A documentary that follows Anya, a woman residing in Ukraine during the early stages of the war, who tells her story and contemplates how countries will treat her fellow Ukrainians who were forced to flee.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Inside My Heart (2018)
A documentary film by Canadian Director Debra Kellner, produced by Frank Giustra, Serge Lalou, and Richard Copans. Inside My Heart chronicles the plight of three refugee families fleeing their war torn countries over a period of nearly 3 years. Despite having lost everything and their harrowing stories about the atrocities of war, each family continues their fight to stay alive. Unable to return to their countries without the risk of being killed, today they are forced to live with the consequences of their broken dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Miners Shot Down (2014)
In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
When My Knife Strikes You (1968)
Shot in various villages throughout Yugoslavia, this is a disturbing document of a time when people were stabbing each other with knives without any real reason. Murderers, people who witness these murders and the families of victims all talk about the senseless violence and the human condition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
« Je ne suis pas chinetoque » : Histoire du racisme anti-asiatique (2024)
Journalist Émilie Tran Nguyen invites the viewer to follow her in her quest and discover, at the same time as her, the historical origins of this anti-Asian racism. Told in the first person, alternating archive images, interviews with historians, sociologists and field sequences, this film traces the making of prejudices in the French imagination and pop culture, to twist the neck of stereotypes, deconstruct and act.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (2026)
With rare access and no holds barred, the acclaimed documentarian investigates a growing ultra-masculine network and its controversial influencers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Spite of Ourselves?
The closest matches to In Spite of Ourselves are The Age of Stupid (2009), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Spite of Ourselves?
Start with The Age of Stupid (2009), the closest match to In Spite of Ourselves.
What is the highest-rated movie like In Spite of Ourselves?
Koyaanisqatsi (1983), rated 7.9/10 by 814 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Spite of Ourselves?
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like In Spite of Ourselves?
Yes: PsiQuis: Un Giro Decolonial (2023).
How are movies similar to In Spite of Ourselves chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Spite of Ourselves, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.