Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "essay-film"
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1. The Big Short (2015)
R | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the United States mortgage market. In their research, they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
Votes: 487,537 | Gross: $70.26M
2. Vice (I) (2018)
R | 132 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that are still felt today.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell
Votes: 162,939 | Gross: $47.84M
3. Night and Fog (1956)
TV-14 | 32 min | Documentary, Short, History
The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 21,577
4. F for Fake (1973)
PG | 89 min | Documentary
A documentary about fraud and fakery.
Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach | Stars: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach, Elmyr de Hory
Votes: 18,366
5. Sans Soleil (1983)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary, Drama
A woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Amilcar Cabral, Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda
Votes: 12,171 | Gross: $0.03M
6. News from Home (1976)
85 min | Documentary
Impersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
Director: Chantal Akerman | Star: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 2,849
7. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
R | 127 min | Documentary, Crime, History
An examination of the social costs of corporate interests pursuing profits at the expense of the public good.
Director: Michael Moore | Stars: Michael Moore, William Black, Jimmy Carter, Elijah Cummings
Votes: 43,903 | Gross: $14.36M
8. Naked Nations - Tribe Hong Kong (2024)
161 min | Drama
A group of homosexuals going through the harsh quarantine measured in Hong Kong.
Director: Scud | Stars: Adonis He, Stanley Kwan, Scud, Beatrice Wong
Votes: 9
9. The Image Book (2018)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Drama, Horror
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Luc Godard, Dimitri Basil, Jean-Pierre Gos, Anne-Marie Miéville
Votes: 3,001 | Gross: $0.09M
10. My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock (2022)
120 min | Documentary
A fictional Alfred Hitchcock narrates an explanation of some of the lesser known cinematic techniques he used in his movies, richly illustrated with clips from his entire 50-year career.
Director: Mark Cousins | Stars: John Wayne, Julie Andrews, Sean Connery, Paul Newman
Votes: 315
11. It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971)
67 min | Documentary, Drama
A harsh but deeply sympathetic sociological essay film about gay life in Berlin in a time of secrecy and oppression, with no diegetic sound and constant narration, following Daniel's unsatisfying immersion into gay society.
Director: Rosa von Praunheim | Stars: Bernd Feuerhelm, Berryt Bohlen, Ernst Kuchling, Volker Eschke
Votes: 577
12. This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy (2019)
TV-14 | 40 min | Documentary
Actor and former White House Associate Director of Public Engagement, Kal Penn, takes viewers around the world to meet key players behind some of the more serious and bizarre movements in today's economy.
Stars: Kal Penn, Shahid Shaikh, Adam Davidson, Lesley Wolff
Votes: 877
13. Letter from Siberia (1958)
62 min | Documentary
A witty examination of life and culture in Siberia.
Director: Chris Marker | Star: Georges Rouquier
Votes: 857
14. Le joli mai (1963)
Not Rated | 165 min | Documentary
Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's LE JOLI MAI (The Lovely Month of May) is a portrait of Paris and Parisians during May 1962, the first springtime of peace after the ceasefire with Algeria ... See full summary »
Directors: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme | Stars: Chris Marker, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 882 | Gross: $0.02M
15. Film socialisme (2010)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama
The passengers on a Mediterranean cruise enjoy their luxuries as a small family struggles with overbearing media attention.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Marc Stehlé, Agatha Couture, Mathias Domahidy, Quentin Grosset
Votes: 2,927 | Gross: $0.03M
16. Statues also Die (1953)
30 min | Documentary, Short
A documentary of black art.
Directors: Ghislain Cloquet, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais | Stars: Jean Négroni, François Mitterrand, Pope Pius XII, Sugar Ray Robinson
Votes: 1,379
17. [Censored] (2018)
63 min | Documentary, History
A unique 63 minute documentary which was entirely created using the banned motion picture film footage removed by the censors working at the "Australian Film Censorship Board" located in Sydney Australia, between 1951 and 1978.
Director: Sari Braithwaite | Star: Sari Braithwaite
Votes: 20
18. London (1994)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary
An inspiring tale through London by pictures narrated by Paul Scofield.
Director: Patrick Keiller | Stars: Paul Scofield, John Major, Norma Major, Dennis Skinner
Votes: 762
19. The Joy of Life (2005)
Not Rated | 65 min | Documentary, History
Beautifully composed landscape shots of San Francisco juxtaposed with voiceover detailing the emotional intricacies of the love affairs of a butch lesbian and the history of Golden Gate Bridge as the world's prime suicide location.
Director: Jenni Olson | Stars: Harry Dodge, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Votes: 121
20. Listen to Britain (1942)
Not Rated | 20 min | Documentary, Short
A depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
Directors: Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister | Stars: Leonard Brockington, Joseph Macleod, Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen
Votes: 1,856
21. Robinson in Space (1997)
82 min | Documentary
Robinson is commissioned to investigate the unspecified "problem of England." The narrator describes his seven excursions, with the unseen Robinson, around the country. They mainly ... See full summary »
Director: Patrick Keiller | Star: Paul Scofield
Votes: 391
22. Hasret: Sehnsucht (2015)
82 min | Documentary, Drama
A European director is commissioned to make a documentary about Istanbul. He starts to film its everyday life - but soon becomes drawn to the darker, more mysterious side of the city - its ... See full summary »
Director: Ben Hopkins | Stars: Isa Çelik, Bilge Güler, Serhat Saymadi, Ben Hopkins
Votes: 199
23. Wisdom Gone Wild (2022)
84 min | Documentary
A vibrant tender cine-poem; a filmmaker collaborates with her Nisei mother as they confront the painful curious reality of wisdom 'gone wild' in the shadows of dementia.
Director: Rea Tajiri
Votes: 22
24. Sagolandet (1988)
185 min | Documentary
When the daughter Johanna is born in 1983, Jan Troell tells the story about his childhood Sweden and how things were when he grow-up in the land of fairy tales and potential prosperity.
Director: Jan Troell | Stars: Ingvar Carlsson, Tage Erlander, Rollo May, Timo Nilsson
Votes: 218
25. Das ist ja das Leben selbst! (2012)
59 min | Drama, Romance
Director: Björn Last | Stars: Stefan Sandrock, Arijana Antunovic, Kaya Marie Möller, Karolina Lodyga
Votes: 64
26. Spare Time (1939)
15 min | Documentary, Short, Sport
A look at how industry workers spend their time when they are not at work.
Director: Humphrey Jennings | Star: Laurie Lee
Votes: 200
27. Robinson in Ruins (2010)
101 min | Documentary
A tour around England featuring images of nature and various industrialized and militarized settings.
Director: Patrick Keiller | Star: Vanessa Redgrave
Votes: 260
28. The Kids Play Russian (1993)
60 min | Drama
A famous French filmmaker is hired by a major Hollywood producer to make a documentary on the state of post-Cold War Russia. The filmmaker, though, subverts the project by stubbornly ... See full summary »
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: László Szabó, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernard Eisenschitz, André S. Labarthe
Votes: 173
29. Palmyra (2017)
90 min | Documentary
This passionate essay-film preserves the ISIS-destroyed antique city in unforgettable scenes taken before the war. But it gives also a critical account off the romantic discovery, ... See full summary »
Director: Hans Puttnies
Votes: 8
30. Film About a Father Who (2020)
74 min | Documentary
Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering ... See full summary »
Director: Lynne Sachs | Stars: Julia Buchwald-Sachs, Ira Sachs Sr., Adam Sachs, Dana Sachs
Votes: 60
31. Of Great Events and Ordinary People (1979)
65 min | Documentary
A cinéma vérité documentary about the elections in Paris which reflexively inverts in on itself.
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Pascal Bonitzer, Jean Baudrillard
Votes: 57
32. The Contact Enigma (2021)
52 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi
Three people become connected through mysterious circumstances involving electronic devices which spontaneously appeared in their world.
Director: Joel Shelton | Stars: Ben Hoilman, Julie Nutter, Jason Smalling, Lance Metcalf
Votes: 26
33. A Moon for My Father (2019)
73 min | Documentary
An Iranian filmmaker and her British sculptor partner read letters they have exchanged with each other about their lives and social conditions.
Directors: Mania Akbari, Douglas White | Stars: Mania Akbari, Douglas White
Votes: 36
34. Nikos Karouzos: O dromos gia to ear (2020)
101 min | Documentary, Biography
A frustrated researcher travels through Athens, prison islands, Stockholm and Kronstadt, and through time, to restore the collective memory of Greece's most underrated poet - a leftist, a Christian, an alcoholic - and his tumultuous times.
Director: Yannis Karpouzis | Star: Dimitris Katalifos
Votes: 20
35. Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena (2002)
311 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Bernard Pautrat, Raúl Ruiz, Malcolm Coad, Rainer Krause
Votes: 55
36. Dreams Rewired (2015)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, History, News
'Every age thinks it's the modern age...'
Directors: Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart, Thomas Tode | Star: Tilda Swinton
Votes: 139
37. Minotaur (2020)
64 min | Documentary
Experimental documentary essay film that spans 15 years of its author's life. Composed of various formats and footage originating in private archives, recordings from mobile phones, ... See full summary »
Director: Zulfikar Filandra
38. Beyond Tragedies (2022)
8 min | Documentary, Short, Drama
Recalling his childhood and relationship with his mother, a film student tries to understand the origin of his love for cinema and tragedies.
Director: Rafael Oliveira | Stars: Rafael Oliveira, Telma Sueli Oliveira
39. Die Hölle ist die Fiktion (2015)
38 min | Short
Director: Björn Last | Star: Marlene Denningmann
40. Schnittstelle (1995)
23 min | Short
In the documentary INTERFACE media artist and director Harun Farocki examines his own media work and explores what it means to work with existing imagery rather than producing one's own, ... See full summary »
Director: Harun Farocki | Star: Harun Farocki
Votes: 49
41. Visions (1982–1985)
Documentary
Stars: Tony Rayns, Stuart Hood, Chris Auty, Sally Potter
Votes: 8
42. Bootstrap Bubble (2022)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
Michael, a computer science student, learns about the potential 2023 recession from tech culture and news of Big Tech layoffs and instability. He's presented with an opportunity to change tech for the better--but at a risk.
Director: Andrew Cao | Stars: Benjamin Chipman, Niam Kothari, Michael Crout, Cade Spector
Votes: 16
43. 23 Kilometres (2015)
82 min | Documentary, Drama
On the Damascus Road in Lebanon's beautiful Bekaa Valley, an aging man with late-stage Parkinson's takes one last journey.
Director: Noura Kevorkian | Stars: Barkev Kevorkian, Noura Kevorkian, Serena Kevorkian, Lara K. Scherzer
Votes: 16
44. Lonesome Town (2013)
3 min | Documentary, Short, Adventure
A postcard of nostalgia, isolation, crowds, personal memory, and universal notions of fun.
Director: Grace Wang | Star: Grace Wang
45. Morena (2019)
14 min | Documentary, Short
Director: Charlie López | Stars: Nicole Espinoza, Susan Arroyo, Talia Gabriel, Imani Campbell
46. Time Goes by Like a Roaring Lion (2013)
79 min | Documentary
Directors: Philipp Hartmann, Jan Eichberg | Stars: Philipp Hartmann, Jan Eichberg, Andreas Bauch, Fanny Heink
Votes: 46
47. Life May Be (2014)
80 min | Documentary, Biography
An epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director, (Mark Cousins, the celebrated film maker and historian) and an Iranian actress and director (Mania Akbari, ... See full summary »
Directors: Mania Akbari, Mark Cousins | Stars: Mania Akbari, Mark Cousins
Votes: 76
48. Atmospheric Marginalia (2023)
Unrated | 75 min | Drama
Equal parts poetic essay film and family folklore, Atmospheric Marginalia is an enchanting probe into a pair of star-crossed lovers and misfits, the continuing bonds theory of grief, and the existence of an afterlife.
Director: Adam Stone | Star: Adam Stone
49. Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal (2002 TV Movie)
46 min | Documentary
Disneyland reviewed by a true poet of cinema, Arnaud des Pallières who narrates a disturbing journey into the simulacrum.
Director: Arnaud des Pallières | Stars: Émile Breton, Isabelle Poudevigne
Votes: 108
50. Sevilla rota (1978)
12 min | Documentary, Short, Drama
The cinema can show wonderful cities that do not exist, to move the citizen to recover them. The protagonist goes on a hallucinatory journey through an unreal Seville, even breaking the natural physical laws.
Director: Juan Sebastián Bollaín | Stars: Ariane Dubois, Fernando León, Roberto Luna, Nacho Rejano