Top 11 Mockumentaries

Fake Documentaries, that's what this list is about!

There's a long list of titles I left off that come to mind: The Blair Witch Project, The Rutles: All You Need Is cash, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Borat, CSA, CB4, Comic Book: The Movie, I'm Still Here, Waiting for Guffman, and What We Do In The Shadows...

Those are all quality films, but this list reflects the ones that resonated with me the longest. In no particular order, these are the mockumentaries I recommend to you:

The Making of : 'And God Spoke'

The best fake documentary about the worst movie production of the Bible ever.

Directed by the producer of Hell's Kitchen? What?

Soupy Sales as himself/Moses and Lou Ferrigno as himself/Cain. Also be on the lookout for Andy Dick and Chris Kattan.

Troll Hunter

Norwegian film students documenting bear attacks near the Arctic Circle end up chased, ground to a fine pulp and eaten by Scandinavian folklore. Subtitled.

Bob Roberts

Tim Robbins' directorial debut based on his SNL short film satirizing Conservative politics. Great music.

Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, John Cusack, Peter Gallagher, ALAN RICKMAN, Susan Sarandon, James Spader, Fred Ward, David Strathiirn, Helen Hunt, Jack Black, Fisher Stevens, Bob Balaban, and Jeremy Piven play in this homage to a Bob Dylan documentary.

I don't know how Tim Robbins could ever look Lorne Michaels in the eye after this.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant contestants begin to die in suspicious ways.

This was fun. Admit it.

With Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, Allison Janney, Denise Richards, Kirstie Alley, Amy Adams, Brittany Murphy, Will Sasso, Nora Dunn and Adam West.

BackPage, The Movie: The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Satire

"If nothing else, it will make a great resume line." - Famous last words.
A group project researching call girls goes bad. College students again. Also has music. No nudity*.

Do you see how most of these stories are about filmmakers? They're the only characters vain enough to be pointing cameras at themselves all the time until something interesting happens.

*projectionist-Tyler Durden

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn

The standard tale of a doomed Hollywood blockbuster movie production.

Widely reviewed as the worst film ever made. BUT, if you've ever been near performers or around media production, you will see how truly ridiculous this film really is. Ridiculously true.

Starring Eric Idle, Ryan O'Neal, Coolio, Chuck D, Richard Jeni, Sandra Bernhard, Harvey Weinstein, MC Lyte, and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Cameos as themselves by Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Chan, Robert Evans, Robert Shapiro, Shane Black, Joe Eszterhas, Larry King, Dominick Dunne, and Billy Bob Thornton.

David Holzman's Diary

The first mockumentary. Directed by Jim McBride. Starring L.M. Kit Carson.

David documents his life, his gear, his flirty neighbor, his breakup with his girlfriend, et al. Every person who owns a camera has the exact same reaction as David does when they get their first wide angle lens.

"They stole my equipment. I guess that's the end of my movie."

From Wikipedia, quoting early reviews that clearly had no language to describe it: "It may be considered a docufiction: paradoxically, despite the film is in fact a false autobiography and documentary, a fairy tale, it represents the filmmaker's life and experience and also the world in which the action takes place with documentary realist techniques. The mirror metaphor is explicit in the film as code for reality."

Man Bites Dog

A Belgian film crew follows a serial killer and get swept up in his world. Subtitled.

Nobody told me it was a fictional when clips of it were screened in my class. I am still so very disturbed. The flute was rented.

Who's The Caboose?

Young improv comedians in love trade Manhattan for LA only to become entrapped by pilot season.

Co-written and directed by Sam Seder and starring himself and Sarah Silverman in their film debut.

With David Cross, Andy Dick, Laura Silverman, Laura Kightlinger, Chuck Sklar, H. Jon Benjamin, Andy Kindler, Mark Cohen, Kathy Griffin, Leo Allen, Marc Maron and Todd Barry.

This Is Spinal Tap

I know this list is ranked in no particular order, but you know this had be number eleven.

Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Bruno Kirby, Fran Drescher, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Ed Begley, Jr. Howard Hesseman, Paul Shortino, Paul Shaffer, Anjelica Houston, and Fred Willard.