Documentaries date back to at least Nanook of the North in 1922. Mockumentaries have been around almost as long, with early examples including Luis Buñuel's 1933 Land Without Bread and Orson Welles's infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938. Some people even mistook the latter for a real news report.
Mockumentaries developed more in the '60s and '70s with films like A Hard Day's Night and David Holzmann's Diary, before coming into their own in the '80s. This was the era of The Atomic Café, Zelig, The Gods Must Be Crazy, and This is Spinal Tap. The genre has continued to produce terrific movies and series in recent years like The Office, Documentary Now! Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and more.
'A Mighty Wind' (2003) - IMDb: 7.2/10
A Mighty Wind is a music mockumentary directed by Christopher Guest and co-written with Eugene Levy. It follows a trio of musicians who were formerly part of a folk band called the Folksmen as they reunite for one more concert. Through these characters, it pokes fun at the folk revival of the 1960s.
Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer play the Folksmen; characters which they first performed on Saturday Night Live in 1984. In the film, they are joined by other frequent Guest collaborators Catherine O'Hara, Jane Lynch, and Jennifer Coolidge. Highlights include the parody songs written by Guest and the dead-on imitations of '60s folk rockers.
'Borat' (2006) - IMDb: 7.3/10
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Shape-shifter Sacha Baron Cohen has crafted so many characters over the years that it's hard to keep track. Ali G is probably the best-written, and Who Is America features his best acting, but none made as big of an impact as the first iteration of his Kazakhstani journalist.
Borat was a pop-cultural event and introduced dozens of memorable moments and quotes to the zeitgeist: his infatuation with Pamela Anderson, his rendition of the Kazakh national anthem to an unimpressed crowd at a rodeo, and, of course, the man-kini. It's truly an unhinged, irreverent send-up of early 2000s society. Very nice.
'Waiting for Guffman' (1996) - IMDb: 7.4/10
Another film by Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman follows a community theater group putting on a play about the history of their small town. Director Corky (Guest) arranges for a Broadway producer to attend their performance, and convinces the cast that it could be their ticket to stardom.
The idiosyncratic cast members struggle to deal with the pressure, and plenty of absurd interactions ensue. Once again, the ridiculous songs provide many of the movie's funniest moments. The cast is also suitably over-the-top and have plenty of ridiculous throw-away lines, like when one big fish in the small town of Blaine, Missouri says, "I know how the Kennedys must feel.'
'Man Bites Dog' (1992) - IMDb: 7.4/10
A film crew follows a serial killer, recording his crimes for their documentary. They begin as neutral (if morally dubious) observers but eventually become accomplices. The New York Times called it "a grisly sick joke of a film".
Man Bites Dog is a thoroughly meta black comedy, directed by Belgian filmmakers Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde. Poelvoorde also plays the charismatic, narcissistic killer Ben. Edgar Wright is a fan of the film and included it among his 1000 favorite movies.
'Best in Show' (2000) - IMDb: 7.4/10
Christopher Guest's domination of this list continues. This time, he trains his eye on the world of dog shows and the people who take them way too seriously. Best in Show follows several eccentric dog owners in the days leading up to an important Philadelphia dog show. The pressure takes its toll and the characters' underlying issues and conflicts bubble to the surface.
The film boasts too many great performances to list them all: there's Eugene Levy and Catherine O-Hara as a married couple using their pets as a distraction from the problems in their relationship, Michael McKean of Better Call Saul as a gay man devoted to his Shit Tzus, dog show commentator Fred Willard, and Guest himself as Harlan Pepper, an oddball who frequently talks for his bloodhound.
'A Hard Day's Night' (1964) - IMDb: 7.5/10
This musical comedy follows 36 hours in the lives of The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. They get up to various shenanigans and are chased by rabid fans. It's a fun vehicle for the Beatles' music and a snapshot of the young musicians at a pivotal moment in their ascent.
The film packs a lot of memorable scenes into its lean 87-minute runtime, so it's no surprise that it was a box office smash, and received two Oscar nominations, including for Best Original Screenplay. It's since been recognized by Time and the British Film Institute as one of the most influential musical films of all time.
'Forgotten Silver' (1995) - IMDb: 7.5/10
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Forgotten Silver is a TV movie directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes that recounts the life story of fictional New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie (Thomas Robins). According to the film, McKenzie pioneered several cinematic inventions (often by accident). Peter Jackson (playing himself) presents "clips" taken from McKenzie's films.
The deadpan interviews with industry figures like Sam Neill and Leonard Maltin are great, as are the scenes from the Biblical epic McKenzie reportedly filmed in the forests of New Zealand. Forgotten Silver makes for a fascinating glimpse into Jackson's head at that point in his career, when the mega-success of Lord of the Rings was still several years away.
'What We Do in the Shadows (2014) - IMDb: 7.6/10
Taika Waititi teamed up with Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Concords for this comedy about vampire housemates living together in modern Wellington. One of them turns a young man named Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a bloodsucker, but Nick struggles to adjust to his new unlife. The plot escalates from there to include vampire hunters, zombies, and unusually polite werewolves.
What We Do in the Shadows is easily one of the best vampire spoofs ever made. It includes references and parodies to most of the major movies, from Nosferatu, The Lost Boys, and Interview with the Vampire to Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even Twilight. The American series based on the film would find a larger audience, but the original movie retains its unique, eccentric appeal.
'District 9' (2009) - IMDb: 7.9/10
District 9 takes place in an alternate timeline where an alien spacecraft appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982. The government confines the alien population aboard the ship to one of the city's slums. Things get messy when bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) begins transforming into an alien.
Director Neil Blomkamp uses the found footage format alongside fictional interviews and news clips to create an immersive and authentic world. It makes for an entertaining (and whip-smart) commentary on contemporary South Africa, and divisions in the world generally. Not to mention, the 'prawns' designed by Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop are among the most memorable movie aliens of the 21st century.
'This is Spinal Tap' (1984) - 7.9/10
Stand By Me might be Rob Reiner's masterpiece, but his debut film remains his funniest. It's a hilarious music mockumentary (one of the first of its kind) about a fictional English metal band on their American tour. Even more impressively, the lead actors are all Americans putting on killer British accents.
The band members are spoiled, egotistical, immature, and constantly bickering, but so goofy that they just can't help being likable. They have scores of laugh-out-loud moments together. There's the scene with the amp that goes up to 11; the vegetables they stuff down their trousers for aesthetic reasons, the embarrassingly small Stonehenge, their album with a pitch-black cover, an ill-fated riff on the Beatles' White Album. "It's such a fine line between stupid [...] and clever," the characters muse at one point, with all the gravity of a philosophical realization.