This Is Spinal Tap is one of the most quotable films in cinema history and defined the genre of film known today as the mockumentary.
Rob Reiner’s 1984 directorial debut about an aging English metal band chronicled fame, groupies and their fateful tour and would set the bar for the style of film to satirize a subject depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. They often use the conventions of traditional documentaries, such as interviews and narration, to tell a fictional or exaggerated story.
Christopher Guest, who portrayed Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap, would go on to direct and star with an incredible ensemble cast in many of his productions that included Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge in the classic mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration and Mascots.
Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi would take the genre and push its boundaries with the 2014 horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows, about three flat-sharing vampires from Auckland, New Zealand. Writer-star Sacha Baron Cohen tapped into the market with 2006’s Borat, followed by Bruno in 2009. He reprised his titular character from the earlier pic for the controversial follow-up Borat Subsequent Moviefilm in 2020.
Not all mockumentaries are meant to be comedic in nature, and some have teetered on black comedy like the shocking Man Bites Dog (1992) and the politically charged Punishment Park (1971), which portrays a dystopian take on the criminal system. It was filmed during the Nixon era as a faux documentary covering a group of prisoners who partook in antiwar protests and are given the option of serving prison time or entering “punishment park,” with detrimental results.
Scroll through the list of classic mockumentaries from The Beatles 1964 classic A Hard Day’s Night to The Gods Must Be Crazy, District 9 and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
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THEATER CAMP, 2023
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures / Everett Collection Dir. Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman, starring Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Ayo Edebiri & Amy Sedaris
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MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, 2022
Image Credit: A24 Dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp, voices by Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp and Isabella Rossellini
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BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM, 2020
Image Credit: Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Jason Woliner, starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova
Full title: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, 2018
Image Credit: Netflix /Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Orson Welles (released postumously), starring John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar.
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WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, 2014
Image Credit: The Orchard / Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, starring Clement, Waititi, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Jonny Brugh
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I’M STILL HERE, 2010
Image Credit: Magnolia Pictures Dir. Casey Affleck, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Antony Langdon and Carey Perloff
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BRUNO, 2009
Image Credit: Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Larry Charles, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale and Chibundu Orukwowu
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DISTRICT 9, 2009
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Neill Blomkamp, starring Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope and Nathalie Boltt
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BORAT, 2006
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox. All rights reserved/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Larry Charles, starring Sacha Baron Cohen
Full title: Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, 2006
Image Credit: Warner Independent Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Christopher Guest, starring Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Christopher Guest, Jennifer Coolidge, Ricky Gervais and Larry Miller
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A MIGHTY WIND, 2003
Image Credit: Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Christopher Guest, starring Guest, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey and Chris Moynihan
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BEST IN SHOW, 2000
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Christopher Guest, starring Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch
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DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, 1999
Image Credit: New Line Cinema/ Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Michael Patrick Jann, starring Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin anmd Allison Janney
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WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, 1996
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Christopher Guest, starring Guest, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey and Eugene Levy
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FEAR OF A BLACK HAT, 1994
Image Credit: Samuel Goldwyn Films/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Rusty Cundieff, starring Mark Christopher Lawrence, Larry B. Scott and Cundieff
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BOB ROBERTS, 1992
Image Credit: Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Tim Robbins, starring Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito and Alan Rickman
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MAN BITES DOG, 1992
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dirs. Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde, starring Poelvoorde, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert and Hector Pappaert
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THIS IS SPINAL TAP, 1984
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Rob Reiner, starring Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Reiner
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ZELIG, 1983
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Woody Allen, starring Allen, Mia Farrow and Patrick Horgan
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THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY, 1980
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Jamie Uys, starring N!Xau, Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo
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REAL LIFE, 1979
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Albert Brooks, starring Robert Stirrat, Lisa Urette, Charles Grodin and Brooks
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PUNISHMENT PARK, 1971
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Peter Watkins, starring Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman and Carmen Argenziano
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THE CLOWNS, 1971
Image Credit: Evertt Collection Dir. Federico Fellini, starring Riccardo Billi, Gigi Reder and Tino Scotti
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TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN, 1969
Image Credit: Everett Collection Dir. Woody Allen, starring Allen, Janet Margolin and Marcel Hillaire
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A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, 1964
Image Credit: United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection Dir. Richard Lester, starring George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney
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