7 funniest mock-documentaries

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

After the embodiment of the most daring ideas of the inventors and the exposure of the cunning frames of the falsifiers, it is difficult to understand which frames reflect reality. Makers of films in the genre of mocumentaries use this with success.

Science is developing by leaps and bounds. For centuries, existing fundamental theories are scattered into dust due to the discovery of some trifles. Researchers regularly refute the veracity of diaries, historical newsreels, and the honesty of interviewers. However…

Being serious about anything in this world is a fatal mistake.

Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"

Falsification of data is not necessarily a sign of something bad. In some films of the mocumentari genre, facts are deliberately perverted, and lies are brought to the point of absurdity in order to make the viewer laugh. Here are seven of the funniest mock-documentaries ever.

This is Spinal Tap

• USA, 1984.
• Duration: 82 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.
• "Kinopoisk": 7, 0.

A film about the waning heavy metal band Spinal Tap. The creators wanted to make fun of the pretentious behavior of real musicians: Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and the like. But the audience did not understand that it was only a satire, and took the picture for a documentary.

The most interesting thing is that the fictional group after the release of the film became real and released three albums. Over time, the picture received a well-deserved success. But the idea clearly did not work out as planned.

Real ghouls

• New Zealand, 2014.
• Duration: 85 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 6.
• "Kinopoisk": 7, 4.

A parody story about the difficult life of four vampires in New Zealand. For hundreds of years, they have not learned how to adapt to society. But now there are many social phobes among ordinary people. Therefore, vampires manage to hide their secrets and even find friends.

The film was well received by critics for its fresh look and witty disclosure of the vampire theme. The European and American press unanimously called him the best comedy of the year.

A man bites a dog

• Belgium, 1992.
• Duration: 95 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 6.
• "Kinopoisk": 7, 2.

Ben is an intellectually developed young man of fine mental organization, sensitive to his mother. And he is also a serial killer. His life was chosen for the plot of a documentary film. The film crew follows on his heels, recording his crimes and their satirical comments.

The characteristic absurd style of Belgian cinematography, the expressive performance of Benoit Pulvoord and two "Palm Branches" - this film is rightfully considered a cult in the genre of mocumentari.

I'm still here

• USA, 2010.
• Duration: 108 minutes
• IMDb: 6, 2.
• "Kinopoisk": 6, 5.

In 2008, actor Joaquin Phoenix announced that he was leaving Hollywood for hip-hop. He worked for a whole year in the music field, and Casey Affleck filmed it. It was actually a study of the popularity and interactions of celebrities, media, and viewers.

Several times they tried to expose the filmmakers, but many believed Joaquin Phoenix. Even in a stellar environment.

My winnipeg

• Canada, 2007.
• Duration: 80 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 6.
• "Kinopoisk": 7, 3.

A film in which Guy Maddin makes a film about himself making a film. Where reality ends and fiction begins is difficult to understand. It might be worth reading for this, which the creator of the painting released two years later.

In any case, recursive surrealism is aesthetic pleasure even without deep understanding. According to the director, the film is a "documentary fantasy" in which the history of a person, a civil tragedy and a mystical hypothesis are mixed.

Borate

• UK, 2006.
• Duration: 84 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 3.
• "Kinopoisk": 6, 6.

Adventures of the Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiev, invented by the popular comedian Sasha Baron Cohen. Although the jokes there are vulgar and anti-Semitic, the film was a huge success with audiences and critics, was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan did not take the picture too positively. But Sacha Baron Cohen chose to laugh it off. But Vladimir Klitschko, who turned out to be Borat's fellow countryman, having met a comedian in a restaurant, angrily threatened him with reprisals, which pretty much frightened the London actor. But luckily for Cohen, it was just a joke.

Zelig

• USA, 1983.
• Duration: 76 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 8.
• "Kinopoisk": 7, 9.

Without this picture, the selection of mocumentari would be incomplete. Woody Allen's pseudo-documentary classic. The hero of the picture is an inconspicuous American. But his abilities are phenomenal: when Zelig communicates with someone, he begins to copy facial expressions, gestures and intonation until he completely transforms into the interlocutor.

25 years after the film's release, a similar behavior in psychiatry was named.