Movies Like Bukowski: Born Into This (2003)

Bukowski: Born Into This is a 2003 documentary film from John Dullaghan with a MovieMagicScore of 6.7/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Barfly and Trees Lounge.

Documentary

Barfly

1987

Downtrodden writer Henry and distressed goddess Wanda aren't exactly husband and wife: they're wedded to their bar stools. But, they like each other's company—and Barfly captures their giddy, gin-soaked attempts to make a go of life on the skids.

6.9

MagicScore

Trees Lounge

1996

Tommy has lost his job, his love and his life. He lives in a small apartment above the Trees Lounge, a bar which he frequents along with a few other regulars without lives. He gets a job driving an ice cream truck and ends up getting involved with the seventeen-year-old niece of his ex-girlfriend. This gets him into serious trouble with her father.

6.9

MagicScore

Inside Moves

1980

After a failed suicide attempt leaves him partially crippled, Rory begins spending a lot of time at a neighborhood bar full of interesting misfits. When Jerry the bartender suddenly finds himself playing basketball for the Golden State Warriors, Rory and the rest of the bar regulars hope his success will provide a lift to their sagging spirits. Will Jerry forget his friends? What about his junkie hooker girlfriend and her pimp?

6.2

MagicScore

The Iceman Cometh

1973

Set in 1912, inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props everyone up with free drinks and spirited stories of his travels. However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality.

5.9

MagicScore

Shakes the Clown

1991

Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control.

5.4

MagicScore

Skin. Like. Sun.

2009

Real-life young couple Wim and Floor spend an afternoon in the sunwashed rooms of a crumbling home in Belgium. In a unique twist, this artistic erotic documentary is edited in nearly real-time. In the slowness, we get the build, the sweetness, and the sexiness. Forget about fingersnapping fast editing. Slow is where it’s at.

6.1

MagicScore

Hot Girls Wanted

2015

A first-ever look at the realities of the professional “amateur” porn world and the steady stream of 18-to-19-year old girls entering into it.

6.1

MagicScore

Shadow World

2016

A detailed investigation into the political and economic interests that, since the beginning of the 20th century, have pulled the strings of the arms trade, hidden in the shadows, feeding the shameful corruption of politicians and government officials and promoting a state of permanent war throughout the world, while they cynically asked for a lasting and universal peace.

7.4

MagicScore

Portrait of a Garden

2015

In a historical vegetable garden on a Dutch estate, the 85 year-old pruning master and the gardener tend to the espaliers. As they prune, the men chat about food, the weather, the world and they share their knowledge of horticulture. Fifteen years they have spent working on the pear arbour. Will it finally close over this year?

TBR

MagicScore

#10

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine

2017

A look at the rise and fall of the subversive skateboarding magazine Big Brother, which rose to prominence in the mid-1990s and had a profound effect on the skating subculture with its unfiltered approach.

7.1

MagicScore

#11

The Rest I Make Up

2018

Maria Irene Fornes is “America's Great Unknown Playwright.” When she stops writing due to dementia, a friendship with a young writer reignites her visionary creative spirit, triggering a film collaboration that picks up where the pen left off.

10.0

MagicScore

#12

Perú: Tesoro Escondido

2017

Peru is a country steeped in cultural traditions that stretch back more than 1,000 years. But it's also a land of surprising natural riches.

7.6

MagicScore

#13

The Colonel's Stray Dogs

2021

In 1981, seven Libyan exiles formed the core opposition group to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Thirty years later, they are back to their country only to inherit the mess he left. The film is an intricate blend of rare first-hand accounts, propaganda archival material turned on its head, evocative cinematography and an untold history of a country.

TBR

MagicScore

#14

The Elephant Queen

2019

Embark on an epic journey of family, courage, and coming home in this feature-length documentary. Join Athena, the majestic matriarch, as she leads her elephant herd across an unforgiving African landscape filled with vibrant wildlife.

7.2

MagicScore

#15

Deception by Design

2015

Artists and the military might seem strange bedfellows, but painters, sculptors, photographers and set designers have played a critical but little-known role in modern warfare. Despite resistance and often ridicule, artists were recruited in both the first and second world wars to devise ways to protect troops and deceive the enemy by using their artistic skills and intimate knowledge of perspective, illusion, shadow and movement. Inspired by nature and influenced by the modernist art movements of their day, camoufleurs created bizarre decoys, dummy tanks and elaborate sets to conceal military installations. They painted thousands of ships in bold, arresting stripes and patterns to confuse enemy submarines. When war went hi-tech there was no room for artists, but over the past few decades artists have reclaimed camouflage for their work.

5.0

MagicScore

#16

Fly Rocket Fly

2018

A long time ago, years before Elon Musk reached for the stars with his Space X project, a young man had his own childhood dream about a journey into space. This documentary tells the fantastic story of German astrophysicist Lutz Kayser who developed the world's first private space company. He did this under the curious and concerned eyes of secret services around the world.

7.3

MagicScore

#17

The Gardener

2018

Created over 75 years and three generations, Les Quatre Vents stands as an enchanted place of beauty and surprise, a horticultural masterpiece of the 21st century. See how Frank Cabot gave birth to one of the greatest gardens in the world.

7.2

MagicScore

#18

The Antifascists

2017

A low-intensity war is being fought on the streets of Europe and the aim is on fascism. This critically acclaimed documentary takes us behind the masks of the militants called antifascists. In 2013 a group of armed nazis attacks a peaceful demonstration in Stockholm where several people are injured. In Greece the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn becomes the third largest in the election and in Malmö the activist Showan Shattak and his friends are attacked by a group of nazis with knives and he ends up in a coma. In this portrait of the antifascists in Greece and Sweden we get to meet key figures that explain their view on their radical politics but also to question the level their own violence and militancy.

7.0

MagicScore

#19

25,000 Miles to Glory

2015

A sports wanderlust by three guys to visit every NFL stadium in the iconic vehicle that has inspired countless road trips and captivated the world a split window VW Bus named Hail Mary. Three guys one 1967 VW Bus and 25,000 miles of American roadways. Its about people, the community of NFL fans and VW enthusiasts alike. It's about emotional ties to teams bizarre infatuation and just down right love for the sport. The film is a 25,000 mile journey to glory documenting the human spirit through freedom friendship sports and America.

TBR

MagicScore

#20

Ants on a Shrimp

2017

One of the world's best restaurants, the Copenhagen-based NOMA and its renowned chef-owner René Redzepi relocate the restaurant and its entire staff to Tokyo.

7.2

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Bukowski: Born Into This?

The top films similar to Bukowski: Born Into This by MovieMagicScore are Barfly (6.9), Trees Lounge (6.9), Inside Moves (6.2). Each shares documentary themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Bukowski: Born Into This worth watching?

Bukowski: Born Into This holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.7/10 from 51 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Bukowski: Born Into This?

Bukowski: Born Into This (2003) is a documentary film directed by John Dullaghan, starring Charles Bukowski, Harry Dean Stanton, Sean Penn.

Where can I find more recommendations like Bukowski: Born Into This?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more documentary recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Barfly Movies like Trees Lounge Movies like Inside Moves Movies like The Iceman Cometh Movies like Shakes the Clown Movies like Skin. Like. Sun.

About movies like Bukowski: Born Into This

This ranked list pairs Bukowski: Born Into This (2003), a documentary film from John Dullaghan, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Charles Bukowski take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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