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Movies like Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

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Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)

Documentary
105 min
NR age guide
★ 6.9/10 from 43 ratings

Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.

Directed byFenton Bailey, Randy Barbato

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What to watch after Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

A feature-film shortlist from the cached Film Atlas engine. The interactive map may include more titles or newer results. These are similarity matches, not a guarantee of age suitability.

01
Welcome to Chechnya

Strong story similarity

2020 · 107 min · Documentary

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This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
- shared themes: gay theme and lgbt
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02
Disclosure

Strong story similarity

2020 · 108 min · Documentary

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An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
- a closely matched era
Explore movies like Disclosure
03
Laerte-se

Strong story similarity

2017 · 100 min · Documentary

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In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
- shared theme: lgbt
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04
The Red Pill

Strong story similarity

2016 · 118 min · Documentary

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When a feminist filmmaker sets out to document the mysterious and polarizing world of the Men’s Rights Movement, she begins to question her own beliefs. Chronicling Cassie Jaye’s journey exploring an alternate perspective on gender equality, power and privilege.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
- a closely matched era
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05
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Strong story similarity

2008 · 120 min · Documentary

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Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
Explore movies like Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
06
Power

Strong story similarity

2024 · 88 min · Documentary

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Driven to maintain social order, policing in the United States has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, American policing embodies one word: power.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
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07
LA Originals

Similar atmosphere

2020 · 92 min · Documentary

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Photographer Estevan Oriol and artist Mister Cartoon turned their Chicano roots into gritty art, impacting street culture, hip hop and beyond.
Why it connects
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
- a closely matched era
Explore movies like LA Originals
08
David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating

Strong story similarity

2010 · 90 min · Documentary

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From Vogue magazine fashion photographer to filmmaker, painter and sculptor, Bailey is the working-class Londoner who befriended the stars, married his muses (Jean Shrimpton, Catherine Deneuve, Marie Helvin) and captures the spirit and elegance of his times with his refreshingly simple approach and razor-sharp eye. He is also the man whose life and work inspired one of the cult movies of the sixties, Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, and who has constantly travelled the globe either with the most beautiful models or chronicling the contemporary reality of Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Vietnam, Afghanistan and other countries with ground-breaking reportages. Above all, Bailey is a romantic with a delightful sense of humour approaching his 73rd year and showing no sign of slowing up. Director Jérôme de Missolz has created an engaging portrait of this very private man who bared the soul of the swinging sixties and seventies with his photographs and films.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
Explore movies like David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating
09
BRATS

Strong story similarity

2024 · 92 min · Documentary

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In the 1980s, Andrew McCarthy was part of a young generation of actors who were set to take over Hollywood after a string of successful teen movies. However, when the New York magazine cover story in 1985 dubs them the Brat Pack, stars in the making suddenly find themselves losing control over the trajectory of their careers. Now, almost forty years later, McCarthy looks to reconnect with peers and co-stars so that together they can reflect on their respective legacies.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
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10
Unknown Beauty: François Nars

Strong story similarity

2023 · 88 min · Documentary

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Photographer and make-up artist François Nars reveals his visually stunning inner world in this feature-length documentary by filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland. Mr. Nars takes us on a tour of the fashions, designers and models of '70s Paris, the underground of '90s New York, and the timeless world of cinema, filled with actors, actresses, and directors who have shaped his visual aesthetics.
Why it connects
- strong story and style similarity
- strong genre and movie-style overlap
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How these movie recommendations work

Film Atlas combines story similarity, movie metadata and TMDB relationship signals. Shared studios can support a match; audience and film-format safeguards help avoid poor fits. The explanations above come from the engine’s recorded evidence—not invented reviews.

A similarity match is different from a quality rating. Use the map to explore the connections and decide what fits your mood.

Start with Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures