Some mockumentary inspiration!
Simple enough to define, a mockumentary is essentially just a documentary… except it is fake. Using the same set-up as a regular documentary, with to-camera interviews and realistically captured footage, the difference is that everyone involved in making the project knows it is fiction.
It is a set-up that some of the best TV comedies of all time have used to great effect – The Office, Parks & Rec, Modern Family – but it has also had several fantastic entries on the big screen, too.
The reason we’re talking about it here is because People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan use the format in their brand new movie, with the members of Kurupt FM heading to Japan when they discover that one of their songs has become a national hit there.
People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan is in Irish cinemas right now. Check out the trailer right here…
Clip via Universal Ireland
To celebrate the release of People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan, we wanted to take a look back over the very best mockumentaries of all time.
We’ve successfully managed to whittle it down to just seven, all of which are definitely worth checking out…
7. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
Probably the world’s introduction to Taika Waititi, who co-writes, co-directs and co-stars in this movie about a group of vampires in New Zealand who all share a flat and attempt to deal with the modern world. Filled with the kind of off-kilter, completely random humour we all know and love Waititi for.
6. DROP DEAD GORGEOUS
Completely overlooked when it was released in 1999, this dark comedy has generated a massive cult following since then. Amy Adams, Denise Richards, Kirsten Dunst and more star as potential pageant queens in a local championship, but their fellow contestants all start dying in increasingly suspicious ways…
5. POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING
Another movie that was slept on when released and has since developed a huge following, Andy Samberg plays a former boy band member who goes solo, only for his career to crash and burn. With songs provided by Samberg’s musical act The Lonely Island and co-starring the likes of Sarah Silverman, Maya Rudolph and Tim Meadows, it is worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before.
4. BEST IN SHOW
Director Christopher Guest knows his way around the mockumentary genre, having also given us Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration, but we’ve got to give the recommendation to Best In Show. Set in the bizarrely competitive world of dog shows, it features a shockingly impressive line-up of hilarious deadpan comedians (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Parker Posey, John Michael Higgins, Michael McKean), all at each other’s throats in order to get their pooches to first place.
3. DISTRICT 9
Yep, you might have forgotten that this sci-fi blockbuster was actually a mockumentary, but while we usually associate the genre with comedy, that isn’t always the case. Sharlto Copley’s government agent spends much of the start of the movie talking to a “documentary crew” as he investigates the alien shanty town, before things go full explosions and mechsuits.
2. BORAT
Or, to give the movie it’s full official title, Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Just like that title, it is bonkers, weird, over-the-top and hilarious. Sacha Baron Cohen goes all out making this “documentary” for the Kazahkstan national broadcaster, dropping himself into some properly jaw-dropping scenarios.
1. THIS IS SPINAL TAP
Nothing else could’ve taken the top spot. The directorial debut of Rob Reiner (who would go on to make Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, Misery, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men), it tells the story of British metal band Spinal Tap and a documentary crew that follows them around for their disastrous American tour. Legitimately one of the greatest comedies of all time.
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