The Best No Wave Movies Ever Made
“What are the best No Wave Movies?” We looked at 122 of the top No Wave films, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 30 films, all appearing on 2 or more “Best No Wave” movie lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 75+ movies, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 30 Best No Wave Movies Ever Made
30 .) Beauty Becomes the Beast directed by Vivienne Dick
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Sense Of Cinema
Directed by Vivienne Dick.
29 .) Born in Flames directed by Lizzie Borden
Lists It Appears On:
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
In a future where a socialist government gains power, a group of women decides to organize and rebel.
28 .) Buffalo ’66 (1998) directed by Vincent Gallo
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB 2
- Indie Pix Films
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
27 .) Cornella: The Story of a Burning Bush directed by Kembra Pfahler
Lists It Appears On:
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
Kembra Pfahler’s contribution to the 1980s downtown performance art movement
26 .) Downtown ’81 directed by Edo Bertoglio
Lists It Appears On:
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
The film is a day in the life of a young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into.
25 .) G-Man directed by Beth B
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Sense Of Cinema
An exploration of social schizophrenia in which terrorists consult their mothers before planting bombs, and the head of the New York City bomb squad succumbs to his dominatrix.
24 .) Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain (1983) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
From the warped mind of underground auteur Nick Zedd comes this campy horrorfest that follows screwy scientist Dr. Frankenberry as he attempts to resurrect the dead, aided by his hunchbacked minion. Adding to the twisted fun are Donna Death as bloodsucking temptress Scumbalina, Richard Hell as punk-rock cowboy crooner the Rawhide Kid and Tyler Smith as Frankenberry’s monstrous two-headed creation, Formaldehyde Man.
23 .) Goodbye 42nd Street (1986) directed by Richard Kern
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Mad Museum
Shots of walking down 42nd Street showing storefronts including everything from Texas Fried Chicken to 25cent porn arcades.
22 .) Guérillière Talks directed by Vivienne Dick
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Westword
21 .) I Hate You Now (1985) directed by Richard Kern
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
About a deformed guy and his girlfriend.
20 .) Mommy Mommy Where’s My Brain (1986) directed by Jon Moritsugu
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
Part AC/DC, part Jacques Derrida. An experimental film made as a response to the critical theory aspects of the filmmakers degree and academic film criticism.
19 .) Permanent Vacation directed by Jim Jarmusch
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Westword
In downtown Manhattan, a twenty-something boy whose Father is not around and whose Mother is institutionalized, is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for more meaning in his life and meets a few characters along the way.
18 .) Police State (1987) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
Zedd is minding his business, when he is stopped by a cop who accuses him of being a junkie. After a short argument he is beaten and dragged to the police station. At the station he is interrogated by a detective (Rockets Redglare) and the police chief. After being beaten and tortured several more times, Nick Zedd’s character mutilates himself with some hedge cutters.
17 .) She Had Her Gun All Ready directed by Vivienne Dick
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Sense Of Cinema
Vivienne Dick’s second film has at its centre two of the ‘subjects’ of her first film Guerillere Talks. Moving from a kitchen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the film explores the dynamic between a complacent, almost catatonic Pat Place and the demonic, aggressive Lydia Lunch, ending with a showdown at the rollercoaster on Coney Island. The film utilises a linear narrative which is counterbalanced by an impressionistic view of New York
16 .) Stray Dogs (1985) directed by Richard Kern
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
A fan tries to get an artist’s attention by literally coming apart.
15 .) The Blank Generation directed by Amos Poe, Ivan Král
Lists It Appears On:
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
The cream of New York new wave/punk filmed live at CBGB’s when the scene was just beginning. Includes performances by Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Heartbreakers, the Shirts, Wayne County, the Marbles, the Dolls, Miamis, Harry Toledo, and the Tuff Darts (w/Robert Gordon).
14 .) The Bogus Man (1980) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
A look at a conspiracy involving the United States president.
13 .) The Foreigner directed by Amos Poe
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Westword
A French special op suffers an existential crisis as he wanders New York City in search of a mission and the requisite connections.
12 .) The Offenders (1980) directed by Beth B
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
A punk savage satire about a kidnapping.
11 .) The Right Side of My Brain (1985) directed by Richard Kern
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
The sexual misadventures of a sexually insane girl.
10 .) The Wild World of Lydia Lunch (1983) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
A filmmaker follows his girlfriend around London with a camera featuring narration from a cassette tape she made for him to break-up the relationship.
9 .) Underground USA directed by Eric Mitchell
Lists It Appears On:
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
The Sunset Blvd. of underground cinema, and a suitably ambivalent retrospect on the star-game casualties of New York’s upper depths, with Patti Astor statuesquely hysterical as a 20-year-old Norma Desmond, made up to recall Edie Sedgwick and surrounded by Warhol’s lost children. We’ve been here before, but without the hindsight: a camera cruise along a hustler’s meat-rack, kitchen-talk over cold canned spaghetti, Taylor Mead grimacing in a spastic dance, the silent stud a sullenly passive observer. Mitchell’s ear for campy native wit and eye for figures in a loft-scape happily keep at bay the otherwise contagious NY ennui. ×
8 .) Variety directed by Bette Gordon
Lists It Appears On:
- Rate Your Music
- Sense Of Cinema
A repressed young woman develops a fascination for pornography and voyeurism while selling tickets to adult movies.
7 .) Vortex (1982) directed by Beth B
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
A film noirish atmosphere is created to show detective Lunch (a popular underground musician and poet) plow her way through the plans of a corporate businessman who seeks government defense contracts through real “corporate wars” and the manipulation of politicians.
6 .) War Is Menstrual Envy (1992) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story finds a handful of ragged survivors attempting to communicate with dolphins, while another cadre of survivors have made it their crusade to destroy all the world’s religions.
5 .) Worm Movie (1985) directed by Lung Leg
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
Experimental short film starring Lung Leg and a worm.
4 .) Zombie Hunger (1984) directed by Richard Kern
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Rate Your Music
Zombie Hunger is an experimental short film depicting a group of people shooting up and then vomiting.
3 .) Black Box (1979) directed by Beth B
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
A man is tortured by his girlfriend and then locked inside a black box.
2 .) Stranger Than Paradise (1984) directed by Jim Jarmusch
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB 2
- Indie Pix Films
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
Rootless Hungarian émigré Willie, his pal Eddie, and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous Florida suburb.
1 .) They Eat Scum (1979) directed by Nick Zedd
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Mad Museum
- Rate Your Music
- Westword
The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.
The 75+ Additional Best No Wave Films
| # | Movies | Directors | Lists |
| 31 | Acid Is Groovy Kill the Pigs (1993) | Joe Christ | IMDB |
| 32 | Alien Portrait | Rate Your Music | |
| 33 | Amy Strangled a Small Child (1998) | Joe Christ | IMDB |
| 34 | Animal Factory (2000) | Steve Buscemi | IMDB 2 |
| 35 | Anybody’s Woman | Bette Gordon | Sense Of Cinema |
| 36 | Baby Doll | Rate Your Music | |
| 37 | Barbie (1977) | Tina L’Hotsky | IMDB |
| 38 | Belladonna (1989) | Beth B | IMDB |
| 39 | Black Hearts Bleed Red (1992) | Jeri Cain Rossi | IMDB |
| 40 | Blue Pleasure | Rate Your Music | |
| 41 | Broken Flowers (2005) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 42 | Catholic (1991) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 43 | Cave Girls | Rate Your Music | |
| 44 | Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 45 | Communion in Room 410 (1988) | Joe Christ | IMDB |
| 46 | Contortions | Rate Your Music | |
| 47 | Dead Man (1995) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 48 | Doomed Love | Rate Your Music | |
| 49 | Down by Law (1986) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 50 | Ecstasy in Entropy (1999) | Nick Zedd | IMDB |
| 51 | Ecstatic Stigmatic | Rate Your Music | |
| 52 | Empty Suitcases | Rate Your Music | |
| 53 | Fingered (1988) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 54 | Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 55 | Go to Hell (1986) | David Rutsala | IMDB |
| 56 | Hell Is You | Rate Your Music | |
| 57 | Heroin | Rate Your Music | |
| 58 | Horoscope (1991) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 59 |
Incontinence: A Diarrhetic Flow of Mismatches
|
Rate Your Music | |
| 60 | Interview (I) (2007) | Steve Buscemi | IMDB 2 |
| 61 | It Took Guts | Rate Your Music | |
| 62 | Judgement Day | Rate Your Music | |
| 63 | Kidnapped | Rate Your Music | |
| 64 | King Blank | Rate Your Music | |
| 65 | King of Sex (1986) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 66 | Letters to Dad | Rate Your Music | |
| 67 | Liberty’s Booty | Rate Your Music | |
| 68 | Llik Your Idols | Rate Your Music | |
| 69 | Long Island Four | Rate Your Music | |
| 70 | Manhattan Love Suicides (1985) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 71 | Mass Homicide | Rate Your Music | |
| 72 | Men in Orbit | Rate Your Music | |
| 73 | Minus Zero | Rate Your Music | |
| 74 | Money | Rate Your Music | |
| 75 | Motel L | Rate Your Music | |
| 76 | Motive | Rate Your Music | |
| 77 | Mutable Fire! | Rate Your Music | |
| 78 | My Nightmare (1993) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 79 | Mystery Train (1989) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 80 | Nazi (1991) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 81 | Night on Earth (1991) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 82 | No Picnic | Rate Your Music | |
| 83 | Nymphomania (1994) | Tessa Hughes-Freeland | IMDB |
| 84 | Pierce (1990) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 85 | Pompeii New York | Rate Your Music | |
| 86 | Punking Out | Rate Your Music | |
| 87 | Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller | Rate Your Music | |
| 88 | Red Italy | Rate Your Music | |
| 89 | Rome ’78 | Rate Your Music | |
| 90 | School of Shame (1984) | Nick Zedd | IMDB |
| 91 | Sewing Circle (1992) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 92 | Sex, Blood and Mutilation (1995) | Joe Christ | IMDB |
| 93 | Sleepless Nights | Rate Your Music | |
| 94 | Sonic Youth Feat. Lydia Lunch: Death Valley 69 (1986 Video) | Judith Barry | IMDB |
| 95 | Sonic Youth: Scooter + Jinx (Moneylove) (1990 Video) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 96 | Spidarlings (2016) | Salem Kapsaski | IMDB |
| 97 | Staten Island | Rate Your Music | |
| 98 | Submit to Me (1985) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 99 | Subway Riders | Rate Your Music | |
| 100 | The Bitches (1992) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 101 | The Brown Bunny (2003) | Vincent Gallo | IMDB 2 |
| 102 | The Deadly Art of Survival | Rate Your Music | |
| 103 | The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight | Beth B | Sense Of Cinema |
| 104 | The Driller Killer | Rate Your Music | |
| 105 | The Evil Cameraman (1990) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 106 | The Limits of Control (2009) | Jim Jarmusch | IMDB 2 |
| 107 | The Trap Door (1980) | Beth B | IMDB |
| 108 | The Way It Is | Rate Your Music | |
| 109 | Thrust in Me (1985) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 110 | Tom Thumb in the Land of the Giants (1999) | Nick Zedd | IMDB |
| 111 | Totem of the Depraved (1983) | Ela Troyano | IMDB |
| 112 | Trees Lounge (1996) | Steve Buscemi | IMDB 2 |
| 113 | Tumble (1991) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 114 | Unmade Beds | Rate Your Music | |
| 115 | We Are Not to Blame (1989) | Casandra Stark | IMDB |
| 116 | What Is It, Zach? | Rate Your Music | |
| 117 | Where Evil Dwells (1985) | Tommy Turner | IMDB |
| 118 | Woman at the Wheel (1985) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 119 | Wrecked on Cannibal Island (1986) | Casandra Stark | IMDB |
| 120 | X Is Y (1990) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
| 121 | You Are Not I | Rate Your Music | |
| 122 | Zombie Hunger 2 (1984) | Richard Kern | IMDB |
7 Best No Wave Film Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| IMDB | Cinema of Transgression/ No Wave |
| IMDB 2 | No Wave Cinema |
| Indie Pix Films | No Wave Cinema |
| Mad Museum | No Wave Cinema |
| Rate Your Music | No Wave Cinema films |
| Sense Of Cinema | No Wave • Feminist Cinemas |
| Westword | Four weird no-wave films |
