Best movies like A Program About Unusual Buildings & Other Roadside Stuff

Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption. Starring Ethan Hawke in a critically acclaimed performance, Adopt a Highway “will simultaneously warm and shatter your heart” (Marisa Mirabal, Birth.Movies.Death.)

In a small town in rural Kansas, a troubled veteran attempts to restore an old merry-go-round ride.

Restaurant hostess and mom Joanne Sanders has to work late one night. After she leaves the restaurant she accidentally cuts a car off on the highway. This driver takes it personally and he begins to stalk and harass Joanne.

Starting a new life in a quiet Pennsylvania town, Matthew Michaels only thought is to turn an old farm property into a profitable car dealership. He soon discovers that beneath the gentle surface, this small town is anything but calm and peaceful. Firstly, he learns that his new property is located on the site of a graveyard, which all the townsfolk regard as an evil place that must never be visited. He then discovers that years earlier the town had suffered an infestation of the living dead ...zombies who prey on human flesh. One zombie, the infamous Abbot Hayes, escaped destruction. As the construction team begin degging, they unleash the thing the townsfolk fear the most, the wrath of Abbot Hayes and the awakening of ... The Children of the Living Dead.

When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana - a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library.

Elizabeth has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. In order to support herself on her journey, Elizabeth picks up a series of waitress jobs along the way. As Elizabeth crosses paths with a series of lost souls whose yearnings are even greater than her own, their emotional turmoil ultimately helps her gain a greater understanding of her own problems...

The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. From the perspective of former customers, we watch a business climb to its peak success and then grapple with fast food in a forever changed America.

A year in the life of a dying shopping mall.

Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator in the next before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she laboured largely in obscurity. Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building –persistently and perversely credited to her mentor–her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough (98) to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like its creator, remains elusive, contested and compelling.

An inventor and his mom hit the road together so he can sell his latest invention.

The music speaks for itself in this performance documentary that highlights some of the biggest names within the country-folk scene in Texas and Tennessee during the last weeks of 1975 and the first weeks of 1976, eschewing narration and staged interviews.

An aspiring painter meets various characters and learns valuable lessons while traveling across America.

Josh's life is pretty much in the toilet. He's a failed NYC indie rocker, and a failing booking agent. But he finds the potential of a small victory in a really bad idea. He decides to purchase a 1985 Lazy Boy on eBay, just like the one his dad had when Josh was a kid. He'll drive cross-country for the chair, staying with Emily at his brother's house on the way, and deliver it to his father as a surprise birthday gift. But when Rhett ends up coming along for the ride, it's three people and a giant purple puffy chair in a too-small van... and one of them has to go before the trip's end.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon continue their travelogue series with a visit to Greece.

Chautauqua manager Walter Hale and his loyal business manager struggle to keep their traveling troupe together in small town America.

Based on George Ade's play which, in part, was based on an incident in a 1902 election in Wyoming, with women's-right-to-vote playing a large role. Here, Jim Hackler, local party-boss in a Wyoming county, has to decide to do what's right and lose the election, or what's wrong and win it.

Loner Diane Ford is a truck driver with an 11-year-old son, Peter, whom she never sees, and that's fine with her. But, when Peter's father, Len, falls ill, he asks Diane to take care of their son for a while. Eventually, Diane reluctantly agrees, but she quickly realizes that caring for a child interferes with her independent lifestyle - and Peter isn't all that thrilled with the arrangement, either.

BBC Documentary focusing on drifters, drop-outs, tramps and RV snowbirds, squatters, hermits, cowboys and Indians in the American Southwest. Very interesting stories on how and why many became nomadic, and what the lifestyle means; all done without judgment or glorification.

In a small Southern town, the local sheriff tries to keep everything peaceful and under control.

In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.

A group of "Ghost Hunters" coming back from an old ghost town and a bachelorette party returning home from Las Vegas stumble across the "Clown Motel" located in the middle of nowhere. Though no one is there to greet them, the two groups decide to stay for the evening. After a wild night of partying, they awake to find their vehicles sabotaged, leaving them stranded, left to discover if this motel is truly abandoned, or if it is home to souls of the clowns who once lived there.

America is the world's largest jailer and our over-burdened corrections system treats individuals as numbers. I COME FROM focuses on incarcerated poets and playwrights who use the power of creativity to change the direction of their lives. Their poems and plays reflect hard lives lived, tough environments negotiated, past mistakes made. This film focuses on six incarcerated artists whose work declares a wish, a will to survive, to grow as human beings and embrace an architecture of change. Recorded at Northpoint, Kentucky Department of Corrections, USA.

Two college friends, now in their thirties, admire each others' lives and feel trapped in their own. Wes, tied to a demanding career and responsibilities to family, extends a work trip to drag his dispirited artist friend Luke to find Luke's "one that got away."

Five college friends take a detour while traveling to their spring break destination. They end up in the remote mountain town of Blueridge, where Karen (Marina Resa) believes her older sister went missing 2 years before. After a few odd encounters with the locals, Karen and her friends decide to continue their journey until an unexpected auto malfunction leaves them stranded. The group takes refuge in a local motel and soon learns that in Blueridge, "missing persons" is just a way of life. One-by-one they begin disappearing until the grizzly discovery is made that the local BBQ Rib Restaurant might be serving up more than anyone had bargained.

A paint store owner turns his attention to civic affairs while his business falls apart.

Freemont Gordon isn't passionate about his successful Architecture job in Los Angeles. After he turns 30, he finds his job isn't enough and he quits and goes on a road trip. Along the way, he meets the most amazing and generous everyday folks. Freemont shows his thanks by building secret tree houses for the families in hopes of giving their kids fun places to play. Freemont finds that doing what he loves is what matters most.

Enjoy an all-American celebration of what may be the country's most popular fast food. From Connecticut to South Carolina to California, Rick Sebak visits some of the nation's coolest hot dog places, taking viewers inside a giant hot dog-shaped building, stopping at some crazy late-night stands, and looking at how hot dogs are made. Wonder how and when hot dogs became so popular-or what toppings are tops these days? Tune in and find out.

The Lincoln Highway was established in 1913 as America’s first coast-to-coast paved highway. It connected New York City with San Francisco and passed through towns and cities in 13 states. It was an adventure for early motorists, and drivers today still love its hidden charms and all the stuff along its several paths. A RIDE ALONG THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY considers some of the history of the road and shows some of the joys of finding and riding along the various alignments of the highway today. Along the way, we meet highway historians and enthusiasts from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Evanston, Wyoming, and many places in between. We check out the cottages at the Lincoln Motor Court near Bedford, PA, stop for lunch in Mount Vernon, Iowa, meet some folks in Eureka, Nevada, and even walk out to the end of the Berkeley pier in California. It's a great trip.

Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.

Maybe it's Pittsburgh's chipped-beef "Slammer" you're craving. Or Iowa's Maid Rite "loosemeat"? Louisville's "Hot Brown"? Escape fast-food sameness on a mouth-watering tour through America's distinctive sandwich landscape. Let veteran guide Rick Sebak (A Hot Dog Program, An Ice Cream Show) take you across the country to New Orleans for muffaletta, to Chicago for Italian beef, and New York City for pastrami on rye.

Everybody loves ice cream. It’s cool, sweet and delicious. It’s also the tantalizing topic of this happy documentary program that takes viewers to ice cream places across America from Vermont to Hawaii, highlighting outstanding places to get a cone or a bowl. An Ice Cream Show features mostly small ice cream lovers – from makers and eaters to collectors and cone-makers.

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

This documentary from PBS travels throughout America in search of the best breakfast places the country has to offer. Along the way, the patrons, employees, and owners of such establishments give their take on what makes for great breakfast fare, and what keeps a customer coming back for more.

A pair of Japanese siblings get stranded in small-town California and become friends with other twentysomethings they meet, despite the complete lack of a common verbal language.

This is a film comprised primarily from footage shot by the exploring team of Mr. and Mrs. William Phillips, nee Bill and Eve Phillips, a minor league version of the better-known Martin and Osa Johnson. It, between tons of shots of bare-breasted Choco and Cuna Indian women, has a flimsy plot about a party of engineers "seeking" a continental highway route from South America through Central America to the United States.