Best Subversive Movies & TV Shows

An aspiring clown grappling with her gender identity combats a fascistic caped crusader in writer-director Vera Drew's uproariously subversive queer coming-of-age origin story.

Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.

Comedian Rik Mayall died suddenly on 9 June 2014. Mayall's blend of rocket-fuelled physical comedy, surrealism, subversive satire and pompous punk wit left a body of work that spanned four decades. Mayall's characters include the Black Country's investigative nerd Kevin Turvey, Felicity Kendal-adoring student and 'People's Poet' Rik in The Young Ones, ruthless MP Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman, seedy loser Richie in Bottom and larger-than-life characters Robin Hood and flying ace Lord Flashheart from Blackadder. Narrated by Simon Callow, this programme salutes Rik Mayall and celebrates his part in the UK's comedy history using rare and unseen archive footage. It also features contributions from people who knew or admired him, including Michael Palin, Simon Pegg, Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle, Christopher Ryan, Tim McInnerny, Jools Holland, Ruby Wax and Greg Davies.

A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.

A simple wink, intended by Austrian palace guard Lt. Nikolaus von Preyn for girlfriend, Franzi, is accidentally intercepted -- and misread -- by the visiting Princess Anna. As a result, the soldier has no choice but to marry the royal lady and move with her to the neighboring kingdom of Flausenthurm. His girlfriend follows to continue the romance and, subversively, give Princess Anna tips on how to keep her husband satisfied.

Set before the events of ‘Soul’, 22 refuses to go to Earth, enlisting a gang of 5 new souls in attempt of rebellion. However, 22’s subversive plot leads to a surprising revelation about the meaning of life.

Adapting its title and theme from Thomas De Quincey's murder text, this long-overdue return to narrative cinema by the great British filmmaker Peter Whitehead is based around a mesmerizing psycho-geographical exploration of modern day Vienna. The film incorporates a record of the subversive underbelly of the city into a poetic meditation on conspiracy theory, ecoterrorism, time and cinema, retracing the story of The Third Man. Adapted from a trilogy of Whitehead's own Nohzone novels, the objective and subjective becomes blurred as the film director merges with the fictional detective in a journey into the murky activities of covert counter-insurgency groups. Kaleidoscopic in intent, the film mixes Noh theatre, Victorian novels, Vienna after the war, opium, domain names and Jacob's ladder "pitched twixt Heaven and Charring Cross".

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

In 1972, John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. The story was the basis for the film Dog Day Afternoon. The Dog captures John, who shares his story for the first time in his own unique, offensive, hilarious and heartbreaking way. We gain a historic perspective on New York's gay liberation movement, in which Wojtowicz played an active role. In later footage, he remains a subversive force, backed by the unconditional love of his mother Terry, whose wit and charm infuse the film. How and why the bank robbery took place is recounted in gripping detail by Wojtowicz and various eyewitnesses.

When a young poet hires a marketing company to turn his suicide into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture.

A look at the history of the American comedy publication and production company, National Lampoon, from its beginning in the 1970s to 2010, featuring rare and never before seen footage, this is the mind boggling story of The National Lampoon from its subversive and electrifying beginnings, to rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight, and beyond. A humour empire like no other, the impact of the magazines irreverent, often shocking, sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, The National Lampoon created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the bar in comedy impossibly high.

When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humour, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success with the troops on the western front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time, Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.

A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the inventor of a super-explosive and its remote detonator, from the clutches of a band of foreign subversives call the "Flaming Torch Gang". A 12-episode movie serial with the chapters: •1. Enemies Within •2. The Blast of Doom •3. Human Dynamite •4. Blazing Danger •5. Trapped By Traitors •6. Traitors' Treachery •7. Flaming Death •8. Hurled Through Space •9. The Plunge of Peril •10.The Toll of Treason •11.Descending Doom •12.The Power of Patriotism

A subversive comedy about three small town actresses taking in a mysterious new roommate from LA. Beth is highly religious and decorates her room with biblical memorabilia. Charlie identifies as a lesbian but struggles to embrace who she is. April is high-spirited and reserves most of her time recording voice-over auditions. Focused on their careers, the roommates never even try getting to know each other. One day, the incredibly eccentric Cat shows up on their doorstep one. While Beth, Charlie, and April are wary of Cat’s cool, calm demeanor, she becomes their fourth roommate. Not long after moving in, Cat is convinced that an evil entity has infiltrated one of the rooms.

Margot Zeller is a short story writer with a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue. On the eve of her estranged sister Pauline's wedding to unemployed musician/artist/depressive Malcolm at the family seaside home, Margot shows up unexpectedly to rekindle the sisterly bond and offer her own brand of support. What ensues is a nakedly honest and subversively funny look at family dynamics.

The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties. Edward Woodward plays Jim Kyle, a journalist on the last independent newspaper called The Star, who turns renegade and begins to fight the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD, in turn, try to provide proof of Kyle's subversive activities.

A subversive romantic comedy about the real-life subculture of people who believe that they're vampires and the IRS agent who audits them.

A collection of subversive comedy sketches and routines relating to the peace movement.

A subversive tale that interlaces five stories set in Los Angeles, where no taboo is left unexplored as each character careens toward a dark and often comic fate

A fact-based story about a man who posed as an American Communist for years as part of a secret plan to infiltrate their organization.

A subversive look at relationships in Los Angeles centering around a famous actress and her twin brother, both strayed off their life's path, and yearning for each other, and something simpler.

After assisting the French Underground during WWII, an American Officer is later accused of murder and subversive activities by former colleagues. Based on the actual exploits of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Ortiz.

Property developer Jamie has to evict some weird, post-modern hippies from a building. But they slowly drag him into their dark underworld of bizarre rituals and dangerous liaisons.

Returning to the same medical school where they were test subjects years before, two twisted serial killers use brutal sex acts to kill off a group of med students.

A mystery man brings together a group of dead, gay artists to investigate a police response to the dilema of wash-room sex in Toronto. The artists have seven days in which to report on the ethics of police tactics. The artists infiltrate the police only to discover that they themselves are under surveillance as a political subversive group. The artists explore and report on the evolution of toilets and wash-room behavior.

"Rocky Horror Picture Show" meets "Oklahoma" in this outrageous musical comedy. A 1940's Technicolor-style fantasy with a modern and subversive twist. Fifteen original songs, a cast of madcap characters and a story chock full of American family values...just don't bring the kids!

A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen try to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city, as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood.

Rows is a psychological thriller, a Gothic fantasy inspired by Grimm's tales. A young woman, Rose, is tasked by her developer father to deliver an eviction notice to a reclusive woman in a ramshackle farmhouse. The woman has strange powers, derived from the house itself. The enchantress puts Rose and her friend, Greta, under a spell. They become lost in a seemingly infinite cornfield and must repeat a series of surreal or terrifying events in order to solve the mystery and break the spell. Rose's father is drawn into the mystery, and Rose's relationship with him is tested. A series of shocking reversals leads to a haunting climax.

An egocentric businessman awakens deep in the woods to find he has been abducted by a subversive group of bloodthirsty vampires disguised and living among us. He must not only escape their clutches, but save his beloved girlfriend before time, the truth, and his kidnappers catch up with him.

While Chappy Sinclair is saddled with a bunch of misfits and delinquents for his flight school, he turns to his protégé Doug Masters to assist him in rounding them into shape for an important competition. During their training, they stumble upon a group of subversive air force officers who are dealing in toxic waste as a sideline.

The wealthy members of an exclusive backwoods retreat face an existential threat from both a disgruntled former manager as well as a subversive, anarchistic current member.

A group of rebellious students, who practice free love and anarchism, tries to get their conservative dean to give in to their demands. He refuses, but his nymphomaniac wife is willing. Things end in tragedy for some.

In this dystopian-musical-comedy, corporations and self-appointed guardians of "decency" and "morality" have society in a fascist choke-hold. It's up to a rag-tag group of actors, artists, and musicians to save the world the only way they know how - through the power of - wait for it - Performance Art! Led by the legendary Existo (Bruce Arntson (musical composer, "Ernest" film franchise), his faithful sidekick Maxine (Jackie Welch, (Ernest Goes to Jail), provocateur Marcel (Jim Varney, (Ernest, Toy Story), and Vigo (Cooper Thornton (Parks & Recreation) this troupe of subversive insurgents have the Religio-Capitalist Complex in their cross-hairs. But the powers-that-be know Existo's weak spot - his ravenous libido - and seek to exploit it to derail the Revolution with a secret weapon - a curly-haired corporate-pop singer named Penelope (Jenny Littleton).

When Vaughn invites friends to a cabin for the weekend to meet his fiance, one unexpectedly arrives with his ex-girlfriend. Long repressed feelings are reawakened and his engagement is thrown into doubt in this subversive romantic comedy.

A new series on Here TV! Sexy and subversive, 'GO GO' is a thrillingly erotic tale of murder set in a gay men's strip club, where the fantasies of the patrons and the ”American dreams" of the strippers are shockingly twisted into a nightmare.

A musical rockumentary about subversive pop star Maya O'Malley and his journey towards spiritual redemption following his being dropped from Aspect Records in the Fall of 2012.

FBI agents Allan Harper and Tommy Baker are in charge of a group of subversives, spies and saboteurs that the US government is deporting to foreign countries aboard a ship. The deportees attempt to take over the ship.

When the fight against a supposed subversive threat seems not to be enough to ensure national unity, the Argentine military dictatorship rekindles the extinguished fire of an old border dispute with Chile in order to make the nation close ranks around the criminal regime: the chronicle of an internal political conflict that was about to turn into a bloody war.

In the near future, society has developed a pill that does away with the need to sleep. With the added help of an artificial sun, there is no end to morning daylight, living and work. However, as a young generation grows up deprived of the world of sleep, they consider rebelling to reclaim their dreams. The ambitious and driven Cathy was an early advocate of a sleepless world, but as she and her son Danny pick up the pieces of their lives following the death of her husband Frank, she finds the universe she helped to build is starting to crumble around her, whilst memories she fought so hard to repress are bleeding into her waking life. As Danny is further drawn into a subversive underworld of dreamers, Cathy must confront her nightmares and fight hard not to lose her son.

Ken Burns meets Spinal Tap in a subversive tour de force relaying the outrageous life stories of four forgotten Civil War heroes: an opium-addicted gay Colonel, an aging Chinese launderer, a nerdy escaped slave, and a one-armed teenage prostitute. Both wickedly satirical and deeply affectionate, The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek tells the "100% true" story of how these oddball outsiders saved the Union from a nefarious foreign plot, how the forces of bigotry expunged their stunning victory from the history books, and - most importantly - how meeting one's ex on the field of battle can be just the thing to re-spark a detoured romance.

After landing a gig at a marshmallow theme park, a cameraman uncovers the shocking truth about America's candyland and his own sugar coated childhood.

Two self-obsessed businessmen discover they're long-lost identical twins and come together to plot the reunion of their eccentric divorced parents.