Genre: Documentary, Drama
Director: Phyllis Ellis
They say art imitates life, but nothing gets to the heart of humanity like documentary filmmaking. Whether you want to flex your history knowledge or binge a true crime, here are the best documentaries and docuseries available to stream now.
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Director: Phyllis Ellis
This Hits Home has an important mission: make the connection between traumatic brain injury and domestic abuse victims more well-known to the public. Every day, wives, girlfriends, and children get their skulls knocked, slammed, and smashed by their abusers, their heads targeted because the injuries are easier to hide and the symptoms of trauma don’t manifest until much later. But despite this prevalent violence, concussions and brain disorders are less associated with domestic abuse than they are in contact sports like wrestling and football. This Hits Home gathers experts and victims alike to change that conversation. It’s a noble effort, but it’s unfortunately masked by weird editing choices that ultimately weaken a strong premise. The film interviews multiple experts in the same field, so it often feels like it’s going in circles instead of propelling forward with new points. In an effort to be comprehensive, it includes commentaries from incidental subjects, which creates a lull that detracts from the main focus. And maybe the biggest fault here is that it relies too much on the survivors’ (admittedly powerful) anecdotes, so much so that it fails to bring any of its own flourishes to the documentary. I appreciate the filmmakers opting to be more straightforward than sensationalist, especially with such a sensitive topic. Still, without its own clear voice and cinematic style, it fails to set itself apart from the many informational videos that are already out there.
Genre: Documentary
Director: Sydney Scotia
Genre: Documentary
Director: Anne Bogart, Holly Morris
On par with the best documentaries of the 21st Century thus far, “Requiem for the American Dream” is an essential viewing for the discerning viewer in search of a more complete understanding of how American society has evolved to such a dramatic point of polarization, and how both politics and big business have played a role in this process. In his introductory remarks to the film, celebrated intellectual and linguistics professor Noam Chomsky expounds: “Inequality has highly negative consequences on society as a whole, because the very fact of inequality has a corrosive, harmful effect on democracy.” Chomsky spells out his perspective regarding the modern political machine and the downfall of democracy, with a keen eye to the historical decisions and influences that have sabotaged the “common good” and shaped America’s current political, financial and social landscape.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Noam Chomsky
Director: Jared P. Scott, Kelly Nyks, Peter D. Hutchison
Arguably Werner Herzog's most renowned film, Grizzly Man is a thought-provoking documentary about Tim Treadwell, a man who, as the title suggests, lived among bears. While he remained only known for how his story ended, by one of the bears turning on him, Grizzly Man is the exploration of the man's complex mind, unlimited energy and love for nature. It could be because of the subject matter or because of Herzog's mesmerizing monotone narration, and maybe it is because of both - but Grizzly Man becomes a supremely beautiful look at psychology and how it collides nature. Also like most of Herzog's other work it's a hunt for the peculiar, so expect many funny, absurd, and charming moments.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Amie Huguenard, Carol Dexter, David Letterman, Franc G. Fallico, Larry Van Daele, Marc Gaede, Marnie Gaede, Sam Egli, Timothy Treadwell, Val Dexter, Warren Queeney, Werner Herzog, Willy Fulton
Director: Werner Herzog
It might not teach you the basics of cricket but Fire in Babylon uses the sport as an entertaining entry point into the discrimination faced by Caribbean peoples around the 1970s. The footage we see of actual cricket games is kept to the simplest elements, but what ultimately leaves a stronger impression are the lively testimonials from the documentary's many talking heads, injecting this historical account with a generous amount of personality. From the hip West Indian soundtrack to the unabashed pride that fuels every anecdote, this feels like a film that's genuinely being told by its characters, and not from an outsider's point of view.
Genre: Documentary, Family
Actor: Bunny Wailer, Clive Lloyd, Colin Croft, Viv Richards
Director: Stevan Riley
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Andrea Dovizioso, Ben Spies, Casey Stoner, Colin Edwards, Dani Pedrosa, Ewan McGregor, Jorge Lorenzo, Marco Simoncelli, Nicky Hayden, Valentino Rossi
Director: Mark Neale
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Agnès Varda, Amaury Bossy, Jean-Paul Beaujon, Jeannine Carpentier, JR, Yves Boulen
Director: Agnès Varda, JR
Genre: Comedy, Documentary
Actor: Aline Kominsky, Charles Crumb, Robert Crumb, Robert Hughes
Director: Terry Zwigoff
A fascinating kernel of certainty is padded out with giddy speculation in this documentary about a pair of unlikely art thieves. The facts are as such: 32 years after a $160 million painting by abstract artist Willem de Kooning was crudely cut from its frame in an Arizona gallery, a trio of small-town antique dealers discovered it in Jerry and Rita Alter’s estate sale. The Thief Collector is less interested in the painting itself — in fact, it's openly dismissive about its artistic value — and more curious about how it fell into the hands of the mysterious couple, who frequently took exotic trips around the world despite their modest teacher incomes.
There are certainly intriguing questions raised by the Alters’ possession of the painting and compelling evidence that places them as the thieves, but this documentary can’t offer any convincing original theses of its own. It does try, by suggesting that the short stories Jerry wrote — about more thefts and gorier crimes — were thinly disguised autobiographical recollections, but it finds nothing to back these theories up except for a few loosely relevant anecdotes from relatives. With too many what-ifs to go on, it all makes for an intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying deep dive.
Genre: Crime, Documentary, Drama
Actor: Glenn Howerton, Sarah Minnich, Scott Takeda
Director: Allison Otto