Genre: Crime, Documentary
Actor: Cari Farver, Chris Maher, Dave Kroupa, Katie Otten, Ryan Avis
Director: Sam Hobkinson
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Actor: Cari Farver, Chris Maher, Dave Kroupa, Katie Otten, Ryan Avis
Director: Sam Hobkinson
If you’re expecting a twisty and thrilling look at a dangerous group of hackers who hide deep within a military bunker in Europe, and who refer to their entire operation as “straight from a James Bond movie,” then you might be disappointed with Cyberbunker, a dragging documentary that relies too heavily on talking heads for momentum. It takes 30 minutes to establish the relevance of these figures, and a full hour before it finally explains the actual crime and wrongdoings they’re complicit in. The most interesting parts of the case, like the FBI’s involvement, Cyberbunker’s links to the propagation of child pornography, and the group’s advocacy on internet privacy, are completely buried beneath a stack of unnecessary tidbits. I appreciate the effort of the filmmakers and the interviewees coming together to make something decently informative, but by the end of it, you’re left wondering whether all this was better off as a Wikipedia article.
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Director: Kilian Lieb, Max Rainer
Genre: Documentary
In the style of a handbook, How to Be A Cult Leader chronicles the manipulative tactics of infamous cult leaders, from their upbringing and early interests to the failures that honed their charismatic pull. Each episode profiles a leader (Charles Manson and Jim Jones for the first two episodes) with ex-followers and specialists that break down how the cults were sustained and eventually toppled tremendously. The overall tone is unsettling at first, and as the lies and crimes of these leaders are exposed, the lessons of the handbook mostly manage to be warnings. News (and stock) footage, meme-esque inserts, and animated renditions of events round out Peter Dinklage's narration and keep this unorthodox docuseries dynamic — but to what end?
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Peter Dinklage
As far as documentaries go, The Lady of Silence doesn't deviate much from the true-crime formula. It follows a serial killer in charge of a series of attacks against elderly women from the late 1990s to 2003 in Mexico City. But the show stands out for highlighting just how unfamiliar the Mexican government was with understanding and handling serial killers at the time. There's also an insightful exploration into the socio-political implications of the case; political parties fueled the incompetence of the police, and the case remained ignored allegedly because women were the only victims. But it's jarring how much of the victims' stories are sidelined to make way for sensationalism. It's a tasteless and heartless choice made by the filmmakers.
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Actor: Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Juana Barraza, Ted Bundy
Director: María José Cuevas