56 Best Documentary Movies to WatchBest PG-13 Movies to Watch (Page 4)

The documentary sees WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes as a wandering journeyman, a prodigal son returning home. Cody—sharply dressed and occupying the center of a fancy studio hall—offers detailed insight into his bond with his late father and legendary wrestler Dusty Rhodes, various gimmicks and ventures that steadily refined his skills, and his ultimate goal to finish his father’s story and win the elusive WWE Championship. WWE slaughters a fattened calf for Cody, showing videos and photos of every major promotion he worked for outside the company, including their biggest competitor AEW. It’s a polished, surprisingly comprehensive film, that like many WWE documentaries, drags a bit too long and admits WWE was the bad guy in the story.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Ashley Fliehr, Brandi Runnels, Chelsea Cardona, Christian Brigham, Cody Runnels, Colby Lopez, Dustin Runnels, Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Joe Anoa'i, Kevin Steen, Mark Calaway, Matthew Massie, Nicholas Massie, Paul Michael Lévesque, Randy Orton, Ric Flair, Stephen Amell, Tyson Smith, Vince McMahon

Director: Matt Braine

Rating: PG-13

On one side, this is a look at the real-life efforts of local North Dakota Pastor Jay Reinke to provide shelter for Oil-working migrants in his Church for the course of well over two years – he ends up calling this The Overnighters Program. On another, it is the story of more than a thousand people living the broken American Dream, the pastor’s concerned, sensible neighbors, his well-meaning attempts backfiring, and all that’s in between. The Overnighters is an engaging, if not highly-aware, award-winning documentary that feeds on altruism, hope of redemption, and their ideal truth about the nature of human existence.

Genre: Documentary, Drama

Actor: Jay Reinke, Keegan Edwards

Director: Jesse Moss

Rating: PG-13

Incredible footage combined with a great soundtrack will keep you frozen in your seat until global warming melts you off (so to speak). Chasing Ice is about a National Geographic photographer who tries to capture a complete overview of what climate change is doing to our planet. Consequently this movie took years to make and countless technical issues had to be dealt with in order to record the time-lapse videos. The result is mesmerizing, and captures something that has never been caught on camera before. This movie is evidence of what our planet is going through that everyone can relate to. Be prepared to be charmed and saddened at the same time.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Dennis Dimick, James Balog, Jeff Orlowski, Kitty Boone, Louie Psihoyos, Svavar Jónatansson, Sylvia Earle

Director: Jeff Orlowski

Rating: PG-13

As one of the most recognizable and successful NBA players in the world today, Stephen Curry certainly doesn't need a documentary to persuade anyone else about his talent and the legacy he's already created in basketball. This definitely robs Underrated of some of its urgency, knowing that the Golden State Warrior has the luxury of ruminating on his victories and failures from a place of comfort. Still, the film's decision to focus on a young Curry before reaching the height of his powers allows us to watch these long stretches of game time through a different emotional lens. His is a classic underdog story that's probably far more common among players in the league, but it's still entertaining to be able to track his growth from game to game.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Ayesha Curry, Bob McKillop, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Sonya Curry, Stephen Curry

Director: Peter Nicks

Rating: PG-13

Pushing an already extreme activity even further beyond its limits, Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold have became the world champions of speed climbing—a variation of the sport that places much greater importance on direct competition over communing with nature. It's fascinating to hear what drives Steck and Arnold to courting death like this, and to see how their vastly different backgrounds and processes have still made them equals in the field. The documentary eventually runs out of ideas, however, as it clumsily shifts tones leading into its last third, and concludes abruptly without much synthesis of everything that had come before. It's still a worthwhile adventure whether or not one is into climbing; it's just disappointing that this story of such a unique rivalry settles into a more generic rhythm by the end.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Documentary

Actor: Dani Arnold, Ueli Steck

Director: Götz Werner, Nicholas de Taranto

Rating: PG-13

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

Rating: PG-13

For the entirety of Where Was I, Trevor Noah is comfortably in his pocket—speaking to an audience that's clearly familiar with his style and his views (if the respectful silences and occasional cheering are any indication) and branching off into sharing more serious facts between the jokes. And Noah's style is clearly refined, as he speaks clearly and sticks to a coherent structure at all times. But at a certain point his level of comfort here also leads to punchlines that are too easy or unsurprising, with too much focus placed on the kinds of voices and accents he can put on rather than the content of what he's saying. Noah remains a strong entertainer, but when you know how scathing he can get, this feels more like a warmup round.

Genre: Comedy, Documentary

Actor: Trevor Noah

Director: David Paul Meyer

Rating: PG-13

All the little twists in the case of Mirna Salihin's murder are intriguing enough to speculate over, so Ice Cold is definitely a true-crime case worth revisiting. The problem is in how the documentary indulges sensationalist arguments and pure speculation with the same level of urgency as it does with expert counsel. A large part of the film has to do with how this trial started to become such a fixture in Indonesian public life, but it feels as if the movie would rather provoke even more baseless conspiracies through its gossipy tone than provide smarter analysis. There's an appeal to how simple this case is relative to other true-crime stories, but this shouldn't be an excuse to haphazardly throw opposing perspectives at each other for the sake of drama.

Genre: Crime, Documentary

Actor: Edi Darmawan Salihin, Jessica Wongso, Marcella Zalianty, Mirna Salihin, Otto Hasibuan

Director: Rob Sixsmith

Rating: PG-13

Nobody should doubt Tatiana Suarez's place in the world of mixed martial arts, and it goes without saying how inspirational she can be to young girls who feel they don't fit a traditionally feminine mold. But a documentary really should do more than just reiterate facts, farm motivational soundbites, and refuse to ask follow-up questions to the most interesting ideas revealed. By the end of The Unbreakable Tatiana Suarez, it feels as if the film has repeated the same few talking points over and over, which doesn't actually make Suarez herself look better, but makes her look more like a product to be endorsed. Any potential discussion that can be had about the dangerous nature of wrestling and MMA—or on how this kind of controlled, organized violence interacts with real domestic violence experienced by Suarez—is quietly dismissed.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Tatiana Suarez

Director: Cassius Corrigan

Rating: PG-13