51 Best Documentary Movies to WatchBest R Movies to Watch (Page 4)

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.

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46. The Devil on Trial, 2023

Just in time for Halloween, Netflix has shelled out for a new, high production value doc about demonic possession. It has all the right ingredients: a true story (that of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, also known as the "Devil Made Me Do It" case of 1981), some convincing re-enactments, the air of exclusivity (use of real archives), but it still feels like a let-down to the true horror buffs who'd tune in expecting something fresh. After all, Netflix has been in the game for a while and it's not a good look to settle for something as mediocre. For The Devil on Trial, it seems like the execs have just upped the budget on a regular cable-TV-haunted-house after hours special and then patted themselves on the back. Even the interviews featured are full of cliches, which strips down the horrifying potential of authenticity.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Arne Cheyenne Johnson, Tony Spera, Victor Serfaty

Director: Chris Holt

Rating: R

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47. What Jennifer Did, 2024

This is your bare minimum, bog-standard Netflix true crime documentary covering the infamous Jennifer Pan case. The film focuses on Pan's interrogation tapes, with detectives walking us through their thought process at the time, providing evidence and chilling head nods in reaction to her statements. The value of the film is its micro dissection of the tapes, examining it minute by minute, even line by line, which is an interesting way to learn about the case for the first time. But it feels so banally straightforward without adding anything new or being more informative, that it feels like it was just made to dig up old bones and make a bloated made-for-Netflix docu.Genre: Crime, Documentary
Actor: Alan Cooke, Bill Courtice, Deborah Gladding, Fernando Baldassini, Samantha Chang
Director: Jenny Popplewell
Rating: R

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48. The Improv: 60 and Still Standing, 2023

More a clip show than a real stand-up special—and certainly not a documentary about the New York-based comedy club—The Improv: 60 and Still Standing only really seems to be for the most hardcore devotees of American stand-up. But even if you are familiar with all the comics who make an appearance here, the film doesn't give their already brief routines enough time to breathe. They've ostensibly been instructed to prepare their best stuff or to just riff, and the resulting performances are very half-baked, with none of the comedians able to dive into any particularly funny or challenging material. They're all still lightly amusing in different ways, but this movie really could've just been a series of YouTube videos to commemorate The Improv's 60th anniversary.

Genre: Comedy, Documentary

Actor: Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Bert Kreischer, Craig Robinson, Deon Cole, Fortune Feimster, Jeff Dunham, Jo Koy, Kevin Nealon, Mark Normand, Whitney Cummings

Director: Jeff Tomsic

Rating: R

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49. Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey (2023)

It sounds like a great idea to a documentary on minor league basketball players. After all, these are individuals who don't yet have their stories written for them by public opinion, and each of them is an underdog living in close proximity to their ultimate goal, but still not good enough to get there. So it does these men no favors that this film is so disjointed in its construction, and opts to go down the most predictable sports documentary route, asking them the usual questions and making out the G League to be purgatory. And while it's good that these players—whose personalities still manage to shine through in the haze—are honest about their dissatisfaction with where they are, the film ends up becoming less an account of what the G League is like, and more an advertisement for the NBA all over again.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Scoot Henderson

Director: Bryant Robinson, Liam Hughes

Rating: R

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50. Cypher, 2023

If nothing else, Chris Moukarbel's Tribeca Film Festival-winning narrative feature really forces us to think about the form of the documentary and the layers of interpretation through which we're shown an ostensibly factual account. Cypher begins as a music doc, before taking on true-crime qualities, then turning into a full-blown found footage thriller—the movie itself practically being brainwashed into its own conspiracy. Unfortunately, this is all much less interesting in execution, as the film goes long stretches without keeping up the momentum of its eerier moments. Its eventual twists are particularly uninspired, coming up with a vision of the music industry that doesn't say anything all that meaningful.

Genre: Documentary, Drama, Music, Mystery

Actor: Brian Jordan Alvarez, Chris Anthony, Chris Moukarbel, Jamila Curry, Johnny Montina, Kenete Simms, Nick Canonica, Tierra Whack, Vanya Asher

Director: Chris Moukarbel

Rating: R

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51. The Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders (2023)

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

Rating: R

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