The Sundance Film Festival can bring so many things. So many feelings, so many lessons, and so much knowledge. The knowledge part is most prevalent in the deep slate of documentaries the festival offers each year. Many of the greatest docum...
Capernaum made me think that we’re so privileged in the West: there are so many cultures in the world that haven’t had the safety and security -- on a national, local and personal level -- that many of us have experienced. ...
The Fyre Festival was billed as a massive luxury music fest, sort of like Coachella for even bigger trust fund jerks. Organized by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, attendees were promised white sands, crystalline waters, extravagant accommodati...
Undoubtedly there have been a whole host of brilliant films in 2018 - and several completely terrible ones which I wish I could scratch out of my memory forever yet continue to haunt my dreams. I'm looking at you, Wonder Wheel (more li...
Coinciding with the centenary of the Great War, I think it’s safe to say that this documentary is a once in a lifetime achievement, and Peter Jackson does not disappoint. The result of hundreds of hours of research in conjunction wi...
A few months back, my friend and I went to see a collection of war footage accompanied live by a BBC musician, and I don’t exaggerate: the effect was magical. With dynamic sound effects and voiceovers, the images were brought to lif...
It’s been a great year for climbing films. Where The Dawn Wall left off, with climbing megastars Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson free climbing the previously unclimbed route of El Capitan in Yosemite, Free Solo c...
"One Man's Historical, 102 Year Journey and a Legacy of Mental Health" The incredible true story of Bill Coors the Coors Brewery titan comes to life in the new documentary, Bill Coors: The Will To Live. After recently celebrating his incre...
If I didn't have a strong view of whales before, I do now. A Whale of a Tale is a documentary feature representing the controversy surrounding Japanese whaling traditions in the small, rural town of Taiji, and it gave me a lot of confl...
LeBron James is a generational talent, one that portends heated Twitter debates revolving around The Greatest of All Time. There's no denying his skill and talent, and he's been consistently great since the early stages of his career. Now a...
“Entrepreneur” only begins to describe the life and career of Robert “Bobbito” Garcia. At 50 years old, he’s experienced stints at jobs that people strive for most of their working lives. His life and work ex...
National Geographic is putting out a documentary show, in which famed thespian Jeff Goldblum learns the complex nature of seemingly ordinary things in our every day life. This is a show that none of us said we needed out loud, yet all of ou...
I watch maybe one documentary a year. Most often the only ones that grip me are explorations of extreme people. Films like Finders Keepers and Shut up Little Man are standouts, showing just how strange and repulsive human behavior can be. T...
One of the world’s biggest athletes just got done carrying his team into the NBA finals for his eighth (8!) straight finals appearance against one of the most dominant teams in the long history of the NBA. With the season at an end, L...
Nearly a year after the failed Fyre Festival experiment, Hulu has announced they will be releasing a docuseries surrounding the event and its continuing fallout. The promise of world renown acts combined with the beauty of the Exumas was ...
One night in 1993 Lorena Bobbitt's husband came home, raped her, then went to sleep. In the ultimate act of defiant revenge, Lorena grabbed a knife and--while he was still asleep--cut off his manhood. As if that wasn't enough, she got in he...
If The Wolf of Wall Street taught us anything, it's that wanting to get everything in the world plus everything else is really healthy, and we need to look up to the people who destroy others in order to achieve these goals. Or at least tha...
A documentary about teenagers using Instagram is probably not at the top of your must-see films list, even if you yourself are a teenager. Disclaimer: I am not a teenager. However, I do use Instagram. Almost entirely to take pictures of wha...
Before outlining the merits of The Dawn Wall, of which there are many, I urge you to pursue seeing this on the big screen. Yosemite is of in itself an experience more real and immersive than most. Viewing two men attempt to climb its 3,000 ...
I'm not sure you can understate what Mr. Rogers meant for generations of children. The man was prolific not just in educating, but in understanding children and the power of the growing medium that was television. The new documentary Won't ...
When I sat down to watch Ramen Heads, based on the trailer and synopsis, I was anticipating a documentary on a famous ramen chef and his technique and philosophy akin to Jiro Dreams of Sushi. What I got was...half that. It mostly focus...
In many ways a two-man collaboration between filmmaker Jeremy Workman and subject Matt Green, The World Before Your Feet is an understated documentary that details Green's efforts to walk every street in New York City's five boroughs. ...
In an apparent race to develop the most unwatchable series on television, TLC has just announced it will be bringing Dr. Pimple Popper to series. God help us all. After airing a one-hour special following Dr. Sandra Lee as she made lumps on...
Demon House is a movie that if I never spent late nights watching trash TV, I would assume is some found footage no-budget horror trying in the most threadbare way to appear real. That is somehow not the case, as we're supposed to believe t...
Amazon has announced that it will be renewing its hybrid series for a second season, which will start production in April. Lore, based on the podcast by Aaron Mahnke, is a series that uses narration along with archival footage and animation...
The list of comedians who cut their teeth in '80s New York is impressive as it is exhaustive. The likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Larry David, Andy Kaufman, Ray Romano, and many, many more put in work at the Catch A Rising Star co...
I think it's fair for me to say that the world is filled with vitriol and animosity right now. Everywhere you look there are people angry about everything, politics, celebrities, social media, video games, a well made but somewhat flawed...
The B-Side is an atypical Errol Morris documentary. He doesn't use the Interrotron at all, his tool that allows interviewees to stare directly into the camera. Instead, the camera's just off to the side. The score is delicate rather than a ...
Steve James may be incapable of directing a bad documentary. His films includes Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, and Life Itself. With Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, James continues his record as one of America's most reliable non-fiction...
It's been 25 years since the LA riots, and there are a number of films coming out that revisit this harrowing moment in the country's history. The most high-profile might be Let It Fall: LA from 1982-1992 from John Ridley, screenwriter of 1...
Before sitting down to watch Gilbert, I was afraid the documentary would take away from Gilbert Gottfried's mystique. I always loved his impersonations and appearances on Howard Stern, and his dirty jokes have such craft behind them, elevat...
There's a familiar narrative about the self-destructive artist, or maybe it's one that we want to see borne out in real life and in narratives about artists as characters. The brilliant artist is ignored but persists in their craft, achieve...
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is an engrossing watch that works on different levels and through different modes. At the outset, it seems like the documentary will take the form of an obsessive detective story/murder mystery. Victo...
Given how the Republican Party speaks of Ronald Reagan, he feels more like some cowboy legend than an American president. This speaks to Reagan's image consciousness as a politician, with a carefully cultivated persona that fed into the ide...
Almost everyone could benefit from a little bit of therapy, especially therapists themselves. I often wonder what sorts of anxieties therapists have to deal with after they've finished dealing with clients for the day. Empathy and patience ...
Flames offers an intriguing premise. Part documentary and part art movie, co-directors Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell document their relationship as it falls apart. We start with the two of them in the best part of any relationship, w...
David Lynch: The Art Life hits a sweet spot in terms of its release date. Lynch's feature-length debut Eraserhead has just turned 40 years old, and the new season of Twin Peaks starts in May. There's bound to be a resurgence of all thi...
I have fond memories of the first couple Tony Hawk games, particularly the first three Tony Hawk's Pro Skater entries for PS1. Sure, the Tony Hawk franchise has seen lots of downs the last couple of years, but the fond feelings for those fi...
Louis Theroux won me over many years ago with the show Weird Weekends. In each episode, Theroux embedded himself in a subculture and use his extreme mild-mannered niceness to disarm his subjects. He'd hang out with porn stars, demolition dr...
It's been 10 years since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's seminal climate change documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim. While there have been major strides at addressing climate change and pollution worldwide, it might be ...
