Movies can be a healthy, relaxing way to escape from reality. But the medium of cinema has the power to do more than entertain you. Documentaries catalogue real-life experiences and incredible events, making us more conscious of the world around us, our place within it, and what we can do to make a difference. They can be entertaining, horrifying, inspiring and just plain silly. They’re just as fascinating as any other genre, and even more versatile than most.
So the next time you’re sitting down to an evening with Netflix, bypass the action movies, skip over the comedies, and enjoy the very best documentaries that the service has to offer. They might just change your life.
You know Scorpion, and Whitesnake, and Bon Jovi… but do you recall the greatest heavy metal band of all? Anvil! The Story of Anvil tells the story of one of the most influential bands in all of metal, who inspired others to become legends but no play to crowds of tens, if they’re lucky. Sacha Gervasi’s engrossing documentary follows Anvil as they wrestle, in their fifties, with whether or not their dream is dead, and heroically strive to make one last comeback.
The Delta Force, Breakin’, Masters of Universe, Superman IV… if you grew up in the 1980s then you’ve probably seen at least one film by The Cannon Group. This ragtag movie production company produced an obscene amount of trashy exploitation movies and bizarre art house flops, and introduced western civilizations to the concept of ninjas in the process. In this hilarious documentary you learn all about Cannon’s most notorious features and most unexpected successes, and how the filmmakers and producers nearly drove everyone they knew to madness.
After watching Electric Boogaloo, settle in with the perfect double feature. It’s easy to take movies for granted in America, but in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s, bootleg videos of American movies were an act of rebellion against an oppressive dictatorship. This intriguing documentary recreates the vast conspiracy to import forbidden films - like the works of Chuck Norris - to the people who needed the inspiration most, and who used that inspiration to rise up against a regime.
The notoriously anonymous street artist Banksy captures the rare, outlaw craftsmanship that goes into his work in Exit Through the Gift Shop. The film was originally directed by Thierry Guetta, who had hitherto unthinkable access to the practitioners of questionable legal art, but eventually their paths diverged, Banksy finished the film himself, and Guetta became something Banksy could have never imagined. A fascinating and thoughtful look at the state of 21st century art.
Journalist David France’s first documentary chronicles the early days of the AIDS/HIV epidemic in America, when underrepresented and publicly derided homosexual communities banded together to make the plague a political issue, and to make experimental drugs more readily available to the afflicted. Compiled from incredible archive footage, How to Survive a Plague has the power to inspire.
Sukiyabashi Jiro is often called the best sushi restaurant in the world. In David Gelb’s delicious documentary you learn why, and it’s almost shocking in its simplicity. Chef Jiro Ono has been making the exact same dishes, every day, for over half a century. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a love letter to this delicious cuisine, but also an appreciation of the nobility of discipline, and the value of good, hard work.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s shocking documentary The Act of Killing followed the unapologetic murders behind the Indonesian genocide as they blithely recreated their greatest atrocities on film. In this equally mind-blowing follow-up, Oppenheimer follows a young man whose brother was murdered in the genocide as he confronts the murderers face-to-face. The moment when they stop each bragging about their crimes and feel the unexpected pang of their conscience is unbelievably profound.
In 1974, Philippe Petit broke into the World Trade Center, ascended to the rooftop, and walked between the towers on a tightrope. It’s one of the most outlandish works of art in modern history, and in James Marsh’s exhilarating documentary it plays out like a thrilling, but benevolent heist movie. The film was later adapted into the Robert Zemeckis movie The Walk, which mostly covers the exact same territory, but does recreate what it was like to actually walk in the sky that day.
Arguably the greatest heavy metal band of all time, Metallica has a reputation for hard drinking, hard rocking, truly intense music. In Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary, the band goes through a shared mid-life crisis, bickering and sniping and going through counseling together. Watching these rock legends at their most emotionally fragile is borderline comical, but also deeply humanizing. They’re just trying to figure it all out, same as any of us.
The movie that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star. George Butler and Robert Fiore’s doc explores the larger-than-life physiques and personalities behind the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. Future action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno engage in very different training styles, philosophies and psychological warfares in order to come out on top. Pumping Iron introduced the world to bodybuilding culture, and scores of gymnasiums popped up across the country in its wake.
It took most of their childhood, but a group of kids conspired to recreate Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, shot for shot, and they did it. Well, except for the plane scene. In this loving ode to fan enthusiasm, we learn how making this movie got these children through the dissolution of their families, how they finally filmed the plane sequence, and eventually now they found a cult audience of their very own. We also learn how they nearly killed themselves multiple times in the process, which makes you want to scream at the screen. Darned fool kids.
A very different ode to fandom, Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 is about the absurd number of theories that surround Stanley Kubrick’s haunted house classic, The Shining. Some believe the film is littered with clues that, when looked the right way, prove that Kubrick faked the moon landing on a soundstage. Others suggest that The Shining may be a coded allegory for the Holocaust, or for a minotaur’s maze. (Some of the theories are more plausible than others, in case you hadn’t noticed.) It’s fascinating to see just how far down the rabbit hole fandom can go, and what happens when people cross the line from making interesting observations to becoming convinced that they’ve unlocked a conspiracy.
The revolution was being captured on camera in Egypt, as the protesters in Tahrir Square parked themselves and refused to move until their voices were heard. Wildly disparate individuals and groups came together with a common goal, and attempts to disperse the crowds led to shocking violence. Jehane Noujaim’s harrowing, absorbing documentary captures the political zeitgeist with all of its hope and all of its horror.
In 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, outlawing slavery in America… except for those who have committed a crime. Ava DuVernay’s illuminating, disturbing documentary follows the chain of events from 1865 all the way to the present day, when companies rely on prison labor, and black people - particularly men - have a wildly disproportionate chance of being sent to jail in their lifetimes. The system is broken. Hopefully a fascinating, informative film like 13th will play a part in fixing it.
One of the most influential, politic documentaries ever filmed is about the shooting of a police officer, and the man who was sent to death row for the murder… even though none of the evidence implicated him. Errol Morris’s groundbreaking approach to the medium included extended dramatic recreations, challenging the very definition of “documentary”, and is now considered by many to be the greatest documentary ever produced.
Without a film like The Thin Blue Line, it’s hard to imagine that Tower would ever exist. Keith Maitland’s documentary recreates the events of the 1966 sniper murders at the University of Austin, TX, using witness testimony and archival recordings to lend authenticity to the experience. It’s hypnotic to watch these events unfold, and to experience the tragedy from so many perspectives simultaneously, through the eyes of the wounded, the police, the journalists and many more.
What's your favorite documentary on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!
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