Best Documentary Movies to Watch on Max (HBO Max) (Page 2)
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.
A music documentary with its star as one of its main talking heads runs the risk of coming off like cheap PR, but Tina Turner’s own articulate insights never restrict this retrospective on her life. If anything, she assists directors Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin in expanding the film’s scope to cover the origins of […]
Even if it doesn’t provide the most comprehensive information about treatment and care for multiple sclerosis (MS)—especially for those who can’t afford a ridiculously expensive stem cell transplant—this isn’t really the point of Introducing, Selma Blair. This is still mostly a biographical documentary about a (self-confessed) “not-so-famous” celebrity, who gets to be incredibly honest about […]
You’d be forgiven for thinking eight hourlong episodes about sitcoms, of all things, is too long. I thought about that too after watching the pilot. It covered everything from I Love Lucy to The Cosby Show to Modern Family–what more could it possibly bring up? A lot, as it turns out, and every bit of […]
Featuring real, in-the-moment footage of operations to rescue young queer individuals from the continuing anti-gay purges in the Chechen Republic, Welcome to Chechnya makes for a demanding but essential call to action. There’s a genuine sense of fear that pervades the documentary, not just for those being rescued after being forcibly outed, beaten, and trapped […]
In the 1980s, McDonald’s gave away prizes (the top ones including sports cars, homes, and a million dollars) to whoever got one of their lucky stickers. In the early 2000s, the FBI realized that many of the winners either knew of or were related to each other, and so, a years-long, interstate, underground investigation was […]
Legendary Talking Heads frontman David Byrne returns with this enigmatic stage show, and with Spike Lee in tow, the film reaches for the heights of the iconic concert doc Stop Making Sense. For those unfamiliar, Stop Making Sense directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) captured the Talking Heads’ invigorating live show in their […]
When history shoves you in the corner and current generations start to forget their roots, it makes sense to take up an urgent if frantic tone. That’s what the showrunners of Equal have done here. Scenes are packed with busy animation, star-studded reenactments, and paragraphs of history lessons (sometimes all at once), so much so […]
Asif Kapadia, the genius of biopics who gave us Senna, is back with this documentary on an even bigger sports personality: Argentinian soccer player Diego Armando Maradona. Considered as possibly the best soccer player of all time, Maradona’s footage on the pitch is pure wizardry, and you’ll feel that way whether you are a soccer […]
This HBO docuseries is about NXIVM, a multi-million dollar personal development coaching company whose leader was arrested for sex and human trafficking, branding his followers, and other serious crimes. New levels of insanity unwrap at every episode in a smart and engaging way: the show follows the progression of the story as it happened and […]
The Weight of Gold is an extremely impactful insight into what goes through the mind of the highest performing athletes in the world, and focuses how their governing body (the US Olympic Committee) disregards care about their mental health. While it could benefit from going even deeper at times, it does benefit from having some […]
True to form, this documentary about the famed Japanese animation studio enjoys lingering in the ordinary day to day experience of working there. There’s no question that it’s of interest for fans. Documentarian Mami Sunada helpfully introduces some of the faces, the films, and the history of the company while on her visit. However, even […]
There’s more than a touch of Louis Theroux to this engrossing documentary — fronted by New Zealander pop-culture journalist David Farrier — about an innocuous-seeming Internet phenomenon: the actually-sinister subculture of “competitive endurance tickling”, in which young men undergo “tickle torture” for money on camera. When Farrier unassumingly requests an interview with an American producer […]
Even in a bloated genre like true crime, Six Schizophrenic Brothers manages to be shocking because of its horrifying premise. It’s about a family that had to deal not just with the titular illness, but with multiple and chronic cases of abuse, rape, incest, and murder. And perhaps the most amazing part of it all […]
Though the “troubled teen industry” is a worthwhile topic, this miniseries gives it the same indistinguishable treatment as the rest of the other true crime documentaries out there. There’s the sensationalist music and the reductive interviews, which equate survivors to their trauma and nothing more. It’s hard not to compare this Max miniseries with Netflix’s […]
When Castro took over Cuba in the 1950s, Havana’s nightlife shifted as clubs and casinos were closed down, leading to certain traditional step-based genres like son, bolero, and danzón to decline. A few decades later, prominent American musician Ry Cooder travelled to Cuba with his friend documentarian Wim Wenders, to pay homage to traditional Cuban […]
Anyone tired of the same old cliches found in true crime shows (and there are a lot of them) will feel reinvigorated watching The Jinx. Director Andrew Jarecki goes one step further from the usual fare by interrogating the subject, himself an unnerving character, and unearthing evidence that changes the trajectory of his story. The […]
I’m just as sick of hearing about the 2020 elections as the next person, especially since we have a new wave of candidates to review and prepare for in the coming months, but Stopping the Steal has one attention-grabbing appeal: it has Republican officials and Trump supporters explain how the former president lost the race. […]
Years after the #MeToo movement began, a lot of things remain confounding about Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault case, partly because he has always been a private man, and partly because not a lot of light has been shone on his victims. The most prominent victim, actor Anthony Rapp, sued Spacey for sexual misconduct, but his […]
Fans will love diving into this four-part documentary about former Major League Baseball player Pete Ross, especially since Rose dictates how the series goes. Director Mark Monroe gives Rose plenty of space to wax poetic about his dismissal from the MLB after a major gambling scandal and offers very few opposing voices to make this […]
It’s rare for true crime documentaries to take on open, ongoing cases, so Taken Together is commendable for having the courage to do that, at least. But overall, this three-part docuseries about the unfortunate abduction of young cousins Elizabeth and Lyric fails to relay the facts of its case in a meaningful or respectful way. […]
There’s no doubt that pro climber Sasha DiGiulian is a fiercely brave and talented woman. And between her early entry into the sport and multiple first female ascents, her journey warrants an equally impressive film. Unfortunately, Here To Climb isn’t that film. It fails to capture DiGiulian’s spark and instead shows us a canned version […]
As documentaries go, They Called Him Mostly Harmless is pretty standard, if not forgettable, fare. There isn’t a lot of information regarding the case it focuses on, so it relies heavily on interviews with related persons and “internet sleuths” who have taken it upon themselves to solve the mystery of this hiker’s identity. It moves […]
In the decades since pioneer pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared from the face of the Earth, countless theories have emerged to fill in the gaps of her still-unknown whereabouts. Historians generally agree she crashed into the ocean, but that’s not dramatic enough, isn’t it? Some people believe she was captured by the Japanese, others believe she […]
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 […]
Last Stop Larrimah is the rare true-crime doc in which not a single tear is shed throughout its substantial two-hour runtime. That’s because the assumed-dead 70-year-old around whom it’s centered had a lot of enemies: nearly all of his neighbors in the titular tiny Outback outpost he lived in, in fact. As the doc reveals, […]
Don’t be fooled—despite being a three-hour documentary, Hoop Dreams is just as thrilling, heartbreaking, and cinematic as any sports film out there. Unlike them, however, Hoop Dreams is less of an uplifting feel-good story than it is an honest and sobering look at how the education system has failed Black communities. It’s not a complete […]
Composed of archival footage of the titular musical legend and testimonials from those who worked with him or whose lives were profoundly impacted by his courage, Little Richard: I Am Everything feels comprehensive but is also oddly lacking. The documentary makes a bold, confident claim: that all popular music today can be directly traced to […]
A wonderful homage to the woman, actress, and mother based largely on her own archives and interviews with her four children. Bergman was an avid photographer, filmographer and letter writer. What emerges is a loving portrait of an adventurous, driven, complex, and loving woman. Not to be missed.
Today’s comic book industry and cinematic universes are inextricable from popular culture, but the road to global recognition was long and arduous. Superpowered: The DC Story chronicles a fraction of that journey including the quiet beginnings of the publishing house as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s response to being bullied, all the way to the […]
If you spent any significant time on social media this year, you won’t have been able to avoid hearing about the eight-day-long trial revolving around a ski crash in which actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow was involved. The trial played out via Tiktok livestreams and Twitter memes for its duration; with a reported 30 […]
This documentary… man, where do I even begin? It captures the lives of the Friedmans and how their world turned upside down when their father, Arnold, and brother, Jesse, were both convicted of sexually abusing children. The filmmaker interviews victims, family members, and experts to strike you with the two sides of the story. The Oscar nominated […]
