Category: Documentary

  • Nanking (2007)

    In late 1937, one of the most harrowing atrocities of the 20th century took place in China’s then-capital of Nanking. Japanese imperial forces invaded the walled city after a series of punishing air raids, only to then engage in a systematic reign of rape, torture and murder. Nanking, a documentary chronicling that horror, is a truly…

  • Best documentaries of 2023

    While 2023 was a banner year for narrative films, at least in my opinion, I was less enthusiastic about the year’s crop of documentaries. There were a handful of standouts, such as the thrilling Beyond Utopia (pictured below), but none of my picks for the Best of 2023 approach what I would consider a masterpiece.…

  • West of Memphis (2012)

    Critics of our criminal justice system don’t have to search for nightmare scenarios of wrongful convictions. From coerced confessions to exonerations through DNA testing, the past several decades are rife with tales of injustice that would have given Kafka the willies. It says something about the horrific saga of the West Memphis Three that their…

  • Muscle Shoals (2013)

    The documentary Muscle Shoals chronicles the oddity of Muscle Shoals, Ala., a tiny town near the Tennessee River that became an improbable birthplace for some of the most soulful music of the 20th century. At the center of the Muscle Shoals miracle is Rick Hall, a stone-faced guy with a hardscrabble past, who in the…

  • Deliver Us from Evil (2006)

    Deliver Us from Evil is a difficult film to watch, but it is an essential one. The Oscar-nominated 2006 documentary chronicles the tale of a pedophile priest and his many victims, but its scope is more expansive. By zeroing in on the specific case of defrocked Father Oliver O’Grady, the filmmakers paint a stark portrait…

  • Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

    It would have been easy for Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work to take a by-the-numbers approach to its subject. Among the true pioneers of edgy stand-up comedy (she joked about having sex and abortions long before such topics became fodder for Amy Schumer and her ilk), Joan Rivers was instrumental in paving the way…

  • Crazy Love (2007)

    Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Girl meets someone else. Boy commits despicable act of spite and jealousy. Boy resolves to win girl back … once he serves out his prison sentence, that is. The riveting documentary Crazy Love packs all the thrills, poignancy and dark humor of the most enthralling work…

  • Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (2018)

    Inspiration can come in many guises. According to legend, the genesis of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders stemmed from a 1967 football game at the Cotton Bowl when Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm spotted a local stripper, Bubbles Cash, as she ambled down a staircase wearing a miniskirt and holding two spindles of cotton candy as…