In any given year, a sizeable percentage of the best films will be documentaries. In fact, we have been living in a Golden Age of docs for a good ten years now. 2021 was no exception: films that inspired, informed and, yes, entertained were among the many non-fiction films released. A recap:
The Lost Leonardo
It plays like a mystery thriller, a true crime caper, and an art history class all wrapped up into one eye-opening flick that takes you to a world you probably didn’t know existed; the financial shenanigans, the backstabbing competitors, and the wealthy buyers. Oh, and there is the painting mentioned in the title- check out the official trailer for The Lost Leonardo and see if you’re not stoked to see it:
The Crime of the Century
The same holds true for the opioid epidemic. You may have seen all you care to see. I mean even fictional series like Goliath Season 3 and Hulu’s Dopesick, both of which were excellent, told the now familiar story of the Sackler family and how their company addicted millions and killed many. But Alex Gibney’s two-part expose was unparalleled in scope and you’ll watch and seethe and know much more than you did before. See the trailer and review here.
In the Same Breath
You might feel like you’re completely burned out on anything to do with the Covid pandemic, but this film from Chinese-American director Nanfu Wang is completely captivating. She just happened to be not far from Wuhan when things started to go down. Here’s the review and official trailer.
Great Music Docs!
This was maybe the best year ever for music docs – so many, and they were so good. From the new Tom Petty doc which you can watch here, to revealing films about Rick James , Alanis Morissette, and I swear to you, Kenny G ! Also the guy behind Saturday Night Fever, DMX and it looks like The Summer of Soul has a good shot at an Oscar Nomination, having made the shortlist and having won bog at the Critics Choice Awards. I liked the doc about Punk pioneer Lydia Lunch. Also a new Brian Wilson doc that was cool and a little band called The Beatles managed to get something like 7 hours of unseen footage assembled into a doc series by Peter King. You’ll find reviews of many of them by clicking here: https://www.entertainmentordie.com/category/streaming/
Best True Crime Docs
Music wasn’t the only subject of terrific documentaries this year. There was an abundance of really good True Crime docs. Even though I got mad at some of them for using actors’ voices and faces for some parts of their films (that was a no-no back in the day), at least they fully disclosed what was re-created and what was archival. Click on these titles to see the official trailers and reviews. They were my favorites. In no particular order:
Not forgetting: This is a Robbery, The Lady and the Dale, Assassins.
Best Sports Docs Weren’t Just for Sports Fans
I like sports but I am not a sports nut and I definitely never considered myself a sports film fan. But the beautiful bounty of sports flicks that were about much more than sports made it a banner year. For example, the series Bad Sport could have easily been put in the True Crime category – it’s a fascinating set of cheats and more. Some of these bad guys are even charming.
Same with the series Untold, which ranged from a then Bruce Jenner to a tennis pro whose mental breakdown came at just the wrong time – and several others.
LFG is nominally about the US women’s soccer team, but soccer is practically the B story for this highly personal telling of the stories of the women involved. Here’s the official trailer and review
Great list, well done Kyle!