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50 fabulous documentary films, covering hard politics through to music, money and films that never were...
Thanks to streaming services such as Netflix, we’ve never had better access to documentaries. A whole new audience can discover that these real life stories are just as thrilling, entertaining, and incredible as the latest big-budget blockbuster. What’s more, they’re all true too. But with a new found glut of them comes the ever more impossible choice, what’s worth your time? Below is my pick of the 50 best modern feature length documentaries.
I’ve defined modern as being from 2000 onwards, which means some of the greatest documentaries ever made will not feature here. I’m looking at you Hoop Dreams.
50. McConkey (2013)
d. Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, Murray Wais, Steve Winter, David Zieff
Shane McConkey was an extreme skier and Base jumper who lived life on the edge, and very much to the full.
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50 fabulous documentary films, covering hard politics through to music, money and films that never were...
Thanks to streaming services such as Netflix, we’ve never had better access to documentaries. A whole new audience can discover that these real life stories are just as thrilling, entertaining, and incredible as the latest big-budget blockbuster. What’s more, they’re all true too. But with a new found glut of them comes the ever more impossible choice, what’s worth your time? Below is my pick of the 50 best modern feature length documentaries.
I’ve defined modern as being from 2000 onwards, which means some of the greatest documentaries ever made will not feature here. I’m looking at you Hoop Dreams.
50. McConkey (2013)
d. Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, Murray Wais, Steve Winter, David Zieff
Shane McConkey was an extreme skier and Base jumper who lived life on the edge, and very much to the full.
- 11/12/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
- 1/23/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
“Movies do not change anything…”Werner Herzog says calmly into the microphone surrounded by the scarlet and black colours of Qtv radio’s studio. The interviewer, Jian Ghomeshi, is momentarily stunned and repeats Herzog’s statement in search of an explanation. Ghomeshi’s surprise is understandable. In front of him sits arguably one of the most respected directors alive today, so much so, his films are considered some of the finest in recent film history by cinema goers and critics alike. However, Herzog’s statement is, as always, no off the cuff remark. He effortlessly articulates his point in his distinct and captivating German accent. The point he makes in regard to one of his more recent films ‘Into the Abyss’ (a film about the death penalty in the United States) is that the notion that films can evoke effective change is exaggerated and change can only come about through political debate and media outlets,...
- 12/17/2012
- by Anders Anglesey
- Obsessed with Film
We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.
With this weekend’s impending release of Shark Night 3D, we at The Scorecard Review thought it appropriate to take a look back at Hollywood’s best in the killer beast department. As a note to the reader: We’ve taken King Kong, velociraptors, and all the other fantastical creatures of H-wood, out of the running — this list is to feature killer animals that populate films of a certain degree of realism. Yes, this stuff could actually happen! Really!
I swear!
7. Anaconda (1997)
Recap: A “National Geographic” film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter (Jon Voight), who takes them along on his quest to capture the world’s largest – and deadliest – snake.
Reason: This movie is truly awful. But it’s also hilarious, and fun to watch. The cast is as ridiculous as the fakey-as-all-get-out snake. Jennifer Lopez shows off her...
With this weekend’s impending release of Shark Night 3D, we at The Scorecard Review thought it appropriate to take a look back at Hollywood’s best in the killer beast department. As a note to the reader: We’ve taken King Kong, velociraptors, and all the other fantastical creatures of H-wood, out of the running — this list is to feature killer animals that populate films of a certain degree of realism. Yes, this stuff could actually happen! Really!
I swear!
7. Anaconda (1997)
Recap: A “National Geographic” film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter (Jon Voight), who takes them along on his quest to capture the world’s largest – and deadliest – snake.
Reason: This movie is truly awful. But it’s also hilarious, and fun to watch. The cast is as ridiculous as the fakey-as-all-get-out snake. Jennifer Lopez shows off her...
- 9/1/2011
- by Aaron Ruffcorn
- The Scorecard Review
Werner Herzog's presence in his own films – including the new Cave of Forgotten Dreams – marks him out as a romantic, eager to experience what he's trying to understand
Few film directors seem as directly present in their work as Werner Herzog. Not only does he have an instantly recognisable aesthetic, but unlike most European auteurs of his generation, he has become a familiar face in front of the camera. We are so accustomed to seeing him – playing football with Peruvian indians, arguing with Klaus Kinski, eating his own shoe at Chez Panisse – that we might mistake him for just another "personality", one of the celebrities who parade past at various scales, from cellphone to Times Square, on our screens. Directors are required to be showmen, particularly directors of documentaries, who always have to hustle to finance and screen their work. But Herzog's presence, his insistence on being in the middle of things,...
Few film directors seem as directly present in their work as Werner Herzog. Not only does he have an instantly recognisable aesthetic, but unlike most European auteurs of his generation, he has become a familiar face in front of the camera. We are so accustomed to seeing him – playing football with Peruvian indians, arguing with Klaus Kinski, eating his own shoe at Chez Panisse – that we might mistake him for just another "personality", one of the celebrities who parade past at various scales, from cellphone to Times Square, on our screens. Directors are required to be showmen, particularly directors of documentaries, who always have to hustle to finance and screen their work. But Herzog's presence, his insistence on being in the middle of things,...
- 4/18/2011
- by Hari Kunzru
- The Guardian - Film News
He has a reputation for being difficult and dangerous, his films celebrated for their nihilistic brilliance. Yet despite saying he never smiles, the German director can't stop laughing at himself – and the comedy in his work
Perhaps it is because the German film-maker Werner Herzog has, over the years, during working hours, been shot at, hauled a steamboat over a mountain, threatened to kill his leading man, thrown himself on a cactus, informed the Greek military that he would kill anyone who got in the way of his filming, been caught in the middle of a South American border war, taken a film crew to the lip of a volcano, and once, on camera, ate his shoe, he has a reputation for, let's say, reckless eccentricity.
It is a reputation that has been compounded by events that have happened to him off sets – including being shot by an air rifle...
Perhaps it is because the German film-maker Werner Herzog has, over the years, during working hours, been shot at, hauled a steamboat over a mountain, threatened to kill his leading man, thrown himself on a cactus, informed the Greek military that he would kill anyone who got in the way of his filming, been caught in the middle of a South American border war, taken a film crew to the lip of a volcano, and once, on camera, ate his shoe, he has a reputation for, let's say, reckless eccentricity.
It is a reputation that has been compounded by events that have happened to him off sets – including being shot by an air rifle...
- 3/7/2011
- by Hadley Freeman
- The Guardian - Film News
Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski on the set of Cobra Verde Top Ten Werner Herzog Films
The films of Werner Herzog haunt that hazy corridor between dream and reality, where madness and the true nature of the universe lurk. They're surreal, but not by any of the boiler-plate attributes we associate with head-trip cinema. They're horrific, but never by cheap shocks. They're beautiful, but not in a painterly sense. Each one is a tone poem searching for both new images and what Herzog calls the "ecstatic truth," a blending of fact and fiction for a higher cause. There's a uniqueness to his films that's unforgettable.
I not only admire Herzog's films, I admire the man behind them. Herzog's fearlessness is fascinating. He's an artist who risks it all to get "the shot." Studio backlot shooting is not an option. His obsessive, nearly self-destructive need to film in the hottest of...
The films of Werner Herzog haunt that hazy corridor between dream and reality, where madness and the true nature of the universe lurk. They're surreal, but not by any of the boiler-plate attributes we associate with head-trip cinema. They're horrific, but never by cheap shocks. They're beautiful, but not in a painterly sense. Each one is a tone poem searching for both new images and what Herzog calls the "ecstatic truth," a blending of fact and fiction for a higher cause. There's a uniqueness to his films that's unforgettable.
I not only admire Herzog's films, I admire the man behind them. Herzog's fearlessness is fascinating. He's an artist who risks it all to get "the shot." Studio backlot shooting is not an option. His obsessive, nearly self-destructive need to film in the hottest of...
- 9/20/2010
- by David Frank
- Rope of Silicon
We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.
Top 7 “When Animals Attack “Movies
This weekend’s Furry Vengeance may make you wish for a good old-fashioned homicidal animal on a rampage movie. Sure you could sit in front of Syfy and watch “Megashark” or “Megadodo,” but you’re a connoisseur, you read The Scorecard Review, you want the best. Here are a list of the finest films featuring angry, overlarge, killer beasts.
For more Top 7 lists, click here
7. Alligator (1980)
Recap: Do you remember that urban legend about alligators in the sewers? Well this film, written by John Sayles (of Eight Men Out fame) posits that a baby alligator, flushed down a toilet in Chicago grows over time into a huge behemoth. Soon the entire city of Chicago is in a panic with only cop David Madison (Robert Forster) standing between the populace and man-eating reptilian destruction.
Reason: Sure it’s cheesy,...
Top 7 “When Animals Attack “Movies
This weekend’s Furry Vengeance may make you wish for a good old-fashioned homicidal animal on a rampage movie. Sure you could sit in front of Syfy and watch “Megashark” or “Megadodo,” but you’re a connoisseur, you read The Scorecard Review, you want the best. Here are a list of the finest films featuring angry, overlarge, killer beasts.
For more Top 7 lists, click here
7. Alligator (1980)
Recap: Do you remember that urban legend about alligators in the sewers? Well this film, written by John Sayles (of Eight Men Out fame) posits that a baby alligator, flushed down a toilet in Chicago grows over time into a huge behemoth. Soon the entire city of Chicago is in a panic with only cop David Madison (Robert Forster) standing between the populace and man-eating reptilian destruction.
Reason: Sure it’s cheesy,...
- 4/27/2010
- by Megan Lehar
- The Scorecard Review
PARK CITY -- Using a dead man's astonishing footage and a few key interviews, Werner Herzog has in "Grizzly Man" made a gripping, one-of-a-kind movie. It's a journey into a heart of darkness, where nearly everything one sees seeks to deny that darkness. It's one of the best nature films ever made, a brilliant and poetic portrait of a haunted yet happy man mired in controversy and a provocative meditation on the Walden ideal and man's romance with the myth of nature and its innocence.
Produced by the Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit and Lions Gate, "Grizzly Man" already has its TV and theatrical exposure assured. Each will undoubtedly promote the other but, really and truly, this is one doc you've got to see on a big screen.
Timothy Treadwell, a well-known advocate for the grizzly bear who lectured about and fought for the preservation of the animal, died in October 2003. He was killed and partially devoured along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard by a grizzly in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve.
Herzog gained access to the 100 hours of film Treadwell shot over 13 summers he spent among the bears in the Kodiak archipelago. Treadwell carried no weapon and fancied himself a friend and protector of these fierce and enormous wild beasts. He gave the bears and other wild animals names and, ignoring criticism by wildlife experts, portrayed bears in a book and his lectures to schoolchildren as cuddly creatures.
The first and most admirable thing Herzog does is to treat Treadwell as a fellow filmmaker. He finds in the beautifully shot footage a compelling aesthetic. "I discovered a film of human ecstasies and darkest inner turmoil," he has, "as if there was a desire in him to leave the confinements of his humanness and bond with the bears."
Herzog then explores the root of this desire to mutate into a wild animal. Interviews and the footage itself demonstrate that for Treadwell this was partially a spiritual experience and partially a desire for distance from human society, where he did not fit in and which often filed him with rage.
Possibly a manic-depressive, Treadwell failed at a Hollywood career -- he supposedly was a contender for the Woody Harrelson role in "Cheers" -- and allowed drugs and alcohol to eat away at his self-worth. Then he discovered the land of the bears. That proved stimulant enough.
Standing in front of his carefully positioned camera as bears graze or fish nearby, Treadwell in a high-pitched and overly excited voice rhapsodizes about his love for wild animals and extols the virtues of bear life.
Locals and scientists rightly protest to Herzog that Treadwell crossed an invisible boundary carefully erected between humans and grizzlies and that his socialization of the animals took away the bears' natural fear of men. One even insists that poaching has never really been a serious threat to the thousands of grizzlies in Alaska.
Yet Treadwell did achieve ecstasy and a wary peace within the bear community. (He is believed to have been killed by a bear he did not know.) Dwelling among wildlife enabled him to thumb his nose at civilization. It was his way to rebel against society and create a fiction about himself.
He pretended to be an Australian when he actually came from New York. In the film he never got to make, he wanted to portray himself as a man alone in the wilderness when in fact he often had woman companions whom he was careful to keep out of view. He fashioned himself into a grizzly man, half bear and half man, who clearly favored his animal side.
Herzog's narration is insightful and lyrical yet grounded in reality. He refuses to get sucked into the myth of animal nobility and innocence. He sees rather a natural kingdom filed with chaos and violence. Herzog has throughout his career been a master of portraying human obsession. In Timothy Treadwell, he may have found his ultimate obsessed man.
Richard Thompson's guitar-flavored score is a beaut.
GRIZZLY MAN
Lions Gate Films/Discovery Docs
Credits:
Director/narrator: Werner Herzog
Producer: Erik Nelson
Executive producers: Billy Campbell, Tom Ortenberg, Kevin Beggs, Phil Fairclough, Andrea Meditch
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Music: Richard Thompson
Editor: Joe Bini
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 103 minutes...
Produced by the Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit and Lions Gate, "Grizzly Man" already has its TV and theatrical exposure assured. Each will undoubtedly promote the other but, really and truly, this is one doc you've got to see on a big screen.
Timothy Treadwell, a well-known advocate for the grizzly bear who lectured about and fought for the preservation of the animal, died in October 2003. He was killed and partially devoured along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard by a grizzly in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve.
Herzog gained access to the 100 hours of film Treadwell shot over 13 summers he spent among the bears in the Kodiak archipelago. Treadwell carried no weapon and fancied himself a friend and protector of these fierce and enormous wild beasts. He gave the bears and other wild animals names and, ignoring criticism by wildlife experts, portrayed bears in a book and his lectures to schoolchildren as cuddly creatures.
The first and most admirable thing Herzog does is to treat Treadwell as a fellow filmmaker. He finds in the beautifully shot footage a compelling aesthetic. "I discovered a film of human ecstasies and darkest inner turmoil," he has, "as if there was a desire in him to leave the confinements of his humanness and bond with the bears."
Herzog then explores the root of this desire to mutate into a wild animal. Interviews and the footage itself demonstrate that for Treadwell this was partially a spiritual experience and partially a desire for distance from human society, where he did not fit in and which often filed him with rage.
Possibly a manic-depressive, Treadwell failed at a Hollywood career -- he supposedly was a contender for the Woody Harrelson role in "Cheers" -- and allowed drugs and alcohol to eat away at his self-worth. Then he discovered the land of the bears. That proved stimulant enough.
Standing in front of his carefully positioned camera as bears graze or fish nearby, Treadwell in a high-pitched and overly excited voice rhapsodizes about his love for wild animals and extols the virtues of bear life.
Locals and scientists rightly protest to Herzog that Treadwell crossed an invisible boundary carefully erected between humans and grizzlies and that his socialization of the animals took away the bears' natural fear of men. One even insists that poaching has never really been a serious threat to the thousands of grizzlies in Alaska.
Yet Treadwell did achieve ecstasy and a wary peace within the bear community. (He is believed to have been killed by a bear he did not know.) Dwelling among wildlife enabled him to thumb his nose at civilization. It was his way to rebel against society and create a fiction about himself.
He pretended to be an Australian when he actually came from New York. In the film he never got to make, he wanted to portray himself as a man alone in the wilderness when in fact he often had woman companions whom he was careful to keep out of view. He fashioned himself into a grizzly man, half bear and half man, who clearly favored his animal side.
Herzog's narration is insightful and lyrical yet grounded in reality. He refuses to get sucked into the myth of animal nobility and innocence. He sees rather a natural kingdom filed with chaos and violence. Herzog has throughout his career been a master of portraying human obsession. In Timothy Treadwell, he may have found his ultimate obsessed man.
Richard Thompson's guitar-flavored score is a beaut.
GRIZZLY MAN
Lions Gate Films/Discovery Docs
Credits:
Director/narrator: Werner Herzog
Producer: Erik Nelson
Executive producers: Billy Campbell, Tom Ortenberg, Kevin Beggs, Phil Fairclough, Andrea Meditch
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Music: Richard Thompson
Editor: Joe Bini
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 103 minutes...
- 1/27/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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