I work for a temp agency in Chicago and was sent out to an assignment on my fourth day in the city. I started working as a clerk in a housing office and barcode, file and help organize things for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. We're allowed to listen to have our phones and listen to whatever we want so I've been hitting up my Netflix app in a serious (and accidentally expensive, sorry Dad) way. I figured documentaries would be the perfect thing to listen to since they use more interview/dialogue versus picture to convey the stories. In addition to watching two full seasons of New Girl and a bunch of TED talks, I managed to watch quite a few titles in the last two months and thought I would give my suggestions and little synopsis for each.
Here are the documentaries I've watched while filing, in order of my preference:
25. The Secret
-46/5
I actually couldn't get past five minutes into this documentary. It is THE most dramatic thing I've ever seen and I spent the last four years in a theatre department. Do yourself a favor and watch the first five minutes or so. When my mom came to visit me, the only person from home I'd seen since moving here, the first thing I did was show her this because it is that bad. Also, they tell you the secret in like the first minute of the documentary, terrible strategy fellas.
24. Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance
Rating: 2/5
Honestly this one was pretty much background noise. Murder/crime stuff interests me for whatever terrible curiosity that makes us read tabloids. I vaguely remember the actor who narrated Panzram's diary being super dramatic so that was relatively amusing if nothing else. Overall, pretty monotonous but kind of a cool insight into how much childhood can shape a person.
23. Kevorkian
2.5/5
This was about Dr. Kevorkian or Dr. Death, the gentleman who was arrested for providing physician assisted suicide for his fatally ill patients. Interesting to find out more information about it since the debate is still pretty relevant, but definitely a more quiet documentary than most. If you're looking for a good documentary on the topic, How To Die in Oregon is one of the better ones.
22. Following Sean
2.5/5
A documentarian recorded film of a 4-year-old child, Sean, of drug addicts in San Francisco in 1969. He now went back to catch up with Sean and family to see how they ended up years later and discusses the influence they had on each other's lives. Cute, simple, interesting enough.
21. The Jeffery Dahmer Files
3/5
Again, sick curiosity thing. At first this started super slow and dramatic but eventually it had a very interesting view of the case from the perspective of the lead investigator and next door neighbor. Since the case was very well known, the documentary took a look at the people who saw the humanity in him, however misguided they may have been at the time.
20. Not Safe for Children
3/5
Not technically a documentary but I thought it was at the time so I'm counting it. It follows the story of a guy whose whole life revolves around partying and realizes in his mid-twenties that he has testicular cancer and won't be able to have children. He has something like a month before his surgery to try to find someone to carry his child. It's kind of a cute, quirky love story and overall I thought it was pretty enjoyable.
19. Religulous
3.5/5
I usually don't like Bill Maher, sort of the Fox News of liberals but I was actually pretty surprised with this one. I definitely enjoyed all of the information and thought he was overall pretty respectful to those he talked to with differing opinions. It ends with a very reasonable and logical conclusion somewhere in between the extremes and didn't turn into the "Christians are idiots" act I sort of assumed it might be.
18. Becoming Chaz
3.5/5
The story of Chaz Bono and his journey of discovering his sexual identity. Pretty straight forward and what you think it's going to be like, but gender identity is a topic I'm interested in, so I found it enjoyable. And interviews with Cher are always silly. So, there's that.
17. Monica and David
3.5/5
The love story of two young adults and newly weds with down syndrome. Really sweet and interesting look at a topic a lot of people don't understand. Definitely worth watching.
16. First Circle
3.5/5
An exploration of the foster care system in America. It focuses on several families and their struggles with addiction, crime, relapse and attempting to keep families together. Interesting interviews with parents, kids, foster parents, police officers and social workers. I didn't feel that it played up the drama of an incredibly broken system, but rather had an relatively fair look at all sides of the issue.
15. The Science of Sex Appeal
4/5
Through multiple studies and social experiments, this film shows the actual science behind what attracts human beings. Taking a very emotionally removed look at what makes someone attractive and featured a super cool software that generates how attractive you are on a scale of 1/10. (Yes, Derik and I did do the program online for both of us. And both of the cats. Walter actually was rated pretty high on the scale of human attractiveness, the program was horrified by Henry's kitten proportions. Bummer, Hen). I was thoroughly entertained (and often surprised) the entire time.
14. Tabloid
4/5
Watch this documentary for the bizarre twists and turns it takes in this seriously disturbed woman's story. I literally laughed out loud in the middle of work during the last 15 minutes as it was so entirely off the path of the rest of the story. It follows the story of Joyce McKinney, a former beauty queen with an abnormally high IQ and former prisoner on charges of kidnapping and assaulting her alleged fiancee/random guy who didn't know her that well, whom she claims was kidnapped by Mormons and taken hostage in London. It's just the weirdest thing. Watch it. And then live text me your reaction to the last 15 minutes. It gets seriously funny.
13. Sons of Perdition
4/5
This film goes into "The Crick", a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints located in Colorado City. It centers around escapees from the community and their transition into mainstream America. It's a very honest look at the challenges of education, drug abuse and housing that these young people instantly face upon leaving the Crick with no contact or support from everything they used to know.
12. Wake Up
4/5
A surprisingly good documentary about a man who wakes up one day with the ability to see ghosts, spirits, demons and energy. The journey this guy goes on to try to cope and rediscover his spirituality with his ridiculously understanding girlfriend by his side really makes you connect to his story. At first I was pretty skeptical and distant from the idea, but by the end of the movie, whether or not you believe he can see these things has nothing to do with the empathy you feel for his personal journey. Definitely recommended.
11. Mario's Story
4/5
The story of wrongfully imprisoned young man who was convicted in the most ridiculously shitty trial ever and has now found his voice and salvation through writing. Obviously, I had a connection to someone expressing themselves through words, but the film also really goes into the frustrating and infuriating process of trying to appeal a wrongful conviction, no matter how ridiculous the initial trial was. A definite must see.
10. Wish me Away
4/5
The film follows the story of Cheryl Wright's rise to fame and struggle to keep her personal life secret as she came to terms with being a lesbian. The bravery, integrity and strength of Wright and the dramatic consequences she still faces as a member of the LGBT community as well as the world of country music reinforce the importance of immediate equality. So great and so relevant.
9. A Place at the Table
4/5
This follows the Food Insecurity crisis in America and the effects on the development of children in low income houses. It shows the massive holes in the government assistance provided for lower income houses and the correlating rise of childhood obesity. This movie was an informative, moving and clear representation of the crisis in this country and the people who are taking steps to change it.
8. Miss Representation
4/5
Feminism. Roles of media and body perception. Keeping young women focused on being healthy as opposed to skinny. This documentary was absolutely right up my alley. It had great information and a wonderful message. My biggest complaint with this was the incredibly dramatic interviews with middle schoolers crying for two minutes at a time and the unnaturally soothing voice of the narrator/documentarian. They just pulled me out of the experience entirely. I totally get how much middle school girls are affected by body image issues, I think they have very valid things to say in many cases, I don't want to listen to them cry over and over again. It just strikes me as over dramatizing a legitimate problem and making it less approachable to those not directly experiencing this on a daily basis. Also, as a Yoga teacher I of all people should know you have to control how calming and soothing you try to make your voice so it's comforting and not serial killer-y. Overall, I definitely enjoyed the movie, just wish it had been slightly less emotionally driven as the subject is incredibly emotional in itself.
7. Salinger
4/5
This film reveals the secret life of J.D. Salinger, discusses his work and dives into the scandals and controversies surrounding his work, lovers and the public reaction to The Catcher in the Rye. This one started off kind of slow for me, but eventually it got pretty interesting. Turns out that J.D. Salinger is like the world's WORST human being. Just absolutely god awful person to the people in his life. But, on a happier note, he has a lot of unpublished work (specifically the full chronicles of the Glass family and the Caulfield family) that was kept in a safe for after his death and they'll be released in the next few years.
6. A Necessary Death
4/5
So, this one isn't technically a documentary and maybe it's just because I thought it was a real documentary until about halfway through, but I absolutely loved it. The basic concept of the movie is a documentary following the making of a documentary about a person who has decided to commit suicide. It's super dramatic but very well done and I definitely would recommend it to someone who is just transitioning into watching documentaries from traditional fictional films.
5. Sound and Fury
4.5/5
In addition to the relevancy it has to the current project that I'm writing, I really connected to this film for the sheer complexity of the issue. It discusses the debate about getting a cochlear implant for a deaf child and how that affects the child and their relationship with the deaf community. To those in the hearing community that aren't terribly familiar with the conversation going on about cochlear implants, it's a really interesting and approachable look into the collision of the deaf and hearing world.
4. Crime After Crime
4.5/5
I loved this film. Very similar to the style of some of the other crime documentaries listed earlier. This is the story of Deborah Peagler, a severely abused housewife who was entirely trapped into her relationship despite her many attempts to escape the relationship. When the police left her to continue into her abusive marriage, she turned to a few men that her family said would scare him away from her, things got out of control and the men ended up killing him. She's then imprisoned for a life sentence and upon hearing her story, two incredibly dedicated attorneys stand by her side to fight against the poorly conducted investigation and trial to win her freedom.
3. I Am
5/5
This was written and directed by Tom Shadyac, director of Patch Adams, Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty. After suffering from a traumatic brain injury from a biking accident, he underwent a massive life and philosophy change. He went on a journey to explore what matters most and how to live a life that's good for you, your community and the earth. Sounds a little hokey, but his comedic style and candor towards the idea of an enlightened coexistent society makes it both approachable and allows the more sentimental moments to be earned. Definite must see.
2. The Invisible War
5/5
Gorgeously portrayed movie about rape and sexual assault within the US military and the extreme delay in veterans benefits for disabled service members upon returning home. It interviews several veterans and details their attacks, reports, any disciplinary actions taken and political responses. Addresses the structural flaws in the reporting and trial systems in the armed forces and the progress it's made.
1. The Woman Who Wasn't There
17/5
I actually stayed an extra half hour so I could see how this one ended. This will really only be as shocking to you if you don't know the story of Tania Head. If you don't know her DON'T GOOGLE HER WATCH THIS MOVIE INSTEAD. It revolves around 9/11 without being political or offering theories and has probably the craziest twist ever. Stop reading this and go watch it, unless you already know the story, in which case, go find someone who doesn't and make them watch it.
That's all for now. I'll definitely get to watching more and maybe I'll post a second list.
