My 5 Favorite Documentaries

The world of documentaries is a mixed bag. You hope they will inform you on a subject that you may not know much about, but not over inform you to the point of boredom (any Ken Burns doc). You want them to be entertaining, but not so entertaining that they lose the point of the doc. It’s almost impossible to get a balanced documentary these days (Michael Moore). In fact, it’s almost a badge of honor to make a slanted documentary.

With a few exceptions, the best documentaries show little or nothing of the director for the project. I’ve compiled a list of documentaries that had a pretty big effect on me and ones that I can recommend to anyone.

5 – Catfish

There isn’t much I can/will say about this one. I would even advise that you don’t watch the trailer and just start the movie. When I first watched the trailer, it stressed me out. It looked like the scariest true story ever. Now that Catfish is a series on MTV, the term and mystery should not be a mystery to anyone, in fact it may be cheapened a bit. I’ll just say that this documentary made me feel pretty much every emotion: Anxiety, empathy, fear, sadness, pity and anger. So basically I was all over the emotional scale except for happiness. This movie will provide you and other viewers with a great conversation after it’s over.

4 – The Cove

Call me a terrible person, but I’ve never been into nature preservation documentaries. They’ve always been too heavy-handed and tend to test your patience. I’ve rarely had such a damning and uncomfortable movie-watching experience as I did while watching The Cove. This 2006 doc follows Ric O’Barry, a former dolphin trainer turned renegade activist, as he hatches a plan to record a dolphin slaughter in a cove in Japan.

This movie fires on all cylinders. It’s 1/3 conspiracy movie, 1/3 heist flick and 1/3 ohhhh, I feel sick about this. Even when the camera crew is not doing anything wrong, you can feel the tension and suspicion from the Japanese town’s citizens. You’ll never hate the term “Private Space” so much as in this movie. The intensity, as the crew places the hidden cameras, is better than anything Oceans 11 could dream of. And seeing the water turn blood red, near the end, is completely awful and unforgettable. I’m not trying to depress you with this, I’m just saying it is so incredibly effective.

3 – Grizzly Man

This documentary is taken from Timothy Treadwell’s footage of his time with the bears in Alaska and from interviews about people who knew him. This is worth watching just to see what led to Timothy Treadwell’s final, deadly confrontation with a bear. This movie makes you question Treadwell and agree with him the next minute. Is he a rogue lunatic tempting nature or a caring nature-lover trying to preserve the bears’ way of life?

As this movie ended, I wanted to keep researching Treadwell. This is a haunting documentary that has continued to keep me thinking about it. In the end, you’re left with the question, do I want to hear the death tape or would it be too damaging?

2 – Man on Wire

Much like the enigmatic subject Timothy Treadwell, this movie focuses on a bizarre daredevil, Philippe Petit. This doc is built around his insane goal to illegally cross the World Trade Center’s twin towers on a tightrope. It uses dramatizations, actual footage and interviews to tell the story. Your excitement will keep building as you see footage of a younger Philippe cross several record-setting tightrope walks, and culminates in his 1974 grand feat.

Much like The Cove, this experience feels like a heist movie. He and his team had to sneak the cable into the buildings, dodge security guards, mount the cables and cross the gap successfully. Even when he knew he would be arrested for the act, he had to perform for his own personal glory. As someone who has a serious aversion to heights, this movie had me sweating and I even knew the outcome.

1 – The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

If someone asks for a fun weekend movie recommendation, King of Kong is one of my go-to movies. This documentary has everything I want to see in a movie: A hero, a villain, fighting the establishment, the establishment fighting back, victory and sacrifice. After seeing this movie, you’ll never be able to forget the saga of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell.

Don’t let your apathy of old school arcade games turn you away from this doc. You will not believe the underground existence of 50 year old arcade gamers and fans. It exists and they have power (though not over women). This documentary is all about trying to beat the all-time score on Donkey Kong. Yes, Donkey Kong. Self-proclaimed legend Billy Mitchell has maintained the high score for nearly 30 years until a regular family man, Steve Wiebe, tries to beat his score and upset the balance of the arcade world. King of Kong proves that corruption can be found in the most unlikely places. If you haven’t seen this yet, GO GET IT NOW! And once you finish it, you’ll see that the battle continues to this day.