Ten Excellent Documentaries You Absolutely Need to Watch Now

There’s more than just National Geographic shows out there

When most people hear the word “documentary,” something very specific comes to mind. Depending on your age, it might be the terrible documentaries you saw in school in the 1960s and 1970s, or Jacques Cousteau and his adventures on the Calypso, or more recently the David Attenborough Planet Earth series. For nearly everyone the word will conjure the image of a lion creeping silently across the African savanna, stealthily stalking a gazelle for dinner.

All of these are indeed documentaries, but they barely scratch the surface of an art form that, after all, has its own category at the Academy Awards. In fact, they show up in two categories: Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary (Short Subject). Those are typically awarded off-air and even if they have a famous narrator (like Tom Hanks, for example), you won’t see them covered on Entertainment Tonight. That’s a shame, because many of them are light years better than the latest episode of The Voice or The Bachelor.

With all the streaming services available today, the number of documentaries to choose from is almost overwhelming, covering every possible subject. The most common, at the moment at least, are in the areas of true crime and music, along with a surprising number of profiles of former WWE wrestlers (I didn’t say all documentaries were good).

While I have loved documentaries since I was a kid, it took the various lockdowns over the past two years to move me to the point that I will seek them out even before the latest action movie. That’s because while nearly all action movies (no matter how enjoyable) are basically the same, every documentary is different.

The ten films listed here show just how different, and all are ones I have watched (or re-watched) recently. Each is available on at least the platform indicated, with several available on multiple platforms.

1. The Booksellers (Amazon Prime, 2019). It should come as no shock that as a former bookseller this one leads off the list. Set in the world of antiquarian booksellers and collectors, it’s a fascinating look at the history of book collecting and booksellers as well as the challenges the 21st century holds for a trade (or mania, depending on who you ask) that had existed almost unchanged for the previous 500 years. By the end you’ll want to be a book collector (if you’re not already), which is definitely a good thing.

2. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (Netflix, 2017). I knew that Joan Didion was a giant in the world of journalism and one of the best essayists who ever lived, but prior to watching this film (directed by actor Griffin Dunne, who also happens to be Didion’s nephew) I knew very little about her life, and what an amazing life it was. She was like a magnet, drawing in everyone from Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin to Martin Scorsese and Harrison Ford (who worked as a carpenter at her house pre-Star Wars). The latter part of the film, which shows how she dealt with multiple family tragedies through writing, is particularly moving.

3. California Typewriter (Amazon Prime, 2016). I freely admit that I am a Luddite; it would not break my heart at all to wake up and find that smartphones and the Internet no longer exist. But I don’t just love typewriters because of my disdain for technology (he says while typing this on an iPad). I still occasionally use one when writing a novel because it’s a tactile experience and watching the finished pages pile up gives me a sense of accomplishment. This look into the admittedly niche world of typewriter enthusiasts (the aforementioned Tom Hanks among them) will make you yearn for the days when we sat in front of a battered Smith Corona instead of a computer screen.

4. The Magic of Heineken (Amazon Prime, 2014). You probably know Heineken best from their iconic green bottle (or maybe their sometimes-off-the-wall commercials). But did you know that Heineken is still owned by the Heineken family 150 years after its founding? I didn’t, and that’s just one of the many things I learned in this compelling documentary. By the end, you’ll definitively want an ice-cold Heineken.

5. Fear City: New York vs The Mafia (Netflix, 2020). I’ve written several articles here about the Mafia and read more books about them than I care to admit. I can say with confidence that this three-part series is one of the best you’ll find, and while it does cover their history in America, the main focus is on the FBI’s efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980’s to finally break the Mob’s stranglehold on New York City.

6. This is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist (Netflix, 2021). What could be better than a deep dive into the biggest art theft in U.S. history, one that remains unsolved 32 years later? This look at the 1990 heist at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that made off with $500 million in artwork, including Rembrandt’s 1633 painting The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, reexamines the evidence and theories with a fresh eye. And for you amateur sleuths, the $10 million reward for the return of the paintings is still out there.

7. Nora Ephron: Everything is Copy (HBO Max, 2015). Like the Joan Didion documentary, Everything is Copy is more than just a biography of a great writer (and filmmaker); it’s a look into the mind of a woman who broke the proverbial glass ceiling in every arena she entered, and managed to be funny while doing it. This film was made by her son Jacob Bernstein and, also like the Didion documentary, gives an insider’s view you typically don’t get.

8. They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Netflix, 2018). Of all the documentaries in this list, this one is the most likely to grab the attention of noted cineaste Simon Dillon. It chronicles the making of Orson Welles’s final film, The Other Side of the Wind, which he started in 1970 and was not released until 2018, a full 33 years after the great director’s death. It is a peek into the mind of a filmmaking genius who struggled his whole life to be remembered for more than just Citizen Kane.

9. Secrets of Great British Castles (Netflix, 2015). Far too often history documentaries are boring, which is crazy because history is so damn interesting. Combining history and architecture could have been a recipe for disaster, but the 12 episodes of Dan Jones’s series are among the favorite shows I’ve watched during the pandemic era.

10. The Irish Pub (Amazon Prime, 2013). I often mention my Italian heritage, but this film about the pubs of Ireland and those stalwart souls who run them brought my Irish roots solidly to the forefront. Drinking establishments with any character have become a rarity in the United States; in Ireland, pubs with character are the norm, as are the characters who frequent them.

As I said earlier, there are a plethora of great documentaries available today and while these ten just scratch the surface, they are a great place to start. And if you noticed that there are no music documentaries here, fear not; ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke and Springsteen’s Letter to You are next up in my queue.

Let me know in the comments about your favorites that I need to watch.

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