Documentary Binge: Catching Up on This Year's Fascinating Nonfiction
As great as 2014 has been for narrative features, it’s been an equally excellent year for documentary films. In fact, many of 2014’s best cinematic nonfiction actually complements some of the year’s most acclaimed fiction movies like the Captain America sequel and Birdman. Check our viewing guide below to see the documentaries you’ll want to consider after watching your favorite blockbusters.
Citizenfour
If You Like: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Then You’ll Love: Citizenfour
The latest Marvel Studios confection has some surprisingly timely and intelligent things to say about the perils of the surveillance state. But Laura Poitras’ up-close-and-personal profile of Edward Snowden proves even more harrowing as it locks you in a Hong Kong hotel room with the controversial whistle blower as he prepares to release the information that will transform him from government drone to international fugitive. While The Winter Soldier boasts a number of great action sequences, a simple scene of Snowden’s hotel room phone repeatedly ringing while he’s leaking state secrets proves even more pulse pounding than any of Cap’s shield-throwing antics. (Citizenfour is currently playing in theaters)
If You Like: Boyhood
Then You’ll Love: 12 O’Clock Boys
Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making epic following the same boy as he grows into a young man is an impressive achievement by any stretch of the imagination. Lofty Nathan’s 12 O’Clock Boys provides a similar experience, albeit on a smaller scale. Over the course of three years and 76 minutes, viewers watch Baltimore native Pug sprout up from age 13 to 16, all the while dreaming of becoming part of the city’s titular crew of urban dirt bike aficionados. As he ages though, various tragedies and setbacks fundamentally alter his personality, potentially sending him down a less-than-ideal path. The documentary’s secondary focus on his home city’s racial divide and institutional problems makes it as much a companion piece to The Wire as it is to Boyhood. (12 O’Clock Boys is currently available on DVD and for digital rental on iTunes and YouTube)
Adam Winfield (center) from The Kill Team
If You Like: American Sniper
Then You’ll Love: The Kill Team
The Clint Eastwood-directed, Bradley Cooper-starring biopic of much-decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle emphatically salutes its main character and his brothers-in-arms, even while acknowledging the physical and emotional scars multiple tours of duty left on their psyches. Dan Krauss’s The Kill Team explores the darker side of military brotherhood, recounting the story of infantryman Adam Winfield, who attempted to inform his higher-ups about the questionable tactics his units were using in Afghanistan. By standing up to his platoon however, Specialist Winfield also made himself a target and altered his perceptions about what it means to be a “good soldier.” (The Kill Team is currently available for digital rental on iTunes and Amazon Instant)
If You Like: Whiplash
Then You’ll Love: Keep on Keepin’ On
It’s possible to enjoy Damien Chazelle’s blistering sophomore feature, starring Miles Teller as a would-be superstar drummer and J.K. Simmons as his combative teacher, without finding it a realistic depiction of jazz musicians. For realism, you can turn to Al Hicks’ Keep on Keepin’ On, which depicts the far healthier teacher-student relationship between octogenarian jazz legend Clark Terry and his latest pupil, blind twentysomething pianist Justin Kauflin. Needless to say, Terry doesn’t force Kauflin to play until his hands bleed. (Keep on Keepin’ On is currently playing in limited theatrical release)
National Gallery
If You Like: Mr. Turner
Then You’ll Love: National Gallery
London’s National Gallery is home to several paintings by celebrated 19th century British master J.M.W. Turner, who serves as the subject of Mike Leigh’s rapturously reviewed new biopic. But that’s only one reason why Frederick Wiseman’s three-hour tour of the museum plays like an unofficial sequel to Leigh’s film. Both movies tackle big questions about the creative impulse, artistic intention and how works of art endure (or don’t) over ten, fifty or a hundred years. (National Gallery is currently playing in limited theatrical release)
20,000 Days on Earth
If You Like: Birdman
Then You’ll Love: 20,000 Days on Earth
One of the pleasures of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s comic book broadside Birdman is the way it plays on the superhero past of its own leading man, Michael Keaton, incorporating aspects of the actor’s own history and filmography into his alter ego Riggan Thomson. Singer/songwriter Nick Cave plays similar games in the docu-fiction hybrid 20,000 Days, in which he chronicles 24 hours in his 20,000th day on terra firma. (20,000 Days on Earth is available on DVD and for digital rental on iTunes and Vudu)
If You Like: Love is Strange
Then You’ll Love: The Case Against 8
Ira Sachs’s Love is Strange opens with the happiest day in its characters’ lives: when longtime Manhattan couple Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) tie the knot in front of friends and family. Sadly, it’s kind of downhill from there as a series of unfortunate events disrupt their comfortable existence. What allows them to endure all the indignities that life subsequently throws at them is the pride in knowing that they’re legally wed. As the galvanizing doc The Case Against 8 reminds us, that’s a right the LGBT community in California fought hard for, battling back against the well-funded proponents of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. And even though we know the ending — gay marriage is now legal in the state — it doesn’t make the journey there any less resonant. (The Case Against 8 is currently streaming on HBO Go)
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
If You Like: The Wind Rises & The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Than You’ll Love: The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Japan’s Studio Ghibli has been churning out animated classics like Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away for three decades now. But with the release of what will likely be the final two movies from the company’s premiere directors — Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises and Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya — Ghibli’s future is very much in doubt. Mami Sunada’s incisive documentary invites viewers into the studio’s hallowed halls for what might be its final days, allowing us to witness first-hand how Miyazaki paints his masterpieces. (The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is currently playing in limited theatrical release)
Image credit: © 2013 dwango
