Style
“Rafa”: the Destruction of a Man, and the Making of a Legend
For tennis champion Rafael Nadal, pain has always felt like weakness leaving the body, and a new Netflix docuseries shows the boons of…
Tag
documentaries
Fashion
Sofia Coppola Stays in the Shallow End with the New Marc Jacobs Documentary
In the show notes handed to audience members at Marc Jacobs’s Fall/Winter 2026 presentation, at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in early…
News
Two New Documentaries Are Haunted by Unsettling Natural Wonders
In “Pompei: Below the Clouds,” Rosi is as quietly watchful as ever, though he is either remarkably skilled or remarkably fortunate in…
Culture
Why Frederick Wiseman Was the Greatest Documentary Filmmaker Ever
His work depended on access. He filmed in hospital rooms where patients and families faced incommensurable agonies with the aid of the…
News
What a “Melania” Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish
What did you make of the President and Melania? And what’s different about filming a movie in the White House or on Air Force One? Well,…
Culture
Two New Movies Revivify the Portrait-Film Genre
Documentaries about individuals are ubiquitous, but “Suburban Fury” and “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” explore the…
Culture
Oscar Documentary Hopefuls Examine America’s Corrupt Prison System, the Israel-Hamas War, the Importance of Investigative Reporting in a Democracy and More
The race for the documentary feature Academy Award spotlights quality filmmaking, but also requires a whole lot of money and the support…
News
A Musical Indictment of the Harris County Jail in “Criminal”
From the outside, the Harris County Jail might be mistaken for a high-end condo, with walls of windows that overlook the bayou in downtown…
Culture
“Once Upon a Time in Harlem” Is a Film for the Ages
The Harlem Renaissance—the subject that everyone had gathered to discuss—is described in the film by Major as the first time that Black…
Culture
‘The Last Dive’ Director Talks Manta Rays, Writing Documentaries and Camden International Film Festival
In “The Last Dive,” director Cody Sheehy follows Terry Kennedy, an ex-Hell’s Angel-turned manta ray conservationist, on a personal journey…
News
“My Undesirable Friends: Part I” Is a Staggering Portrait of Russian Journalists in Dissent
Because the Russian alphabet has no direct equivalent of the letter “H,” speakers often substitute a “G” sound; “Harry Potter” thus…
News
Glory and Gore in “Afternoons of Solitude”
You don’t have to like bullfighting to watch “Afternoons of Solitude” with fascination, any more than you have to like crime to enjoy a…
Culture
Radu Jude, Romanian Documentaries Shine at Transilvania Film Festival
A few months after Radu Jude’s Silver Berlin Bear for best screenplay in Berlin for “Kontinental ‘25,” Romania’s largest film festival,…
Culture
The 10 Best Netflix Original Nature Documentaries, Ranked
Back in the day, nature documentaries used to feel like classroom field trips: voiceover, facts, rinse, repeat. But something shifted.…
News
“Drop Dead City” Spotlights a Lost Era of Liberal Government
At a time when the very function of government is being destroyed from within, an extraordinary historical documentary, “Drop Dead City,”…
Beauty
Interesting Documentaries About Plus Size Female Icons
History is written… and, most times, watched. While these days, full-sized women may be foregrounded for their figures over feats, the…
Style
Why Do We Want to Believe That Jim Morrison Is Still Alive?
There’s something that has always struck me as undeniably teen-age about loving the Doors, and particularly its lead singer, Jim Morrison.…
Fashion
Contributor: Great documentaries reveal history's truth. Unregulated AI threatens to distort it
A furious political leader shouting a message of hate to an adoring audience. A child crying over the massacre of her family. Emaciated…
Style
Before He Formed Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page Played a Prom in Ohio
Back in 2021, I wrote an essay about the great musicians who, surprisingly, had performed at my high school, in Kansas City, in the…
Style
A Ninety-Nine-Year-Old Lawyer’s Final Case in “Frank”
“Young man!” a voice shouted down the telephone line. “We’re all different! But we’re all the same. And we’re all God’s children.” Thus…
Style
“Terrorists in Retirement” Brings Wartime Traumas Back to Life
The idea of resistance holds wherever people stand up to abuses of power, but the word got its capital “R” from France, during the Second…