The Best Documentaries Of 2020 | Screen Rant
In a year devoid of traditional theatrical releases, documentaries had a breakthrough opportunity. Throughout 2020, viewers were deprived of content, in search of anything that could satisfy their craving. In the form of both films and television series, the documentary emerged as a worthy, and perhaps even vital, substitute for the more commercial fare that has dominated popular discourse in previous years.
This year, Tiger King dominated the conversation more than another The Lion King remake ever could. The Last Dance captured viewers' attention before live basketball had the chance. And 537 Votes had Americans looking back to the 2000 election just as much as they were focusing on the current one. Now more than ever before, documentaries are at the forefront of the entertainment ecosystem.
Any discussion of 2020's greatest documentaries must inevitably leave out some excellent works. Crip Camp offered a fascinating exploration of Camp Jened, a summer camp for the disabled that played a key role in the disability rights movement. Boys State peeled the curtain back on Texas' yearly event for the politically ambitious. And Filthy Rich advocated for the women so terribly impacted by convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Still, ten other documentaries emerged as the best this year had to offer.
For better or worse, Donald Trump has established himself as a ubiquitous presence within the American cultural landscape. Films of all kinds will attempt to dissect Trump's rise to power for years to come, but very few of them will feel as vital as Arthur Jones' Feels Good Man. Of course, Feels Good Man is about much more than a controversial president. The line leading from Pepe the Frog to Trump is a long and winding one, and Feels Good Man is much more interested in the popular meme's innocent inception than its destructive destination.
The documentary follows Pepe creator Matthew Furie, who designed Pepe as a character for his webcomic Boy's Club, as he struggles with the loss of his creation to alt-right trolls on 4chan and YouTube. The film deals with questions of authorship, and whether or not art can be safeguarded or redeemed. Furie's "make love, not war" demeanor does allow the weight of Feels Good Man to nearly swallow him whole, just as the conservative movement did to his precious frog, but it also makes Pepe's fate that much crueler. The result is a frustrating yet significant viewing experience.
Shot in sumptuous black-and-white, Time is disturbing, romantic, uplifting, and infuriating all at once. The 80-minute documentary details one woman's struggle to release her husband from prison after serving a 20-year jail sentence. The film combines home footage gathered by matriarch Fox Rich with additional footage gathered by director Garrett Bradley and her crew. Time is an incredibly complex film as a result, traversing several different time lines in order to fully capture Rich's fortitude. A mother of six boys, Rich is one of the most inspiring figures to grace our screens this year, and her story serves as a powerful ode to black women everywhere.
Time tells an urgent and impactful story, but it does feel rather slight. In focusing so heavily on Rich, the film holds back from confronting mass incarceration in the United States head-on. There are brief moments - shots of news coverage or lines uttered by a furious Rich - that demonstrate a willingness to attack such an evil system, but Time could benefit from some more clarity and aggression at times. Still, its story is so necessary and moving, it remains one a few must-see films in 2020, as well as a worthwhile antidote to shows like Prison Break, which somewhat glorified the prison experience in the past.
Netflix's four-episode docuseries Alien Worlds is an odd piece of television. On one hand, it's a highly informative documentary, educating viewers on various earthly creatures and how they might relate to life on other planets. In visiting Alien Worlds, audiences learn more about falcons, beetles, and and stalk-eyed flies than they ever could have imagined. In this sense, the series makes its argument loud and clear: we spend so much time imagining what else is out there, and yet there is otherworldly beauty right here on Earth.
But for as much as Alien Worlds dedicates itself to science and earthly exploration, the show's real appeal comes from its CGI-fueled visions of extraterrestrial life. These sequences are gorgeously rendered, and do maintain a basis in scientific fact and reason. Of course, they are still only renderings of what these planets might look like, which threatens to muddy Alien Worlds' overall project. Is this a documentary, or is it a sci-fi film in the vein of Alien? Still, the series is so ambitious and thought-provoking, it is difficult to resist its out-of-this-world charm.
One of the best documentaries of 2020 may not be much of a documentary at all. In Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, directors Bill and Turner Ross gather a group of actors and non-actors together in a New Orleans bar, feed them loose topics and themes, and film their ensuing interactions. In this sense, the film is not a documentary at all. The scenes are somewhat staged, and the film disingenuously suggests that the bar is set in Las Vegas. However, one could watch Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets completely unaware of its careful construction, and believe they are watching one of the most authentic documentaries ever made.
Indeed, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is very, very real. It is a powerful slice of Americana, perhaps even further solidified, rather than undermined, by its duplicitous creation. If anything, the Ross Brothers have only done what so many documentarians pretend not to do. Every documentary, to some extent, is manipulated or controlled. Bill and Turner Ross have simply laid bare their intentions, and doubled down on the final product's overwhelming honesty. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets may feel like a slap in the face to some documentary purists, but it is a sweet, hilarious, sorrowful meditation on American culture for many others.
Like the best filmmakers, Kirsten Johnson is a woman bound to her camera. It's how she sees the world. She explored this dynamic with her 2016 documentary Cameraperson, and dives into it here with Dick Johnson Is Dead. This time, however, Johnson is considering her own father's mortality. She, via her camera, stages several scenarios in which Dick dies. The documentary ultimately wrestles with film's ability to capture, and whether or not capturing the tail-end of her father's life can allow Johnson to memorialize him as she so wishes.
Dick Johnson Is Dead constantly folds in on itself, complicating what is real and what is not. Even the title of the film is misleading. By the end of the film, Dick Johnson is very much alive, as revealed by one final fake-out. And even when Dick does eventually pass on, it seems safe to say that he will live on not just in his family's memories, but in his daughter's loving tribute to her mild-mannered father.
The title of 537 Votes refers to the narrow gap between candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. The documentary is wise, however, to broaden its perspective, focusing not just on the drama surrounding the election itself, but the various events that led up to the controversial election of America's 43rd president. 537 Votes focuses a great deal of its attention on the state of Florida, and rightfully so. But what makes the film one of the year's best is that it does not simply rehash the same debates surrounding "hanging chads" or poll watchers. Rather, 537 Votes explores the dynamics of the Cuban population in the Sunshine State, familiarizing viewers with the saga of Elian Gonzalez, and considering how the young boy's life may have had rippling effects on the fate of the nation.
It doesn't take too long into watching 537 Votes to figure out that Adam McKay is involved with the project. McKay served as executive producer on the doc, and the fast-paced (perhaps even sloppy?) editing style provides evidence of his influence. 537 Votes may lean too heavily into McKay's penchant for flashiness at times, but from the rubbles of its chaotic structure emerges a surprising adoration for the early 2000s. The film incorporates several pop culture artifacts from the time period, and manages to convey a sense of nostalgia for a culture that, to the shock of many, has come and gone, as shows like SNL now struggle to achieve longevity in their political humor. If 537 Votes' thesis is that the 2000 presidential election is the one that permanently changed America as we know it, its relationship with the pop culture of old only further underscores this point.
2020 has been a long year. Many films and TV shows have come and gone. Netflix's impressive 2020 slate will seemingly be defined the success of The Queen's Gambit, but no one will ever forget the cultural zeitgeist that was Tiger King in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as citizens worldwide were bound to their living rooms, Tiger King arrived to keep them busy. The series had all the ingredients for a hit. It was simply so crazy, it was sometimes impossible to believe it was true (and there is reason to believe its sensationalized approach harms its overall mission.)
Tiger King will likely be a divisive docuseries in the years to come, as it spawns spin-offs and adaptations galore. But early in 2020, the show did something exceedingly rare by uniting viewers worldwide in their astonishment at a single piece of entertainment. Tiger King captivated us all, and it remains one of the best docuseries of the year for that very reason.
City So Real may be a complex and vivid portrait of Chicago, but this series is made for anyone who has ever loved (or hated) an American city. Its themes are universal, dealing with issues of race, class, politics, sports, food, etc. Using the 2016 mayoral race as its backdrop, City So Real weaves together the stories of countless Chicagoans as they push through and reflect on one of the most difficult stages in the city's history. The kind of access director Steve James and his crew have is unbelievable, providing viewers with first-hand glimpses into backdoor conversations amongst mayoral candidates, or intimate discussions amongst the patrons at a black-owned barbershop.
The series is streaming on Hulu, and becomes more and more necessary as the days go by. In a year so heavily defined by the Black Lives Matter movement and racial unrest around the world, City So Real emerges as an unflinching study of an American city in crisis. The series gives voice to the voiceless, but is also not afraid to allow Chicagoans of all stripes to speak, highlighting the disconnect that, without documentaries like City So Real, threaten to separate us all.
The Last Dance tells a story that viewers are largely familiar with. After all, Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and the iconic moments of his career are well-documented. And yet, The Last Dance emerged as one of 2020's most informative and awe-inspiring documentaries. The ten-episode docuseries does stretch itself a bit thin, and it certainly has a vested interest in prioritizing Jordan's perspective first and foremost. Still, The Last Dance cemented itself within the cultural zeitgeist for a large chunk of 2020, affirming the power of sports, and athletes in particular.
What makes The Last Dance such a special case is its universal appeal. NBA fans were already onboard with the project; Jordan's legacy made that much obvious. But The Last Dance attracted a diverse audience, interested not just in Jordan's career, but the broader story of how we define greatness, and what it takes to achieve greatness like Jordan so clearly has. Is it worth it? Can anyone do it? These questions are addressed, but not necessarily answered, through each engrossing episode of The Last Dance.
HBO's How To With John Wilson comprises just six episodes. The series is many things. It is impossible to sit down and watch How To without laughing. In that sense, the show is a comedy. But How To is nothing else if not the most insightful, surprising, and heartwarming docuseries of 2020. The titular Wilson shoots and directs each mini-documentary in the series, keeping himself behind the camera at all times. Wilson only appears in brief shots of mirrors or other reflective surfaces. He captures the world around him, however, with incredible detail. Wilson's camera detects New York City oddities with ease, taking one of the most filmed cities in the world and seemingly introducing it to viewers for the first time. These images, alongside Wilson's hilariously dry narration, give way to clever bits of comedy that double as lovely revelations.
Each episode of How To is excellent, but the docuseries' final episode is perhaps the most essential documentary produced this year. Nothing in How To is ever as it seems, and that is especially the case in "How To Cook The Perfect Risotto." Nathan Fielder's involvement as Executive Producer makes sense here, as his show, Nathan For You, similarly blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Fans of Fielder will absolutely adore How To With John Wilson, and in a year that saw several great documentaries come and go, Wilson's one-of-a-kind approach to the genre is absolutely essential.