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Documentaries

Reviews of the best new documentaries. Return to all Movie Reviews.

The Best Documentaries of 2025

It was a year of riches—theatrically, on streaming and awaiting distribution.
By Siddhant Adlakha
Celebrity Sightings In New York - October 20, 2025

Will the Latest Basquiat Biopic Hew to History? Al Diaz Has His Doubts

Forty-seven years later, Samo has a life of its own—just not the one Diaz imagined when he and a 17-year-old Jean-Michel Basquiat picked up spray paint and decided to sell the world religion.
By J. Scott Orr
An old man in glasses as seen from the side sits next to a woman in a darkened space

Screening at Venice: Mike Figgis’ ‘Megadoc’

This at-times intriguing portrait of Francis Ford Coppola’s creative process is never allowed to probe deeply enough.
By Siddhant Adlakha
A black-and-white photo shows a man sitting casually in a chair against a bare wall, holding a cigarette with one leg crossed over the other.

‘Make Me Famous’ Reminds Us That Ed Brezinski, and All Artists, Deserve Better

By Noah Berlatsky
A person stands alone on a small, sunlit patch of ground surrounded by shallow water inside a vast underground cave, where thick tree roots dangle from a circular opening in the cave ceiling, connecting the forest above to the cavern below.

Screening at Tribeca: Robert Petit’s ‘Underland’

By Siddhant Adlakha

Library-Based Kanopy Offers a Solution to Streaming Sticker Shock—And Steps Into Film Production

By Oliver Jones

‘One to One: John & Yoko’ Review: Inside the Life (And Apartment) of John Lennon

By Oliver Jones

The Music (And Legends) of Sly Stone and Led Zeppelin Shine in Two New Documentaries

By Michaelangelo Matos

‘Liza’ Shows More Than Anything You’ll Ever See Anywhere Else

By Rex Reed

One Thing The Grammys Get Right: Music Docs

By Michaelangelo Matos

The Year’s Best Films: Changes in Perspective—And Heroes

By Oliver Jones

‘Mr. McMahon’ Review: WWE Docuseries Is Part Celebration, Part Exposé

By Dylan Roth

‘Chimp Crazy’ Review: A Disturbing Docuseries From Director of ‘Tiger King’

By Laura Babiak

‘Daughters’ Review: Sundance Award Winning Doc Explores Incarceration and Family

By Oliver Jones
A woman adjusts a costume crown on her head

‘Swan Song’ Takes Us Behind the Scenes in the Brutal and Beautiful World of Ballet

By Caedra Scott-Flaherty

‘Omnivore’ Review: Apple TV+ Food Series Has the Right Ingredients

By Emily Zemler

The Greatest Music Docs You Haven’t Seen: 10 Essential Les Blank Films

By Michaelangelo Matos

America’s Most Self-Reflective Home Videos: ‘Brats’ and the ’80s Documentaries Boom

By Michaelangelo Matos
A shirtless man stands behind a large old fashioned camera while another shirtless man looks on

‘Hidden Master’ Rightfully Places George Platt Lynes in the American Photography Canon

By Angelica Frey

‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’ Review: A Daring Document of Resistance

By Laura Babiak

‘American: An Odyssey to 1947’ Review: The Story of Three Lives, Though One Dominates

By Oliver Jones

‘The League’ Review: This Black Baseball Doc Puts Crucial History Under Museum Glass

By Oliver Jones

‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ Review: A Double Life Compellingly Explored

By Rex Reed

A Remarkable Documentary Celebrates Little Richard’s Revolutionary Art And Existence

By Oliver Jones
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