The 6 Best Documentaries to Watch Right Now
WSJ Arts in Review Staff May 5, 2023 5:12 pm ET Here’s a roundup of the most noteworthy documentaries and docuseries to watch right now, as covered by The Wall Street Journal’s critics. Getty Images for Prime Video Reggie (Prime Video) Watching the 76-year-old Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson sit down for an interview at the beginning of “Reggie” is a reminder of what an understated public profile he has maintained in recent years. He wasn’t just a superstar, after all; he had
WSJ Arts in Review Staff
Here’s a roundup of the most noteworthy documentaries and docuseries to watch right now, as covered by The Wall Street Journal’s critics.
Reggie (Prime Video)
Watching the 76-year-old Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson sit down for an interview at the beginning of “Reggie” is a reminder of what an understated public profile he has maintained in recent years. He wasn’t just a superstar, after all; he had his own candy bar. So when he explains that “the timing was right” for a documentary, he seems to mean that he’s overdue in telling his story. He doesn’t mean that at all.
Waco: American Apocalypse (Netflix)
Punditry abounds regarding the polarization of the American political landscape right now, but what one might call the Big Bangs of government distrust—Ruby Ridge and Waco—are three decades old and continue to haunt a house divided. The federal government can be said to have misplayed its hand in both instances, to put it mildly. The events have been examined and re-examined, investigated and reinvestigated. But on the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian debacle, “Waco: American Apocalypse” attempts to put the Texas battle into a sensible context. And it’s a fascinating fool’s errand.
MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (Netflix)
Amelia Earhart will always be among history’s mythic disappearing acts, but aviation’s reigning mystery is the 2014 vanishing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The calamity, which occurred nine years ago this week, remains as much a puzzle as ever according to “MH370: The Plane That Disappeared,” a three-part Netflix documentary series that banks and swoops and rolls through all the possibilities, landing on the only consensus ever reached: that none of what happened was an accident.
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Hulu)
There aren’t a lot of questions left about the past—or future—of Lawrence Ray : On Jan. 20, the 63-year-old was sentenced to 60 years in prison for extortion, racketeering, sex trafficking and other offenses. The U.S. attorney termed him a “monster.” After watching Hulu’s “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” a viewer might think the prosecutor was being generous.
The come-on for “Weathering the Future” is not a regurgitation of observable fact—that there have been, in recent years, more frequent tornadoes, angrier hurricanes, rising waters and persistent droughts. And it is not a lament about what is or isn’t affecting the atmosphere. What this “NOVA” presentation gives us over its concise hour is what people are doing with the climate cards they’ve been dealt. Some of the moves seem obvious, most are very clever, and all mark a return to ancient methods that have suddenly become revolutionary.
Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (Netflix)
The subject of director Joe Berlinger’s captivating, penetrating, four-part “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” is described by one of its kinder voices as a “financial sociopath.” Later, someone just comes right out and calls him a “serial killer.” All of which may help explain our persistent obsession with the man who perpetrated the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. After so many productions, dramatic and documentary, shouldn’t we be tired of Bernie Madoff ? One might as well ask if we’re tired of Charles Manson, or Jack the Ripper.
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