Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
Documentary (27)
May 16, 2026Africa (2013)
Attenborough's 2013 six-episode survey of Africa. Three years filming, 24 production teams. Shoebill stork and desert giraffe sequences stand out.
May 19, 2026Apollo 11 (2019)
Todd Douglas Miller's 2019 archival doc. Newly discovered 65mm footage of 1969 moon landing. No narration. Real-time tension.
May 16, 2026Blue Planet II (2017)
Attenborough's 2017 sequel to The Blue Planet. Seven episodes, 125 expeditions. Grouper-octopus pairs, tusk-fish tools, plastic episode that moved policy.
May 19, 2026Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Werner Herzog's 2010 Chauvet Cave doc. 30,000-year-old paintings. 3D filming. Albino crocodiles coda. Herzog narrates.
May 19, 2026Citizenfour (2014)
Laura Poitras' 2014 Edward Snowden doc. Hong Kong hotel room during the leak. Real time. Won Best Documentary.
May 19, 2026Free Solo (2018)
Chin-Vasarhelyi 2018 Alex Honnold doc. El Capitan free solo climb. Camera operators with PTSD from filming. Won Best Documentary.
May 16, 2026Frozen Planet (2011)
Attenborough's 2011 seven-episode polar series. Polar bear hunts, killer whales wave-washing, emperor penguin rookeries. The last great BBC ice document.
May 19, 2026Grizzly Man (2005)
Werner Herzog's 2005 Timothy Treadwell doc. Bear researcher killed by bears. Herzog's voice-over commentary. Tape of the deaths exists.
May 16, 2026Hemo the Magnificent (1957)
Frank Capra's 1957 Bell Labs educational film mixing live action and animation. Dr. Frank Baxter and a cartoon Hemo teach kids how blood works.
May 19, 2026Hoop Dreams (1994)
Steve James' 1994 five-year Chicago basketball doc. William Gates and Arthur Agee. Snubbed by Oscars in major scandal.
May 16, 2026Life on Earth (1979)
Attenborough's 1979 thirteen-episode evolutionary survey. The series that built natural history documentary as a form. Mountain gorilla scene is the peak.
May 17, 2026Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Vertov's 1929 Soviet city-symphony documentary. The film that invented half the techniques modern documentary takes for granted. No intertitles, no narration.
May 19, 2026O.J.: Made in America (2016)
Ezra Edelman's 2016 seven-hour ESPN doc. O.J. Simpson trial through race-and-celebrity prism. Won Oscar despite TV format.
May 16, 2026Planet Earth (2006)
Attenborough's 2006 eleven-episode HD landmark. Five years, $25M, 71 cameramen. Snow leopards, great whites, lions hunting elephants. TV as cinema.
May 16, 2026Planet Earth II (2016)
Attenborough's 2016 sequel shot in 4K UHD. Marine iguana versus racer snake sequence broke the internet. Stabilized cameras changed nature TV.
May 19, 2026Roger & Me (1989)
Michael Moore's 1989 directorial debut. GM CEO Roger Smith and Flint Michigan plant closures. Launched the Moore template.
May 19, 2026Senna (2010)
Asif Kapadia's 2010 Ayrton Senna F1 doc. Archive footage only, no talking heads. Brazilian champion's career through his 1994 death.
May 19, 2026The Act of Killing (2012)
Joshua Oppenheimer's 2012 Indonesian genocide doc. Aging death squad leaders reenact their killings as movie scenes. Singular.
May 16, 2026The Blue Planet (2001)
Attenborough's 2001 eight-part ocean survey. Four years filming, 200 locations. Deep-sea life nobody had ever seen. The series that justified HD.
May 19, 2026The Last Dance (2020)
Jason Hehir's 2020 Jordan Bulls doc. Ten-part ESPN series. 1997-98 championship season as spine. Pandemic-era release.
May 16, 2026The Life of Birds (1998)
Attenborough's 1998 ten-episode avian survey. Mating, migration, song, flight. Bird-of-paradise courtship footage took the BBC two years to capture.
May 16, 2026The Life of Mammals (2002)
Attenborough's 2002 ten-episode series on mammalian behavior. Hunting, social order, sex, parenting. The chimp tool-use sequences still the best on film.
May 16, 2026The Living Planet (1984)
Attenborough's 1984 sequel to Life on Earth, organized by ecosystem. Twelve episodes from polar ice to ocean trench. The framework every nature series copied.
May 16, 2026The Private Life of Plants (1995)
Attenborough's 1995 series using time-lapse to make plants act like animals. Strangler figs, carnivorous pitchers, vines that kill their hosts.
May 19, 2026The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Errol Morris' 1988 wrongful conviction doc. Randall Adams case in Texas. Reenactments. The film that freed an innocent man.
May 16, 2026The Trials of Life (1990)
Attenborough's 1990 series tracking animals through twelve life stages. Births, courtships, fights, deaths. Orca-beach sequence is nature TV's bleakest.
May 19, 2026Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
Morgan Neville's 2018 Fred Rogers doc. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the man behind it. Made viewers cry in theaters.