Netflix has such a rich and diverse lineup of documentaries that the streamer tends to dominate in that category. Few of its rivals can come anywhere close to the library that Netflix has to offer, and more documentaries are added each month. It’s a good problem to have if you’re looking to expand your knowledge, but there are still far too many new additions for anyone to watch them all.
For this month, we’ve got two semi-Christmas-themed documentaries: Buy Now!: The Shopping Conspiracy and Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped. Additionally, Netflix has the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings, and another sports doc, This Was the XFL. All four are very entertaining, and you can find the rest of our picks among the best documentaries on Netflix below.
We’ve also rounded up the best documentaries on Amazon Prime Video and the best documentaries on Hulu if Netflix doesn’t have what you’re looking for. Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
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When We Were Kings1996
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This Was the XFL2017
Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy (2024)
6.7/10Do you feel the inexorable urge to spend money when the holiday season rolls around? As Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy will show you it’s not a coincidence. It’s not even really a conspiracy; you just may not realize how you’re being manipulated. Fortunately, director Nic Stacey has assembled former employees from Amazon, Adidas, Unilever, and more about how they ensnare consumers year after year.
It’s a cycle that shows no signs of abating anytime soon. But once you know what to look for, you may never look at advertisements and promotions the same way again.
When We Were Kings (1996)
83%
7.9/10When We Were Kings is 1996’s Oscar-winner for Best Documentary, and it revisits the famous Rumble in the Jungle between former boxing world champion Muhammad Ali and the then-current champion, George Foreman. It was an epic match in the making, and promoter Don King offered big money to both fighters to make it happen. But the only one who put up the funds was the dictator of Zaire.
This film uses archival interviews and footage of Ali, Foreman, and King to set the stage for the bout, as well as footage from the actual match. Ali and Foreman made peace years after this fight, but the former unleashes some particularly harsh words on the latter before their battle for the ages.
Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped (2024)
Netflix already has a more comprehensive documentary about Wham! further down on this list. But this Christmas is about Last Christmas, the chart-topping holiday favorite that’s been made into a rom-com and remains popular 40 years after its debut.
Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped examines the making of the song with new interviews with Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley, as well as archival interviews with George Michael. This film offers a new perspective on the song, but if you’re trying to avoid being “Whammed” this holiday season, you may want to wait until after New Year’s to watch.
This Was the XFL (2017)
7.2/10NBC’s Bob Costas once called the XFL a combination of “mediocre high school football and a tawdry strip club.” That’s about the size of it. Wrestling promoter Vince McMahon has so badly wanted to compete with the NFL that he brought the XFL to life twice, and both times ended in epic failures. This Was the XFL is about McMahon’s first attempt in 2001, when NBC was without an NFL deal of its own and eager to join the XFL’s push for an alternative football experience.
As it turns out, running the WWE and running a football league are not complementary skills. However, the XFL did have some influence over the football broadcasts that came after its single-season debut. There were even a handful of XFL players who made it to the NFL after it inevitably folded.
Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer (2024)
6.9/10As a soccer player, Hope Solo is one of the best female goalies to ever suit up for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team. Off the playing field, Solo has been a controversial figure for criticizing her own teammates as well as her arrests for domestic assault on her family members and for driving under the influence.
Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer largely shies away from dealing with Solo’s personal issues and focuses on her conflict with the U.S. Soccer Federation over pay for female athletes. Essentially, this is Solo’s platform to make a case for herself in the public eye, but whether she recaptures the sympathy of her fans is an open question.
Skywalkers: A Love Story (2024)
7.1/10Your opinions about Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus may vary after seeing Skywalkers: A Love Story. But the one thing that no one can deny is their talent. Ordinary climbers target mountains, while this couple prefer skyscrapers. They don’t care if they have to break the law in order to realize their latest thrills.
If you don’t like heights, then you may feel a bit queasy from the shots taken from perilous positions that most people would never have seen. It all feels incredibly dangerous. Yet, it’s also impressive to see Nikolau and Beerkus put their skills to use even if their lives are also on the line if something goes wrong.
Jailbreak: Love on the Run (2024)
It’s amazing how many people seem to believe that they can make their lives into a fairy tale or a movie. Jailbreak: Love on the Run is the true story of the torrid affair between Vicky White and Casey White — no relation. That would have been fine if Vicky weren’t a correctional officer at a prison while Casey was an inmate behind bars for murder.
None of that stops Vicky from helping Casey escape from prison on her last day of work, only for the couple to go on the run when the government realizes what happened. Their story doesn’t have a happy ending, but the Whites have finally achieved a level of fame that could only be accomplished by ruining their lives.
Icarus (2017)
68%
7.9/10The myth of Icarus is about a man who flew too close to the sun, and his melted artificial wings sent him crashing back down to Earth. Icarus isn’t about that story, but it is about a similar obsession with being the best at all costs. Director and star Bryan Fogel begins the movie with modest ambitions as he befriends Grigory Rodchenkov, a Russian scientist and the head of his country’s anti-doping program.
Soon enough, Rodchenkov becomes the real story of the film as he blows the whistle on Russia’s attempts to get away with doping up its athletes. And it’s hard not to imagine the program continuing even beyond this movie.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)
80%
8.0/10Although Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief was made by HBO Films almost a decade ago, it hasn’t lost any of its power. This documentary offers a closer look at Scientology, the religion created by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard that appears to have transformed from a cult of personality to a worldwide organization.
The history of the group is explored here, but the most damning accounts come from former Scientologists including director Paul Haggis and Mark Rathbun, who used to have a high-ranking position in the church. When you head Haggis, Rathbun, and the rest of the former members speak about their experiences, you’ll never look at Scientology the same way again.
How to Rob a Bank (2024)
6%Despite its name, How to Rob a Bank is not an instructional documentary that will show you how to be an outlaw. But it will show you how Scott Scurlock became one of the most successful bank robbers of the early ’90s. Scurlock’s nickname with law enforcement was “Hollywood,” because he had a theatrical flair for disguise and his robberies were largely impeccable.
The documentary features rare home video footage of Scurlock and examines what we know about the man who could have escaped the outlaw life without a hitch. But true to the Hollywood movies that inspired him, Scurlock’s temptation for one last score was too great to ignore.
Remembering Gene Wilder (2024)
62%
8.0/10As anyone who has seen Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, and more knows, Gene Wilder was one of the greatest comedic performers of his generation. Wilder passed away in 2016, but Remembering Gene Wilder does just that with exclusive interviews featuring the men and women who knew him best, including his wife, Karen Wilder, Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, Carol Kane, Dick Cavett, and more.
There’s also home video footage of Wilder himself, and an examination of his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease during the last years of his life.
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal (2024)
At what point do crimes of the heart become actual crimes? It isn’t illegal to have an affair, and the dating site Ashley Madison built a niche market by encouraging men and women to cheat on their spouses. Despite the infamous 2015 data hack, Ashley Madison remains in business as of 2024.
Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal takes a look back at the impact that the site has had, and the devastation it left behind after the data hack exposed Ashley Madiosn’s unfaithful clientele to their partners and the entire world.
Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel (2022)
7.3/10Few composers in Hollywood have had the kind of success that Hans Zimmer has enjoyed over the last four decades. He’s scored the soundtracks for numerous blockbuster films including The Dark Knight trilogy, Pirates of The Caribbean, No Time To Die, and more.
Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel pulls the curtain back on the composer and allows Zimmer’s personal story to unfold. Zimmer wasn’t an overnight sensation, but he’s earned his place in cinema history thanks to his endlessly entertaining scores.
Blackfish (2013)
83%
8.1/10Whenever anyone claims that films can’t change the world, point to Blackfish. This exposé on Sea World’s handling of orcas in captivity helped bring about the end of whales being used as live performers in the theme parks. It also brought questions about the treatment of the orcas to the forefront in a way that animal rights activists hadn’t been able to do by themselves.
Blackfish also examines the case of Tilikum, an orca who killed three people during his decades of captivity. It paints a disturbing picture of the way this creature and his fellow orcas were treated, which may explain why he was so aggressive.
The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem (2024)
The Greatest Night in Pop (2024)
69%
8.0/10Imagine being in the same room as Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, and Ray Charles. In 1985, at the peak of their stardom, these performers and more came together for a chaotic session to record the charity single, We Are the World.
The Greatest Night In Pop features footage from the all-night session, including the times when the whole thing could have fallen apart. Many of the surviving musicians also share their thoughts about the experience nearly four decades later. And there are even some moments of levity that were sorely needed as egos clashed.
American Nightmare (2024)
American Nightmare lives up to its name for Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, the couple who were at the center of one. During a home invasion in 2015, Huskins was kidnapped, and Quinn was ordered to remain quiet about it by the kidnapper in order to protect her. The local cops in Vallejo, California, responded by accusing Quinn of killing Huskins.
When Quinn was released, the cops piled on the couple’s ordeal by accusing her of faking the kidnapping. The media even called her “the real Gone Girl.” But that’s because the news accepted everything the police said at face value. Fortunately, not all of the cops subscribed to that narrative on their way to breaking the case.
Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife (2023)
If Dr. Paolo Macchiarini’s claims about his esophageal transplants were true then he would have been famous in the medical industry. Instead, he’s infamous for overpromising about his “groundbreaking” procedure that left many of the patients who trusted him dead. The title Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife undersells the full extent of Macchiarini’s crimes, especially for the men and women who lost their lives to his medical malpractice.
Macchiarini’s ex-fiancée, Benita Alexander, is a TV journalist and a direct participant in this documentary series, recounting how she was fooled into believing his lies. Once Alexander realized the truth, her life was already entangled with his.
Chimp Empire (2023)
How to Become a Mob Boss (2023)
If your dream job was to become an organized crime leader, then you should know that How To Become as a Mob Boss is not an instructional series that’s going to land you a prime spot on the FBI’s most wanted list. But it is a look at the history of famous mafia bosses including Al Capone, Frank Lucas, Salvatore “Totò” Riina, John Gotti, and Pablo Escobar.
There are spoilers ahead if you haven’t heard, but the common denominator between these men was either a lengthy incarceration or a violent death. The show does offer some facetious lessons about where they went wrong, but all of these stories tend to end in the same place.
Beckham (2023)
69%
8.1/10During his long career in football (soccer), David Beckham was one of the most famous celebrities in the world. And while looking back over his career in Beckham, even Beckham admits that some of his decisions were very selfish, especially when it came to putting himself before his wife, Victoria Beckham.
Both of the Beckhams are extensively interviewed in Fisher Stevens’ four-part documentary series. Beckham isn’t a full warts-and-all approach to a sports icon, but it is surprisingly earnest when dealing with most of his shortcomings while also celebrating a legacy that few will ever match.
Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga (2022)
Thanks to the new movie Dumb Money, the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 is back in the zeitgeist. Netflix’s three-part documentary, Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga, isn’t necessarily the definitive word on what went down. But it will give viewers more insight into how a group of amateur investors briefly drove GameStop stock far beyond its actual value, which led to hedge funds and professional stock traders losing millions because they had bet their own money that the stock would fall.
Unfortunately, GameStop’s inflated value was a bubble. And like all bubbles, this one burst. By the end of this story, there were very few winners.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2018)
70%
7.4/10Far too few people remember who Hedy Lamarr was, and for those who do know her name, it’s probably because she was a movie star during the golden age of Hollywood. In the late ‘30s, Lamarr was even billed as “the most beautiful woman in the world.” But she was far more than just an ordinary actress.
Bombshell; The Hedy Lamarr Story looks back at the life of the Hollywood starlet and her escape from Nazi Germany, as well as her rise to stardom. More importantly, it examines Lamarr’s history as a self-taught inventor including her groundbreaking work on frequency hopping.
The Saint of Second Chances (2023)
71%
7.7/10At some point in our lives, everyone screws up. Few more spectacularly than Mike Veeck, the son of former White Sox owner Bill Veeck. In 1979, the younger Veeck organized one of the most infamous promotions in baseball history: Disco Demolition Night. Before the second game of a doubleheader, Veeck and company arranged for a large pile of Disco records to be blown up in front of a rowdy crowd. It quickly led to a riot that forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game.
Netflix’s The Saint of Second Chances is about Mike Veeck’s attempt to reinvent himself and redeem his family legacy after Disco Demolition Night. This is not a baseball story, this is a tale of family and finding a second act in life.
Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine (2023)
At first glance, the title of Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine may seem a bit exaggerated. But it is an accurate description of the way that light travels to Earth over the eons. So when we look into the night sky, we really are looking into the past. Unknown focuses on the James Webb Telescope, one of the most powerful telescopes of its kind, and the window it provides us to the history of the universe.
This documentary follows the scientists and engineers as they prepare to launch the telescope into orbit and then reassemble it in space. From there, you’ll get a front-row seat as the telescope begins delivering cosmic visuals that have to be seen to be believed.
Wham! (2023)
74%
7.6/10If you’ve ever tried to escape hearing Last Christmas during the holiday season, you probably know that it’s almost impossible to avoid being “Whamed.” The duo behind Wham! — George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — met as youngsters and their story is finally told in Netflix’s documentary, Wham!.
Through the use of previously recorded interviews, both Michael and Ridgeley share their accounts of how they met and how they became pop sensations in the 1980s. It’s an intimate look at the friendship and the bond between the duo, and a reminder of why Wham! made such a huge impact.
The Deepest Breath (2023)
69%
7.9/10Netflix and A24 teamed up for The Deepest Breath, which chronicles the story of freediver Alessia Zecchini and safety diver Stephen Keenan. Zecchini wanted to break a world record, and she hired Keenan to help prepare her for that pivotal moment. Along the way, it’s clear that Zecchini and Keenan fell deeply in love with each other.
Unfortunately, the story of Zecchini and Keenan does not have a happy ending, and the documentary doesn’t hide the fact that their paths converge in tragedy. But it also celebrates their lives and everything that they stood for while paying tribute to their indomitable spirits.
Amanda Knox (2016)
78%
6.9/10Much like Anna Nicole Smith, Amanda Knox’s story exposes the dark side of fame. Knox never set out to be notable or famous, but she became infamous when she was accused and convicted of murdering her college roommate, Meredith Kercher, by the Italian courts until she was ultimately acquitted after spending four years in prison.
In the documentary that shares her name, Knox talks about her side of the story and how she lives with the stigma of being accused of a murder that took place nearly two decades ago. Whether you believe Knox or not, this will always be what she is remembered for. But within this film, Knox attempts to take control of her own narrative and she speaks out about being wrongly convicted of a heinous crime.
Victim/Suspect (2023)
67%
7.0/10The police are meant to protect us … at least that’s what we want to believe. But director Nancy Schwartzman’s documentary, Victim/Suspect, offers up an unsettling look at a disturbing pattern as women who come forward with accounts of rape or sexual assault find themselves charged with making false accusations and even facing prison time.
Journalist Rachel de Leon looks into each case and finds instances of the police using criminal interrogation techniques to get the women to recant their stories while failing to properly investigate the alleged sexual crimes. It’s a disquieting look at the way the law enforcement officers failed these women and ended up protecting the sexual predators instead of their prey.
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
85%
8.3/10In a world full of true crime and tragedy, wouldn’t you like to watch something that is life-affirming? Fred Rogers may be gone, but his alter ego, Mister Rogers, continues to bring joy two decades after his death.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is a wonderful look back at the life of Rogers and how he created the long-running children’s series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Rogers’ lessons of kindness and empathy are timeless, and this film serves as a fitting tribute to the man who went out of his way to make sure that all children felt welcome in his neighborhood.
Sr. (2022)
Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (2023)
For a flavor of corporate-level corruption, the recent Netflix-original docuseries Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street tells the story of the titular financier, business tycoon and the infamously large-scale Ponzi scheme he executed.
A 4-episode series, The Monster of Wall Street uses never-before-seen footage and spotlights the many co-conspirators that Bernie Madoff used to orchestrate this colossal lie. It’s been reported that the scheme itself was worth around $64.8 billion, with the depositions, interviews, and revelations showcased making for a fascinating watch of a real-life financial thriller.
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
Presenter David Attenborough is celebrated worldwide as one of the biggest voices in documentaries on natural history. That makes a documentary film on the man behind the scenes a natural next step, and that’s what David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet succeeds and excels in doing.
This documentary functions in part as Attenborough’s recollection of his eventful career in this industry, as well as his eloquent and serious takes on the perils facing the natural world around us. It’s a damning indictment of how humanity has devastated the planet, but a necessary and compelling film that’s unlike any other documentary Attenborough has worked on.
FIFA Uncovered (2022)
7.5/10Contrary to the beliefs of many Americans, baseball, basketball, and American football are not the most popular sports in the world. That honor belongs to football, or “soccer,” as we call it in this country. But with that popularity has come corruption and vice, as seen in the new Netflix documentary series FIFA Uncovered. FIFA is the governing body for the World Cup and international football leagues. It also has a very dark history that has only partially come to light. This isn’t just a sports documentary, it’s a crime story. And many of the dirtiest players in the game seemingly escape the legal and moral consequences of their actions.
Our Universe (2022)
The Most Hated Man on the Internet (2022)
An American Murder Mystery: The Staircase (2018)
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed (2021)
55%
6.9/10Miss Americana (2020)
65%
7.3/10Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes (2022)
7.2/10Seaspiracy (2021)
8.2/10Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know (2020)
This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist (2021)
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (2021)
70%
7/10The Social Dilemma (2020)
78%
7.6/10Athlete A (2020)
85%
7.6/10Chasing Coral (2017)
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (2020)
76%
7.5/10The Ivory Game (2016)
