What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to Betting on Zero first
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 2005
Documentary
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
The sides of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
- Enron's executives and their fake profits
- Traders and the California blackouts
- Employees who lost their savings
Good for you if
- you like watching executives build a giant on numbers that weren't real.
- you want to understand how Enron fell in 2001.
- you can laugh grimly at traders joking on tape about California's blackouts.
Bad for you if
- you need more than charts, tapes and interviews.
- you need some hope, and thousands of employees lose everything here.
About: greed · deception · money
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley 2019
Documentary
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
The sides of The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
- Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
- A blood test machine that never worked
- A ten billion dollar company that collapsed
Good for you if
- you want the true story of Theranos and its blood test.
- you like watching hype and investors carry a company to ten billion dollars.
- you want to understand how Elizabeth Holmes convinced so many people.
Bad for you if
- you need more than interviews and boardroom footage.
- you want surprises, and you already know how Theranos ended.
About: fraud · ambition · hype
Inside Job 2010
Documentary
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
The sides of Inside Job
- The 2008 financial crisis, from Iceland to Wall Street
- Bankers, regulators and economists in front of the camera
- Professors who can't answer a simple question
Good for you if
- you want to know who made money from the crash and who paid.
- you like a case built with real figures, real names and real interviews.
- you like interviews where the person in the chair starts to squirm.
Bad for you if
- you don't want to follow derivatives and credit default swaps for an evening.
- you want a reassuring ending. Here almost nobody goes to jail.
About: greed · corruption · the economy
Dirty Money 2018
Documentary
From crippling payday loans to cars that cheat emissions tests, this investigative series exposes brazen acts of corporate greed and corruption.
The sides of Dirty Money
- Cars rigged to cheat emissions tests
- Payday lenders and the people they ruin
- One corporate scandal per episode
Good for you if
- you like real scandals told by the people who lived them.
- you want to see how money gets around the law.
- you like white collar crime, from Volkswagen to payday loans.
Bad for you if
- you want something light to unwind with.
- you want crime with chases and shootouts. Here it is documents and interviews.
About: greed · corruption · accountability
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing 2022
Documentary
Investigators reveal how Boeing’s alleged priority of profit over safety could have contributed to two catastrophic crashes within months of each other.
The sides of Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
- Two 737 MAX crashes months apart
- Families of the victims
- Engineers and pilots on the record
Good for you if
- you want to understand what led to two real crashes.
- you like seeing how money can win over safety inside a company.
- you want the technical failures explained clearly.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch grieving families talk about the people they lost.
- you need some hope by the end. The families are still waiting for justice.
About: profit · accountability · grief
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal 2021
Documentary
An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged.
The sides of Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
- Rick Singer and his rich clients
- Fake athletes and rigged test scores
- Reenactments of real wiretapped calls
Good for you if
- you like a true scandal told through the real FBI wiretaps.
- you want to see how money buys a way into elite colleges.
- you like a con built on bribes and fake sports profiles.
Bad for you if
- you need chases and confrontations to stay hooked.
- you need suspense, and you already know how the 2019 case ended.
About: privilege · fraud · ambition
The Big Short 2015
Film
The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.
The sides of The Big Short
- Outsiders who saw the 2008 crash coming
- Celebrities explaining finance
- Betting against the economy
Good for you if
- you like angry, fast comedy about real disaster.
- you like sharp, cynical characters.
- you like to understand how something really happened.
Bad for you if
- you find banks and mortgages dull. The whole film is about money.
- you need some hope. The bankers walk away and millions lose their homes.
About: greed · truth · systems
The Corporation 2003
Documentary
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
The sides of The Corporation
- The corporation treated as a legal person
- A psychiatric checklist applied to big business
- Interviews with CEOs, activists and economists
Good for you if
- you want to understand how companies came to hold so much power.
- you like real case studies more than abstract theory.
- you enjoy a long argument built from dozens of interviews.
Bad for you if
- nearly two and a half hours of documentary is too much for you.
- you want striking images, and this is built from interviews and archive footage.
About: capitalism · democracy · responsibility
Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King 2022
Documentary
When the young founder of a collapsing cryptocurrency exchange dies unexpectedly, irate investors suspect there's more to his death than meets the eye.
The sides of Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King
- A crypto exchange founder dead at thirty
- Investors who lost their savings
- Online sleuths chasing the missing money
Good for you if
- you like a question that won't go away: is the founder really dead.
- you like following where hundreds of millions in crypto went.
- you want the real story of QuadrigaCX told by the people who lost money.
Bad for you if
- you need a clear answer by the end.
- you want a thriller, not interviews and screens full of transactions.
About: greed · trust · money

Bus 174 2002
Documentary
On 12 June 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, Ônibus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to kill all the passengers. Transmitted live on all national networks, this shocking and tragic event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the most terrifying examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.
The sides of Bus 174
- A bus held hostage in Rio in 2000
- Live television footage of the standoff
- The life of the young man holding the gun
Good for you if
- you want to understand a real hostage crisis that Brazil watched live.
- you can sit through hours of a standoff that could break at any second.
- you can take a true story with no comfort at the end.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real footage of a hostage taking that ends in death.
- you can't face a street kid's life of loss, prison and police abuse.
- you won't read subtitles for a film in Portuguese.
About: poverty · police violence · invisibility
The Dissident 2020
Documentary
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.
The sides of The Dissident
- A journalist who walks into a consulate in Istanbul
- His fiancée waiting outside
- Dissidents fighting a state online
Good for you if
- you want the facts of the Jamal Khashoggi case laid out piece by piece.
- you like an investigation that plays like a thriller.
- you want to understand how a state hunts its critics abroad.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with a real murder and the grief of the people left behind.
- you can't hear the details of a killing described.
About: free speech · surveillance · impunity
How to Make Money Selling Drugs 2012
Documentary
Ten easy steps show you how to make money from drugs, featuring a series of interviews with drug dealers, prison employees, and lobbyists arguing for tougher drug laws.
The sides of How to Make Money Selling Drugs
- Ten steps from street dealer to kingpin
- Former dealers, police and prison staff
- The war on drugs and who profits from it
Good for you if
- you're curious how a drug business actually runs.
- you want to see who wins from strict drug laws.
- you want former dealers telling their own stories to the camera.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch addiction and prison up close.
- you lose track when dozens of dealers, guards and officials take turns talking.
About: drugs · money · the justice system

The Yes Men Fix the World 2009
Documentary
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
The sides of The Yes Men Fix the World
- A fake Dow Chemical spokesman on the BBC
- Two pranksters in cheap suits
- Hoaxes at big business conferences
Good for you if
- you like executives applauding absurd ideas with a straight face.
- you like seeing big corporations caught off guard.
- you like real pranks pulled on real conferences and newsrooms.
Bad for you if
- you roll your eyes at films with a message to sell.
- you can't laugh at a hoax built on the Bhopal disaster.
About: activism · corporate power · truth
The Tinder Swindler 2022
Documentary
Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, an Israeli conman wooed women online then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now, some victims plan for payback.
The sides of The Tinder Swindler
- A man posing as a diamond heir on a dating app
- Private jets paid for with other women's loans
- Three women who decide to fight back
Good for you if
- you like seeing exactly how a con works, message by message.
- you like hearing the women he fooled tell it themselves.
- you like the moment the money runs out and the threats start.
Bad for you if
- you came for a love story. This is about how one was faked.
- you can't watch real people sink into debt and fear.
About: trust · money · betrayal
Collective 2019
Documentary
In the aftermath of a tragic fire in a Romanian club, burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening. A team of investigative journalists move into action uncovering the mass corruption of the health system and of the state institutions. Collective follows journalists, whistle blowers, and authorities alike. An immersive and uncompromising look into a dysfunctional system, exposing corruption, propaganda, and manipulation that nowadays affect not only Romania, but societies around the world.
The sides of Collective
- A nightclub fire in Bucharest
- Sports journalists investigating hospitals
- A new health minister inside the system
Good for you if
- you want a true investigation filmed as it happens.
- you like seeing how corruption reaches from hospitals to ministers.
- you like a documentary that plays like a political thriller.
Bad for you if
- you won't read subtitles for a film in Romanian.
- you can't watch burn victims and grieving families on screen.
About: corruption · journalism · grief · public health

Fyre Fraud 2019
Documentary
A true-crime comedy exploring a failed music festival turned internet meme at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism, and morality in the post-truth era.
The sides of Fyre Fraud
- A luxury festival in the Bahamas that never happened
- Billy McFarland and the influencers who sold it
- A cheese sandwich in a foam box
Good for you if
- you like laughing at a disaster built on Instagram posts.
- you want the true story behind the famous cheese sandwich photo.
- you like a con man's story told partly by Billy McFarland himself.
Bad for you if
- you want suspense, and you already know how it ends.
- you want a cozy evening, not people losing their money.
About: fraud · hype · social media
Harlan County U.S.A. 1976
Documentary
A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
The sides of Harlan County U.S.A.
- Coal miners on strike in Kentucky
- Wives and mothers on the picket line
- Armed strikebreakers at dawn
Good for you if
- you want to stand on a real picket line for thirteen months.
- you like seeing a mining town take on a corporation.
- you like the union songs that run through it.
Bad for you if
- you find 1970s footage dated.
- you can't watch a community living with guns on the picket line and miners sick with black lung.
About: labour · solidarity · class

Zeitgeist: Addendum 2008
Documentary
Director Peter Joseph examines examples of economic subjugation and offers solutions based on alignment with nature.
The sides of Zeitgeist: Addendum
- The debt system behind modern money
- Economic hit men in Latin America
- A plan for an economy without money
Good for you if
- you like asking who really controls money and banks.
- you want to hear John Perkins tell how he worked as an economic hit man.
Bad for you if
- you roll your eyes at a two-hour call to change the whole world.
- you need every claim to hold up, and this one draws on conspiracy theories.
About: money · power · debt · utopia
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story 2022
Documentary
Jimmy Savile was one of the United Kingdom’s most beloved TV personalities. Shortly after his death in 2011, an investigation prompted more than 450 horrific allegations of sexual assault and abuse, with victims as young as 5.
The sides of Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
- A TV star loved by the British public
- Archive footage of his decades of fame
- Survivors of his abuse
Good for you if
- you want to understand a real case that shook Britain.
- you want to see how fame and institutions protected Jimmy Savile.
- you want to know how this stayed hidden for so long.
Bad for you if
- you can't take accounts of child sexual abuse.
- you need some justice at the end, and he died before any trial.
About: abuse of power · silence · celebrity
The Wolf of Wall Street 2013
Film
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.
The sides of The Wolf of Wall Street
- Excess on every level
- How the con works
- A very dark comedy
Good for you if
- you want to laugh at excess pushed to absurd levels.
- you like following a crook having the time of his life.
- you like an actor going all in, like the scene crawling to the car.
Bad for you if
- lots of nudity, sex and drugs isn't for you tonight.
- three hours is too much for one evening.
About: greed · excess · money