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 Inside Job first
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
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich 2020
Documentary
Stories from survivors fuel this docuseries examining how convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and power to carry out his abuses.
The sides of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
- Survivors telling their own stories
- A billionaire's homes in Palm Beach and New York
- A 2008 plea deal and its consequences
Good for you if
- you want to hear the survivors in their own words.
- you want to understand how money and connections protected one man for years.
Bad for you if
- you can't hear accounts of the sexual abuse of teenage girls.
- you need some hope, and justice here comes late and incomplete.
About: abuse of power · justice · survivors
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
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief 2015
Documentary
The film profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.
The sides of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
- Eight former members of the Church of Scientology
- How a science fiction writer founded a religion
- Testimony about abuse inside the church
Good for you if
- you like hearing people explain how they came to believe, and how they left.
- you want to know how an organisation keeps control of its members.
- you like long testimonies where people choose every word.
Bad for you if
- you can't listen to accounts of psychological abuse and broken families.
- you lose track when names pile up. Eight former members, two church leaders and a few film stars come and go.
About: belief · control · leaving
Icarus 2017
Documentary
While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov—a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program.
The sides of Icarus
- An amateur cyclist doping himself to test the system
- A Russian scientist on Skype calls
- Russia's state doping programme at the Olympics
Good for you if
- you like a film that starts as a stunt and turns into a political thriller.
- you want to know how athletes beat the drug tests.
- you like a true story told by the man who ran Russia's anti-doping lab.
Bad for you if
- you want an easygoing sports film. Icarus is about doping, lies and a whistleblower who fears for his safety.
- you want more than calls, documents and interviews.
About: cheating · courage · the state
The Wire 2002
Series
Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
The sides of The Wire
- Baltimore cops wiretapping a drug crew
- The docks, the schools, City Hall and the newspaper
- Dealers and detectives seen from both sides
Good for you if
- you like seeing how police, politics and schools keep a city stuck.
- you like a case built patiently over a whole season.
- you want people like Omar, Stringer Bell and McNulty to stay with you.
Bad for you if
- you lose track with dozens of characters on both sides.
- you need some hope. Baltimore rarely changes here.
About: institutions · the drug war · loyalty
Bowling for Columbine 2002
Documentary
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
The sides of Bowling for Columbine
- A bank that hands out a rifle when you open an account
- Columbine security camera footage
- An interview with Charlton Heston at his home
Good for you if
- you want a road trip through America asking why it has so many shootings.
- you can laugh at a cartoon history of America while the subject is gun deaths.
- you like a sardonic narrator who questions everyone from Marilyn Manson to Charlton Heston.
Bad for you if
- a school shooting and a six-year-old girl's death are too much for you.
- you can't watch real footage from inside a school during a shooting.
About: guns · fear · violence
Blackfish 2013
Documentary
Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.
The sides of Blackfish
- Tilikum, a captive killer whale
- Former SeaWorld trainers telling what they saw
- The death of a trainer during a show
Good for you if
- you like former trainers admitting what they didn't want to see.
- you care about how intelligent animals live.
- you like seeing a company's story taken apart piece by piece.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real attacks and a real death described in detail.
- you want a light animal film. This one leaves you angry.
About: captivity · guilt · profit
Spotlight 2015
Film
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
The sides of Spotlight
- Journalists investigating abuse in the Church
- Interviews with survivors
- A city that looked away
Good for you if
- you like a story told through interviews and documents.
- you want to see how a true investigation was done.
- you like slow-building pressure on the powerful.
Bad for you if
- child abuse, even described, is too much tonight.
- you want action. It's phone calls and paper.
About: truth · power · complicity
Citizenfour 2014
Documentary
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
The sides of Citizenfour
- Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel room
- Journalists deciding what to publish
- A fire alarm that makes everyone freeze
Good for you if
- you like the days before a leak, filmed as they happen in one hotel room.
- you want to watch Snowden explain, in his own words, why he did it.
- you like seeing how governments watch their own citizens.
Bad for you if
- you need momentum, and most of it is people talking at a desk.
- you want scale and sound, not a laptop and a hotel bed.
About: surveillance · privacy · courage
Making a Murderer 2015
Documentary
Filmed over 10 years, this real-life thriller follows a DNA exoneree who, while exposing police corruption, becomes a suspect in a grisly new crime.
The sides of Making a Murderer
- A man freed by DNA after 18 years in prison
- A new murder charge two years later
- A nephew's confession and the trials that follow
Good for you if
- you want to weigh the evidence in the Steven Avery case yourself.
- you like seeing how a county police force and a court work up close.
- you like a case followed over ten years, hearing by hearing.
Bad for you if
- a real young woman's murder and a teenager's interrogation are too much for you.
- you need some hope, and a family's ten-year fight through prison visits and appeals wears you down.
About: justice · doubt · family
Fahrenheit 9/11 2004
Documentary
Michael Moore's view on how the Bush administration allegedly used the tragic events on 9/11 to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The sides of Fahrenheit 9/11
- The 2000 election and September 11
- A president in a classroom after the attacks
- A mother from Flint who lost her son in Iraq
Good for you if
- you want news footage and interviews from the Bush years in one film.
- you like following money and oil between Washington and Saudi Arabia.
- you like Michael Moore's mocking edits and pop songs over politicians.
Bad for you if
- a mother reading her dead son's last letter is too much for you.
- you can't watch real footage of wounded civilians and soldiers in Iraq.
About: war · grief · politics
Chernobyl 2019
Series
The true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history: the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl. A tale of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.
The sides of Chernobyl
- The night a reactor exploded
- Scientists against the lies of a state
- Men sent onto the roof
Good for you if
- you like dread that never lets go.
- you want to understand a real disaster.
- you can take a grim, unflinching story.
Bad for you if
- radiation sickness shown in detail is too hard for you.
- you can't watch animals being shot. Soldiers clear the zone of the pets left behind.
About: truth · sacrifice · lies
Fyre 2019
Documentary
He promised supermodels and yachts, but delivered tents and cheese sandwiches. How one man engineered a music festival disaster.
The sides of Fyre
- A luxury festival sold with supermodels on a beach
- Guests arriving to disaster tents and a cheese sandwich
- The staff who tried to keep the promise alive
Good for you if
- you laugh at a disaster you can watch coming from the first ad.
- you like seeing how a fraud keeps going one lie after another.
- you like the people who built it explaining how it all went wrong.
Bad for you if
- you want a patient film. This one moves like a social media feed.
- you want to understand the man behind it. The film stays on the fallout.
About: hype · greed · influence
The Crown 2016
Series
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The sides of The Crown
- Elizabeth II from her young reign to old age
- Weekly meetings with her Prime Ministers
- A royal family torn between duty and love
Good for you if
- you like the second half of the 20th century seen from inside Buckingham Palace.
- you like a family drama where a sister, a husband and children all come second to the Crown.
- you like who really decides things between the palace and Downing Street.
Bad for you if
- you need momentum, and many episodes are quiet conversations in palace rooms.
- six seasons of royal life is too much for you.
About: duty · family · the monarchy
Sicko 2007
Documentary
A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States whose main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance, the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
The sides of Sicko
- Americans refused care by their insurers
- Hospitals in Canada, Britain, France and Cuba
- Michael Moore sailing to Guantanamo with 9/11 rescue workers
Good for you if
- you want to know how an insurer makes money by saying no.
- you like ordinary people telling what their illness cost them.
- you let yourself be moved by 9/11 rescue workers finally treated in a Havana hospital.
Bad for you if
- you can't take grief on screen. Families tell how a loved one died after an insurer said no.
- you roll your eyes at emotional appeals and swelling music.
About: health · money · dignity
Oppenheimer 2023
Film
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
The sides of Oppenheimer
- The man who built the bomb
- A secret town in the desert
- A hearing that decides his fate
Good for you if
- you like a lead performance carried by the eyes.
- you like rooms full of brilliant people arguing.
- you want to feel the first test in your chest.
Bad for you if
- three hours of talking is too much for one evening.
- you want action. It's mostly meetings and hearings.
- you want a story told in order. It jumps between periods.
About: guilt · power · science
The Irishman 2019
Film
Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.
The sides of The Irishman
- A hitman looking back from a nursing home
- Jimmy Hoffa
- Decades of the mob
Good for you if
- you like a slow, reflective gangster story.
- you like legends acting together one last time.
- you like an ending about loneliness and regret.
Bad for you if
- three and a half hours is far too long for you.
- you want a fast gangster film.
About: loyalty · ageing · regret
13th 2016
Documentary
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
The sides of 13th
- The loophole in the amendment that ended slavery
- From chain gangs to mass incarceration
- Historians, activists and politicians on camera
Good for you if
- you like an argument built from archives, laws and numbers.
- you want to see how a law from 1865 still shapes prisons today.
- you want to know who profits from locking people up.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real footage of Black people killed by police.
- you want to come out lighter. This one leaves you angry.
About: racism · justice · freedom
Wild Wild Country 2018
Documentary
When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.
The sides of Wild Wild Country
- A guru's followers building a city in the Oregon desert
- Ma Anand Sheela, his right hand
- A small town fighting back
Good for you if
- you like a fight between a commune and a town that becomes a national case.
- you can't look away from Sheela telling her own story decades later.
- you like a true story that gets stranger with each episode, and you can't guess where it goes.
Bad for you if
- six episodes of over an hour each is too much for you.
- you need momentum, and the archives and interviews take their time.
About: faith · power · utopia