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 Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me first
Miss Americana 2020
Documentary
A raw and emotionally revealing look at one of the most iconic artists of our time during a transformational period in her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a songwriter and performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice.
The sides of Miss Americana
- A songwriter finding a melody at the piano
- A pop star deciding to stop keeping quiet
- Life between the stage and the hotel room
Good for you if
- you want the real person behind the records.
- you like watching a song get built from nothing.
- you like spending an hour and a half inside one person's head.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not listen to someone talk about her eating disorder.
- you switch off when a star talks sincerely about herself.
About: self-worth · fame · finding a voice
Gaga: Five Foot Two 2017
Documentary
Follow pop provocateur Lady Gaga as she releases a new album, preps for her Super Bowl halftime show, and confronts physical and emotional struggles.
The sides of Gaga: Five Foot Two
- Lady Gaga writing and recording at home
- Rehearsals before the Super Bowl halftime show
- A doctor's visit for chronic pain
Good for you if
- you want to hear songs being made in the room.
- you like a camera that stays on after the interview ends.
- you want to watch one woman carry every scene.
Bad for you if
- a woman crying through chronic pain is too much for you.
- you want the stadium show, and most of this is rehearsal rooms and kitchens.
About: fame · pain · loneliness
Grizzly Man 2005
Documentary
Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
The sides of Grizzly Man
- A man who spent thirteen summers among Alaskan grizzlies
- His own video footage, shot alone
- Werner Herzog's voice weighing his choices
Good for you if
- you like a portrait made from a man's own tapes.
- you like bears filmed close, in the wild.
- you like trying to understand someone who chose to live outside the world.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch a film built around a real death, his and his partner's.
- you want a gentle animal film. This one leaves you uneasy.
About: obsession · nature · death
Amy 2015
Documentary
A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.
The sides of Amy
- Home videos of a teenage singer in London
- The recording of Back to Black
- Paparazzi flashes outside her door
Good for you if
- you like hearing Amy Winehouse's lyrics on screen as she sings them.
- you want her life told only through home videos, voicemails and friends' voices.
- you like being moved by someone you watch slip away.
Bad for you if
- you can't take addiction, an eating disorder and an overdose on screen.
- you need some hope, and you know how this one ends.
About: fame · addiction · talent
Cobain: Montage of Heck 2015
Documentary
Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.
The sides of Cobain: Montage of Heck
- Home videos and cassettes from Cobain's own archive
- Animated sequences built from his notebooks
- Seattle before and after Nirvana
Good for you if
- you want his own tapes and drawings rather than someone else's version of him.
- you came for Nirvana and the noise behind the records.
- you want the portrait of one person, his family and his marriage, not a tour of the hits.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with addiction, depression and an ending you already know is coming.
- over two hours this close to someone's pain is too much for one evening.
About: addiction · fame · family
Searching for Sugar Man 2012
Documentary
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.
The sides of Searching for Sugar Man
- Rodriguez, a Detroit singer who sold almost nothing at home
- His record everywhere in apartheid South Africa
- Two fans trying to find out how he died
Good for you if
- you like discovering songs you've never heard, and hearing why they mattered.
- you like an investigation that starts with record sleeves and royalties.
- you can be moved by how much a few songs meant to people on the other side of the world.
Bad for you if
- you want more happening than interviews and songs.
- you'd rather a made-up story than a documentary about real people.
About: fame · humility · second chances
What Happened, Miss Simone? 2015
Documentary
The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.
The sides of What Happened, Miss Simone?
- A classically trained pianist turned nightclub singer
- Civil rights songs sung to a crowd
- Her own diaries and tapes read back
Good for you if
- you want her voice and her piano carrying the whole film.
- you want her own diaries and recordings to tell it.
- you want to watch a stage performer hold a room still.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with an abusive marriage and an illness on screen.
- you need a life story that lands somewhere lighter.
About: racism · music · mental illness
Flee 2021
Documentary
Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.
The sides of Flee
- A man telling a friend what he fled from
- A childhood in Kabul, then years hidden in Russia
- A secret kept for twenty years from the man he loves
Good for you if
- you want a true story told by the person who lived it.
- you like animation used to protect a face and still show everything.
- you want one life followed from Kabul to a house in Denmark.
Bad for you if
- you don't watch animated films.
- you won't read subtitles for a Danish film.
- you can't sit with fear, separation and a family split apart.
About: exile · secrets · home
Three Identical Strangers 2018
Documentary
New York, 1980. Three complete strangers accidentally discover that they're identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-year-olds' joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives – and could transform our understanding of human nature forever.
The sides of Three Identical Strangers
- Three 19-year-olds who discover they are triplets
- Talk shows and fame in 1980s New York
- A secret study behind their adoption
Good for you if
- you like a happy story that turns dark halfway through.
- you like hearing the brothers tell it themselves.
- you want to think about what we owe to genes and what we owe to parents.
Bad for you if
- you can't take mental illness in a real family, told by the people who lived it.
- you want the joyful reunion to stay joyful.
About: identity · nature and nurture · brotherhood
Paris Is Burning 1991
Documentary
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
The sides of Paris Is Burning
- Harlem ball houses competing for trophies
- House mothers taking in young people with nowhere to go
- Voguing, shade and reading, explained by the people who made them
Good for you if
- you want the ballroom scene from the people who built it, in their own words.
- you want to spend an hour with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey and Willi Ninja.
- you want New York in the late 1980s as it was lived in Harlem.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with the poverty, the AIDS years and the violence these lives carried.
- you want something light, and the joy in it comes with real loss.
About: identity · chosen family · survival
Into the Wild 2007
Film
After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
The sides of Into the Wild
- A graduate who gives everything away
- A road trip across America
- An abandoned bus in Alaska
Good for you if
- you like wide landscapes and life in the wild.
- you like a young man searching for meaning.
- you like the true story of a graduate who gave away his savings and hitchhiked to Alaska.
Bad for you if
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
- you can't watch parents suffering. His family waits two years with no word from him.
About: freedom · family · nature
Bohemian Rhapsody 2018
Film
Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
The sides of Bohemian Rhapsody
- A shy boy becoming Freddie Mercury
- How the hits were made
- Twenty minutes at Live Aid
Good for you if
- you like singing along to Queen in the cinema.
- you like an actor disappearing into a legend.
- you want a crowd-pleaser that ends on a high.
Bad for you if
- you want the hard part told in full. It ends at Live Aid, years before Freddie's death.
- you roll your eyes at big speeches. Freddie tells the band they are his family before Live Aid.
About: fame · identity · family
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz 2014
Documentary
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
The sides of The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
- A teenager helping build RSS and Reddit
- A download of academic papers at MIT
- A federal prosecution with decades at stake
Good for you if
- you want his family, friends and lawyers telling the story.
- you want to see what a state can bring against one person.
- you like spending time with a mind that never stopped asking why.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit with a story that ends in a suicide.
- you need an ending that leaves you some hope.
About: open access · the law · conviction
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond 2017
Documentary
Offbeat documentarian Chris Smith provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Jim Carrey adopted the persona of idiosyncratic comedian Andy Kaufman on the set of Man on the Moon.
The sides of Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
- On-set footage from Man on the Moon, unseen for years
- Jim Carrey refusing to leave Andy Kaufman's character
- Carrey, nearly twenty years later, talking straight to camera
Good for you if
- you want the footage a studio kept buried and the man explaining it years later.
- you like an actor who answers only as a dead comedian for four months.
- you want to see what one role costs the person giving it.
Bad for you if
- you want the Jim Carrey who makes you laugh, and that is not what he came to do here.
- you can't sit with a man taking apart his own sense of self.
About: identity · fame · grief
The Pianist 2002
Film
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
The sides of The Pianist
- A pianist hiding in Warsaw
- Years alone in empty flats
- Music for an enemy officer
Good for you if
- you like a quiet performance of pure survival.
- you like a true story that stays with you.
- you like watching someone hold on through everything.
Bad for you if
- the Holocaust shown in detail is too much tonight.
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
About: survival · art · humanity
Tiger King 2020
Documentary
A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
The sides of Tiger King
- A private zoo full of tigers in Oklahoma
- A feud between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin
- A murder-for-hire plot
Good for you if
- you can laugh at how far a feud between zoo owners goes.
- you like a real story stranger than anything you'd make up.
- you like a cast of big cat breeders who each seem invented.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch big cats kept in cages and badly treated.
- you need answers, and the disappearance of Carole Baskin's husband is never solved.
About: obsession · rivalry · greed
The Beatles: Get Back 2021
Documentary
The three-part documentary series, compiled from over 60 hours of unseen footage, captures the warmth, camaraderie, and creative genius that defined the legacy of music's most iconic foursome. The series also includes – for the first time in its entirety – The Beatles' final performance at London's Savile Row.
The sides of The Beatles: Get Back
- The Beatles writing songs in a studio
- Unseen footage from January 1969
- The rooftop concert in full
Good for you if
- you like watching songs like Get Back take shape from nothing.
- you like long sessions where almost nothing happens and then a song appears.
- you want to see the four of them joke, argue and work together.
Bad for you if
- nearly eight hours of rehearsals is too much for you.
- you find 1969 footage dated, even restored.
About: creation · friendship · the end of a band
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
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
Indie Game: The Movie 2012
Documentary
Follows the dramatic journeys of video game developers as they create and release their games to the world. It's about making video games, but at its core, it's about the creative process, and exposing yourself through your work.
The sides of Indie Game: The Movie
- Two developers finishing Super Meat Boy
- A game called Fez made almost alone
- A release day that decides years of work
Good for you if
- you like watching real people put everything on one release.
- you like a close look at a few people under pressure.
- you like a release day where years of work can fall apart in an hour.
Bad for you if
- you want something to happen on screen and this is mostly men at keyboards.
- you need momentum and this one waits years for a release day.
About: creation · isolation · pressure