The 21 most revealing celebrity documentaries, ranked
These docs dig deep into their subjects, from Billie Eilish to Robin Williams to Michael J. Fox
Film Lists Bobby Brown
Celebrity documentaries run the gamut. There are hagiographies, which all but deify their subjects. (We’re looking at you Jonas Brothers: Chasing Happiness.) Some feel like pure cash-in opportunities: “So-and-so died? Let’s throw something together and sell it somewhere!” Netflix buys many of these, including Bowie: The Man Who Changed The World, a pastiche of old clips and talking heads that added nothing to the legend of the Thin White Duke. And then we get to the good stuff: revealing, brutal, and intimate docs that peel back the layers on their subjects.
The best of these often come courtesy of the subjects themselves, as they—likely with the blessing of their therapists and possibly their publicists and lawyers—get real about addictions, obsessions, the price of fame, and so much more. So far in 2023, we’ve seen two such documentaries— Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and Pamela: A Love Story—so we thought we’d pick up their non-fictional baton and run down the least fluffy and least self-congratulatory celebrity documentaries. And since we have to draw the line somewhere, we’ll focus on movies and two-parters, meaning the epic and engrossing Michael Jordan miniseries The Last Dance, the disturbing Surviving R. Kelly, and others like those didn’t make the cut.
17 Comments
I would say Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work was a pretty big miss when it comes to revealing documentaries. I wouldn’t even really call myself a fan of hers but I thought it was super interesting.
I just watched The Golden Boy on Max. That was pretty damn revealing.
I would have included Val.
you guys are just writing this shit with AI, aren’t you
The list is credited to Ian Spelling. Since nobody at the AV Club knows Spelling, it’s safe to assume the name is fake.
It’s pre-emptive promo work for that new Owen Wilson film. Five’ll get you ten it was commissioned by their comms team.
Divine should be referred to with he/him pronouns. He never considered himself transgender/transsexual but, rather, as a male.
The editing/re-creation of Michael J. Fox filming Family Ties and Back to the Future simultaneously is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Not only are the clips and integration with the new footage perfect, but it really puts you in his brain as he’s juggling these two projects at once.
“And since we have to draw the line somewhere”, and that line was 2009 (besides the Tonya Harding short).
It’s interesting to me that Some Kind of Monster isn’t on that list. Maybe Metal just isn’t AV Club’s thing, but the camera’s were on right as the band imploded and James had to to into rehab. In retrospect it’s interesting, because Hetfield is fairly private, but the band is fairly naked in it.
Gotta make room for all those carefully vetted identikit ‘look how quirky I am ‘ pop girl documentaries on the list .
What Happened Miss Simone? does not honor its subject. Her ex husband is given far too much narrative time and his POV is severely biased. The film spends a lot of energy pathologizing the artist. These people aren’t “mentally ill.” There is no illness other than the disfunction around them. We are all expected to adapt and comply or rebel and face social retribution and demands that we medicate ourselves into submission. Artists deal with their pain by turning it into something society needs. Society shows its ingratitude.
Most of the films on this list are PR packages extended to feature length. There’s nothing genuinely revealing about a documentary in which the subject’s team has final cut.
“Montage of Heck” is so juvenile and exploitative, it’s hard to watch. Especially the animated segments and the amateurish grunge-history segment.
Truth or Dare deserves a spot, not just a mention. I don’t know if we’ll ever get that kind of access to a celebrity being wholly themselves like that again. The unapologetic and sometime terrible parts of Madonna are I’m sure what drives a lot of superstars, she just laid it out on the table for once.
Unless there’s some reason to specifically point it out, please don’t write “adopted son/daughter.” Quintana Roo was Joan’s daughter, period. The fact that she joined the family through adoption isn’t relevant here, and pointing it out just perpetuates the mistaken assumption that an adopted child is different-than and doesn’t count as much as a biological child. It’s like saying “I saw a lady doctor for my broken toe.” The gender isn’t relevant, and pointing it out serves as a qualifier (whether deliberately or no) that she isn’t as much of a “real” doctor as a man would be.
How is Madonna’s Truth or Dare not on this list? Also, none of The Beatles documentaries?