Only two classic documentaries on our Netflix 100 list expired this month, Man on Wire and Kurt & Courtney. However, there is another, Jesus Camp, which leaves the streaming service on February 21st. I’m keeping that on the list to remind you to get to it ASAP. Actually, I’ve moved it up higher than usual to have it more visible and give it greater priority for you. I think I’m going to also introduce newly available titles at the top of the list from now on, so they’re more immediately seen. Returning titles, though, such as Pumping Iron, will just go back where they had been previously.
Besides the Arnold Schwarzenegger bodybuilding film, other additions to the list this month include the currently Oscar-nominated feature Cartel Land (joining fellow nominees Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom and What Happened, Miss Simone?) and the currently Oscar-nominated shorts Last Day of Freedom and Chau, Beyond the Lines (see our doc short nominees reviews here). There’s also Ulrich Seidl’s latest, In the Basement, which was on our best of 2015 list, and the nonfiction rom-com Meet the Patels (read my review at FSR). I’m mainly highlighting that, as well as continued favorite here Crazy Love because of Valentine’s Day.
Of course, I had to remove some films that didn’t expire. They are Kumare, which I’m constantly back and forth on recommending, and three films I still personally haven’t watched, How to Change the World, Dior and I and Seymour: An Introduction. As always, I still encourage their viewing on account of their recommendation from others here at Nonfics. And they could always return to he Netflix 100 list in the future.
Now a reminder of how the Netflix 100 titles are numerically arranged:
They are mostly ranked in order of my favor with some objective authority, but there are some clumps throughout the list that obviously fit together. Some are by director, some are by genre or subject matter and some are by series. In fact, I see this whole list as being best watched in order of the rankings. There are a few double features in the bunch (Expedition to the End of the World and Encounters at the End of the World and Super Size Me and Super High Me, for two example sets) and some groupings where I truly think the higher ranking title is best watched before a certain title or titles below it.
- Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman, 2015)
- What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus, 2015)
- Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Evgeny Afineevsky, 2015)
- Chau, Beyond the Lines (Courtney Marsh, 2015)
- Last Day of Freedom (Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman, 2015)
- In the Basement (Ulrich Seidl, 2014)
- Meet the Patels (Geeta Patel and Ravi Patel, 2014)
- Crazy Love (Dan Klores, 2007)
- Jesus Camp (Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, 2006)
- The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)
- The Cruise (Bennett Miller, 1998)
- Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994)
- Life Itself (Steve James, 2014)
- Sherman’s March (Ross McElwee, 1986)
- Brother’s Keeper (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, 1992)
- Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 1992)
- Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 2003)
- Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004)
- Super High Me (Michael Blieden, 2007)
- Expedition to the End of the World (Daniel Dencik, 2013)
- Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2007)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)
- The End of Time (Peter Mettler, 2012)
- Particle Fever (Mark Levinson, 2013)
- Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Brannon Braga, Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, 2014)
- Paris is Burning (Jennie Livington, 1990)
- Moana With Sound (Robert J. Flaherty, Frances Hubbard Flaherty and Monica Flaherty, 1926/1980)
- Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
- Approaching the Elephant (Amanda Wilder, 2014)
- Actress (Robert Greene, 2014)
- The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)
- Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
- The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, 2012)
- The Nightmare (Rodney Ascher, 2015)
- Side By Side (Chris Kenneally, 2012)
- Casting By (Tom Donahue, 2012)
- Lost in La Mancha (Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, 2002)
- Virunga (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014)
- War Don Don (Rebecca Richman Cohen, 2010)
- The Act of Killing: Director’s Cut (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
- The Imposter (Bart Layton, 2012)
- Naqoyqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 2002)
- Samsara (Ron Fricke, 2011)
- Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, 2003)
- Last Days in Vietnam (Rory Kennedy, 2014)
- Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, 2015)
- Let the Fire Burn (Jason Osder, 2013)
- The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 (Goran Olsson, 2011)
- Concerning Violence (Goran Olsson, 2014)
- How to Die in Oregon (Peter Richardson, 2011)
- How to Survive a Plague (David France, 2012)
- We Were Here (David Weissman and Bill Weber, 2011)
- All American High Revisited (Keva Rosenfeld, 2014)
- Maidentrip (Jillian Schlesinger, 2013)
- Undefeated (Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, 2011)
- Medora (Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart, 2013)
- Rich Hill (Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos, 2014)
- White Earth (Christian Jensen, 2014)
- The Overnighters (Jesse Moss, 2014)
- Detropia (Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, 2012)
- Caucus (AJ Schnack, 2013)
- The Square (Jehane Noujaim, 2013)
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Alex Gibney, 2005)
- Kids for Cash (Robert May, 2013)
- The House I Live In (Eugene Jarecki, 2012)
- The Farm: Angola USA (Liz Garbus, 1998)
- Evolution of a Criminal (Darius Clark Monroe, 2014)
- Making a Murderer (Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, 2015)
- Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa, 2009)
- These Birds Walk (Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, 2013)
- Call Me Lucky (Bobcat Goldthwait, 2015)
- Girl Model (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, 2011)
- Iris (Albert Maysles, 2014)
- Mad Hot Ballroom (Marilyn Agrelo, 2005)
- Gasland (Josh Fox, 2010)
- FrackNation (Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinney and Magdalena Segieda, 2013)
- Restrepo (Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, 2010)
- Hell and Back Again (Danfung Dennis, 2011)
- Out of the Clear Blue Sky (Danielle Gardner, 2012)
- First Comes Love (Nina Davenport, 2013)
- After Tiller (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, 2013)
- Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story (Mark Herzog and Sandrine Orabona, 2014)
- Mala Mala (Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, 2014)
- Beware of Mr. Baker (Jay Bulger, 2012)
- Pumping Iron (George Butler and Robert Fiore, 1977)
- Bigger, Stronger, Faster (Chris Bell, 2008)
- This Ain’t California (Marten Persiel, 2012)
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
- Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (Brad Bernstein, 2012)
- Print the Legend (Luis Lopez and J. Clay Tweel, 2014)
- Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (Alison Klayman, 2012)
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi (David Gelb, 2011)
- More Than Honey (Markus Imhoof, 2012)
- Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou, 1996)
- Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2013)
- The Whale (Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit, 2011)
- The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield, 2012)
- Tabloid (Errol Morris, 2010)
- Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, 1981)
- Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (Kurt Kuenne, 2008)