Documentaries are a great way to learn about an entirely new culture or interest. Some eye-opening, some breathtaking – and all captivating – here are 8 documentaries on Netflix you may not have heard of, but you should definitely watch.
The Epic of Everest’ is an unmissable documentary for anyone even slightly intrigued by the grandeur and mystique of Mount Everest. Documenting the third attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest, we learn what lead to the death of the two explorers. The shots are exquisite and the story is enlightening. Are you ready for the climb?
Michelle Williams has come a long way since her portrayal of the young and impressionable Jen Lindley on Dawson’s Creek. The teen drama would be her breakout role, but it was after her tearful goodbye on the smash hit show that we all hold close to our hearts (go on, admit it!) that she became a household name. Williams has accomplished the near-impossible – making the successful transition from a television series regular to a four-time Academy Award nominated actress through roles in My Week with Marilyn, Blue Valentine, Brokeback Mountain, and now Manchester by the Sea.
To celebrate the release of Manchester by the Sea on digital download from May 8th and on DVD and Blu-ray from May 15th, we take a look at some of the key roles that made Michelle Williams one of the most respected actresses in Hollywood.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Arguably one of the most important films to come out in the 21st century, this film was career defining for many of those involved. Tackling some of the most sensitive issues in American society, it follows two cowboys who embark on a relationship that would change the course of their lives. Starring the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as Ennis and Jack, we see a friendship turn into a passionate romance, despite the very different life that surrounds them. Michelle Williams plays Alma, the wife of Ledger’s rugged ranch handler, stealing the screen repeatedly as she deals with the unfolding situation as Ennis and Jack reunite after years of separation. Williams does a fantastic job of creating empathy for Alma and the situation she finds herself in, all while routing for the two leads to be able to act on their true feelings for each other.
In 2010 the BFI published their Most Wanted list, a tantalising countdown of 75 British films classified as ‘missing, believed lost’. Of all these forgotten gems (which ranged from silent Hitchcock to ’60s pop), nothing excited horror fans more than the inclusion of José Ramón Larraz’s 1974 little-seen cult classic, Symptoms. Selected for the 1974 Cannes Film Festival before promptly falling into cinematic obscurity, this claustrophobic Repulsion-esque chiller, which tells the uncanny tale of a young woman’s descent into madness at a remote English country mansion, was long confined to the blurry terrains of VHS bootlegs and online rips. Now lovingly restored and looking better than ever, Larraz’s infamous curio is available for all to enjoy on BFI player. And so, to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of a neglected genre classic, here are 5 more horror gems waiting to be discovered on BFI’s online platform. Let the nightmares begin…
The Night Has Eyes (dir Leslie Arliss, 1942)
The Night Has Eyes (dir Leslie Arliss, 1942)
One of only a handful of British horror films produced during WWII, this delicious slice of gothic melodrama (think Jane Eyre meets The Old Dark House) stars James Mason as Stephen, a reclusive composer living in an isolated mansion on the perennially misty Yorkshire Moors. When two lost women stumble on his property, Stephen offers shelter and a place to stay. But as romance blossoms between the taciturn recluse and one of his new guests, so too does the macabre truth of Stephen’s dark past. Also released under the more salacious titles Terror House and Moonlight Madness, this atmospheric chiller was given the BBFC’s dreaded H-for-Horror rating when it was released in 1942, possibly thanks to its surprisingly nasty conclusion. As ever, Mason makes for a broodingly effective leading man, while special mention should also go to Tucker McGuire for her scene-stealing role as man-hungry schoolteacher Doris. But the real stars are the Moors themselves – evocatively captured by Gunther Krampf (famed cinematographer whose work included Pandora’s Box and The Hands of Orlac) – which reek of dread and dark foreboding.
Doctor Who has been away for aeons. Only two Christmas stocking fillers have aired over the past couple of years. But now the TARDIS crew are back in business, as Peter Capaldi returns this Saturday with two new assistants in tow for Series 10.
Making her debut is Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) but it’s also the turn of Matt Lucas’s Nardole to become a fully-fledged companion after last year’s The Return Of Doctor Mysterio. He follows in a long tradition of comedians and comedy stars appearing on the show. Indeed his former Little Britain collaborator David Walliams was transformed into an alien for 2011’s The God Complex starring Matt Smith.
To celebrate Lucas properly joining the Doctor’s adventures, we take a look back at the most memorable performances from Britain’s comedic royalty in the world’s longest-running sci-fi programme…
10. Greg Davies – The Husbands Of River Song
Nardole was by the Doctor’s side at Christmas. Yet the character was introduced in the previous festive special, playing a light relief role. Also starring was Greg Davies, who you may think was raising chuckles as cyborg king Hydroflax… in fact Davies showed a darker side as a surprisingly convincing villain. This ailing tyrant not only had universal domination on his mind but also a tempestuous marriage to River Song (Alex Kingston) to consider. Unbeknownst to him, she was planning his demise!
In sitcom Man Down the towering comedian is frequently humiliated as a hapless schoolteacher. Similar embarrassment lay in store for Hydroflax, who wound up as a head in a bag. Despite this, Davies managed to make his portrayal intimidating as well as amusing. While the king was ultimately obliterated, a reappearance can’t be ruled out. Anything’s possible in the topsy-turvy, timey-wimey Whoniverse of the Doctor.
Logan provides a grown-up and fitting end to Wolverine’s story, seeing the last of the X-Men at his most human, succumbing to old age and poor health. The film is as sad and weary as it is brutal and bloody – the fraught yet tender relationship between Professor X and Logan providing a welcome contrast to the graphic bloodshed.
Echoing the common and natural development of a father and son relationship, Logan is now Charles Xavier’s reliable but often resentful caregiver. Their relationship is played out with heartbreaking humanity – Charles, once able to bring society to its knees with just his mind now is now a quarrelsome old man being hauled onto the toilet by Logan, complaining all the way. The implication that Charles has dementia only adds to the gut-wrenching indignity of his situation.
It’s one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine that we’re all living longer, but with that comes the increased likelihood of progressive and fatal conditions like dementia. People now fear dementia more than any other health condition and it’s no coincidence that film and TV are increasingly using it as a plot device.
Fiction, particularly science fiction, reflects the anxieties of the time. In 1968, Planet of the Apes ended with Charlton Heston facing the devastating realisation that he’s actually on Earth following the destruction of the human race by a nuclear war. 20 years after the end of the Cold War, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, offered the search for a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease as the cause of mankind’s downfall.
As dementia becomes more prevalent, so too are stories of forgetting and loss of identity. Often, these serve as cautionary tales, admonishing society for interfering with the mind.
Black Mirror – Playtest
Always one to throw our own existential dread back at us, Charlie Brooker in Playtest asks “what do you fear the most?” and then plays it out to the grim extreme. It’s not exactly nuanced – we quickly learn that Cooper, the main protagonist, recently lost his father to younger-onset dementia. As Cooper enters the virtual reality game, he is faced with escalating fears that suggest the game is digging deeper into his psyche until we find that losing his cognitive function and sense of identity is what truly terrifies our hero.
As always, Black Mirror grimly imitates life and draws the line between both dementia and VR technology in their capacity to interfere with your perception of the world and sense of self. The bitter punchline in Playtest is that it’s interference from Cooper’s phone that destroys his mind, rather than dementia itself.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the other hand asks whether it is desirable to forget the things that cause you pain – is ignorance really bliss? In Charlie Kaufman’s story, technology exists that allows the main character, Joel, to forget that he ever met Clementine or fell in love with her. This alone induces fear; when deciding to proceed he asks if there is any danger of brain damage, “technically speaking,” the inventor replies truthfully, “ the procedure is brain damage.”
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
As the process takes Joel back through his memories of Clementine, he is reminded that their relationship wasn’t all bad and he falls in love with her again. With his memories erased, Joel finds himself compulsively drawn to the places that held significance for their relationship. Eternal Sunshine shows that even without memory our emotional ties and instincts remain, concluding that the spotless mind is not necessarily sunnier.
Movies that examine the fragility of memory often carry a dark sense of dread of being easily manipulated. Dark City is a terrifying conspiracy where an ideal society is being engineered through the nightly rearrangement of everyone’s memories. Our sense of identity and reality are tied up tightly with our memories, that anything that interferes with that is horrifying.
Unfortunately, dementia is as frequently used as a convenient and contemporary alternative to the dead parent trope, often with little examination of the condition itself. In movies, people experience a picturesque form of dementia where the main symptom is perfectly-timed moments of lucidity that allows them to deliver wise speeches. Friends with Benefits hinges on this, with Richard Jenkins inexplicably taking his trousers off in an airport restaurant before urging his son to pursue the love of his life. Equally, Joan Allen’s character in The Notebook is allowed clarity long enough to remember her past romance with her husband.
Rather than providing a discussion of the condition or people’s experiences of it, dementia in movies often focuses on what has been lost. As with other disability tropes, movie dementia shows the affected person as incomplete, robbed of their memories and personality, only becoming whole in their moments of clarity. Similarly, their carers, friends and family are shown as complete in comparison, adding to the sense of grief by demonstrating their wholeness and sense of self.
As we are warned of the growing threat of dementia, it’s also increasingly likely that it will become more prominent in fiction. When used well, dementia in movies can help to examine our anxieties about a condition we still have limited knowledge of and ever fewer treatments for. Unfortunately, it also seems likely that there will also be an rise in work that reinforces worrying assumptions about the condition and will serve only to increase stigma and shame surrounding it.
