Inside the Edge: A Professional Blackjack Adventure

Have you ever considered what it might be like to play blackjack professionally? Well, you may find out thanks to this documentary film. Many people enjoy playing blackjack online for fun. Nowadays, it’s simple to do because websites of best online casinos Canada offer a choice of games you may access from your home as well as playing advice and methods. But it’s also fascinating to watch a skilled blackjack player in action.

Chris Buddy’s novel Inside the Edge follows K.C. as he moves from casino to casino across America playing blackjack. K.C. has several unusual difficulties that make his blackjack attempts extra challenging, and watching him overcome these barriers is fascinating to watch. Blackjack is a straightforward game to play but the purpose of the documentary is to show viewers whether K.C. can apply the technique to lower the house edge.

The Player: Secrets of a Vegas Whale

Don Johnson, who gained notoriety for his venture into gambling, is interviewed by Trish Regan; best known as an American talk show host and for her appearances on the Fox Business Network. After earning $6 million at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, $5 million at the Borgata, and $4 million at Caesars, Johnson may be the most well-known figure in blackjack.

He has a fascinating tale to tell and is a charismatic guy. The documentary not only covers Johnson but also contains some fascinating details about Las Vegas’s past.

Poker Queens

Sandra Mohr, known for Radio Wars (2012), Macabre Theatre (2002) and Stock Shock (2009), created another stirring documentary about gambling. Poker Queens illustrates the difficulties faced by women who play poker against primarily male opponents.

Interviews and a few surprises are provided by the talented, disciplined, and smart ladies who do whatever to succeed in the world of professional poker. The top prize of the World Series of Poker has never been won by a woman. And women who strive to achieve this incredible achievement face open scorn and derision. Even if you’re not very interested in poker, it’s fascinating to watch women overcome and discuss these challenges.

Drawing Dead: The Highs & Lows of Online Poker

The plot revolves around Michael Korpi Jr. and Dusty Schmidt, two poker players. Dusty Schmidt was a talented golfer with everything going for him, while Michael was a gifted musician, athlete, and exceptional academic whose life was ruined by his love for poker. Sadly, Dusty ended his golfing career at the age of 23 due to a heart attack. He shifted his focus to online poker, where he quickly rose to the top and amassed a wealth of over $4 million. This documentary documents the highs and lows of gambling and is well worth a watch.

Let It Ride

Joe Pytka’s outstanding 1989 comedy, Let It Ride, is a masterpiece. While not strictly a documentary, Pytka’s first feature film about gambling relays real-life events with a script by Nancy Dowd. It is based on Jay Cronley’s 1979 novel Good Vibes and Richard Dreyfuss plays the title character in the movie, Trotter. He is a cab driver who goes on a winning streak after getting a tip but irritates his estranged wife, Pam, by spending much of his time at a horse racing track. Despite promising his wife that he would stop gambling, Trotter gambles the next day and wins $700 on his first bet. That marks the beginning of a fantastic winning streak that results in him becoming an improbable ladies’ man as a result of his newfound success.

The Front Lines of Fantasy Sports Betting

A highly praised and innovative documentary about the gambling industry, Frontline is a joint production of the New York Times and PBS. It focuses on the websites FanDuel and DraftKings, which both support fantasy sports wagering. The documentary “Open Book” explains how such sites function and generate revenue. While gambling is illegal in many US states, fantasy sports have grown in popularity. They are totally lawful because they are considered entertainment. Fantasy Sports is a huge industry because it is unregulated and does not require any gambling taxes or license costs.

Best Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker

Best Raise Fold follows the rise and apparent collapse of online poker. It takes you from the early 2000s until the disastrous Black Friday in April 2015. Bet Raise Fold describes the lives of three radically different characters in this intriguing historical narrative of the game. Their captivating true-life tales will aid people in better comprehending the ramifications of Black Friday while supporting potential gamblers in knowing the traps and glamorous gains.

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The soft-spoken British cultural icon has travelled to dangerous locations and interrogated some of the most controversial personalities in the world. Maybe his greatest skill is his ability to coax honest statements from even the most reclusive interviewees.

Theroux criticized his early professional breakthrough in an interview with The Guardian. He claims to be distracted by his appearance, voice, and how he came across. His accent had a light mid-Atlantic twang. Despite his awkwardness, it possibly contributed to his appeal.

Theroux plays up his own ignorance as a vital component of his act. Despite his mind constantly formulating the best way to ask his next incisive question, his mild-mannered demeanor makes him a person you can confide in.
One of the most well-known factual filmmakers of modern entertainment, Theroux has given audiences more than 40 different documentaries and one feature-length film. But what about his own favorites?

The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)

Joshua Oppenheimer’s disturbing documentary The Act of Killing came out in 2012. It chronicles the former leaders of an Indonesian death squad asked to tell a dramatic account of their heinous deeds. The documentary is completely surreal and employs an odd kind of storytelling, including extravagant Hollywood-inspired scenes and even musical numbers.

According to Theroux Oppenheimer uses this kind of great, genius breakthrough storytelling device that becomes a kind of process for them to have a reckoning. At its core it is a film of high humanistic value.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (Kurt Kuenne, 2008)

Dear Zachary, according to Theroux, is a documentary about grieving. It’s about loss and about family. It tells the tale of a filmmaker who intends to memorably commemorate his murdered friend’s short life. Even though this bizarre story has much more to it, Theroux prefers to keep the details of the storyline a secret. He’s reluctant to talk too much about it as it’s a heart-breaking piece of work.

Dear Zachary is a well-liked documentary that explores a sad lost life in a painful, emotionally charged manner. According to Theroux, no one he’s ever recommended it to has failed to be genuinely impacted by this film. It’s simply a beautiful movie.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

Despite the fact that Banksy, the notoriously enigmatic guerilla artist, is the film’s director, the focus is more on the nature of street art and merchandising in particular than the artist’s real work. Exit Through the Gift Shop follows numerous street artists from around the world; from Mr. Brainwash to Space Invader. It is at once light and amusing but also a thoughtful piece of work.

Theroux praises the film as a terrific example of one of those kinds of documentaries in which one of the participants takes over and steers the film in a very unexpected route.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Andrew Jarecki, 2015)

Theorux’s fourth pick, shifting his focus from feature-length documentaries to serialized factual entertainment, is The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst on HBO. The Jinx is a real-life horror case that feels like it is being solved right before our eyes. It examines the life of the well-known real estate mogul and his link to a string of brutal unsolved crimes.

The film is beautifully built using interviews, archives, and also reenactments. However as the relationship between the director and the subject deepens, it turns into something else. 

Thick Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)

Errol Morris’ investigation of a man on death row who is falsely accused of murder is well acknowledged as one of the greatest documentaries of contemporary film. Theroux believes it’s an outstanding piece of art. Errol Morris, the renowned director of The Fog of War and Gates of Heaven, is most famous for his film 1988; a film which highlights the corruption of law enforcement that is still a pressing issue today.

According to Louis Theroux, it’s one of his favourite documentaries. He thinks it’s a terrific illustration of how effectively the truth is communicated when it’s not forced. It leaves the viewer to piece together the information on their own to reach the conclusion.

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Examples of the key issues addressed in these films include drugs, animal brutality, and serial killers. Some documentaries will stick in their viewers’ minds for a while; this could be because they deal with the worst aspects of human nature or because they don’t hesitate to speak the truth about the most macabre secrets.

The Business Of Drugs

The Business of Drugs is a five-episode documentary series about cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, synthetic drugs, cannabis, and opioids written by Chris Cechin-De La Rosa. The aim of the documentary is to examine drugs as a whole. The chemical make-up of the drugs, their results, and their socioeconomic and cultural histories are all taken into account in The Business of Drugs.

The documentary paints a pretty accurate picture of how damaging drugs can be whether felt by a specific person or whether part of a nation’s social and cultural fabric.

Worst Roommate Ever

Conflicts with roommates are common, but Netflix’s Worst Roommate Ever is genuinely upsetting. There are four terrifying tales included in this documentary; a serial killer who drugged and murdered her tenants; an obsessive stalker; a con artist posing as the landlord, and an attempted murder show the risks of living together. It’s fairly typical to share rent with a friend, spouse, or acquaintance, especially in these times. Worst Roommate Ever serves as a timely reminder to the audience that even in the comfort of their own home, it only takes one negative experience for life to spiral out of control.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel

After going missing for 20 days, Elisa Lam’s body turned up in a cistern at the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles in February 2013. After the LAPD published security camera evidence showing Lam acting suspiciously, this strange case gained enormous notoriety. Joe Berlinger’s Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel examines what actually transpired.

Since Elisa Lam’s elevator film went viral with a lot of speculation and creepy stories about how she died. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is one of those documentaries more terrifying than most horror films because of its paranormal elements.

Our Father

Lucie Jourdan’s Our Father examines one of the most infamous examples of fertility fraud. Doctor Donald Cline inseminated dozens of patients without their consent in the 1970s and 1980s using his own sperm. Our Father describes how he came to father nearly 100 children while also telling the tale of some of his victims. According to the documentary, his atrocities were the result of his engagement in the conservative Christian movement Quiverfull. An organisation which encourages people to procreate under a white nationalist philosophy.

Dark Tourist

David Farrier examines gloomy tourism, or visiting locations connected to tragedies, in his book Dark Tourist. Many people go to these places to have a macabre experience or to reflect back on some of the most dark moments in human history. Farrier explores gruesome tourist hotspots like the Fukushima nuclear accident, Jeffrey Dahmer’s murdering spree, and Pablo Escobar’s hiding places over the course of eight episodes.

Any lover of history or the dark tourism theme should watch Dark Tourist. The documentary series is so compelling that it will alter viewers’ perceptions of the world. Dark Tourism, however, also covers some extremely gory subjects. Even while the series isn’t particularly graphic, the knowledge that such things do in fact occur is enough to make one uncomfortable.

The Keepers

The Keepers, a seven-episode documentary by Ryan White, examines the unsolved murder of Catherine Cesnik. Cesnik was a nun whose body was discovered close to a landfill in 1970. The Keepers follows Abbie Fitzgerald Schaub and Gemma Hoskins as they investigate what transpired.

The Keepers claims that Joseph Maskell, a former priest who sexually assaulted his students and sought to cover up his misdeeds, killed Catherine Cesnik. This shocking discovery shows the ongoing corruption within the Catholic church, even after 50 years. The Keepers will give audiences more anxiety than any other horror movie.

Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Fans of real crime get the chance to learn more about one of the most notorious serial killers by watching Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. Exclusive interviews with witnesses, surviving victims, family members and former friends of the serial killer feature in the series. A timeline of Ted Bundy’s life and crimes is also available in The Ted Bundy Tapes.

The most cold-hearted son of a b***h you’ll ever meet was how Bundy described himself. Without holding back, Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes chronicles his grisly killings. Viewers will be forced to consider the nature of evil and how it relates to human nature.

The Trials Of Gabriel Fernandez

Eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez was horribly beaten and neglected by his mother and stepfather till he passed away. The tragic story of Gabriel Fernandez’s abuse and murder is examined in The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. It details the court cases involving his abusers Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre. The Netflix series also looked into Gabriel Fernandez’s social workers’ shortcomings.

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez is an extremely tragic tale with horrifyingly detailed accounts of child abuse. After watching this documentary, viewers will empathize with Gabriel and feel helpless.

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The Hotel Chelsea in New York City first opened its doors on 23rd Street in 1884. Some of the greatest figures in all of the arts resided on its twelve floors of brick. Among the very first check-ins were Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde. On the eighth floor, Madonna mapped out her global takeover and later took pictures for her book, Sex. The screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey was written there by Arthur C. Clarke. When she was a young actress, Marilyn Monroe resided at The Chelsea. Arthur Miller also eventually returned there following their divorce. The bohemian culture served as an influence for writers such as Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard and poet Dylan Thomas amongst others.

Dreaming Walls is unsettling, as the title would imply.

It is a sad and joyous urban horror story in which the ghosts are being driven out. A young African-American construction worker starts talking to the hotel’s longtime resident choreographer Merle Lister Levine about the emotions he experiences while entering particular rooms. He claims to have researched the Chelsea Hotel online and discovered all the artists that resided and worked there. By the time his section is over, he is discussing his aspirations to become an architect. You see him singing Mambo Italiano and dancing on a stairway. He appears to become a de facto inhabitant by proxy in the poignant and incredibly humorous scene.

Whether they originate from the documentary’s superimposed camera images or the imaginations projected onto people who gave the hotel its renown, the ghosts are now merely projections. Artists who have a permanent address at the hotel are being relegated to service elevators, hidden from view. The Chelsea is being transformed into an expensive boutique hotel by developers taking advantage of the property’s former fame.

During a dinner scene, the long-time occupants debate whether renovations will be enough to hide the sex, drugs and creative excess entrenched in the structure.

The movie shows dreamy archival footage of singalongs, dancing performances, and art collaborations that involved large portions of the community of the building. Additionally, it shines a light on the bleak reality experienced by the artists who murdered themselves; whether on purpose or not. The hotel saw a great deal of drug-related deaths, but there is no judgment, just momentary sadness.
The Michael Andrews soundtrack successfully captures the atmosphere of the hotel during its era. The action of Dreaming Walls takes place in the present. It is not a comprehensive history of the hotel which would be impossible to cover in a single film. But rather an intuitive therapy session for people who were taken aback by the transformation.
The remaining permanent occupants are shown going about their lives but the narrative is one of change. This is nothing new for a few of the residents. Bettina Grossman admits that she used to sleep in the corridor when her apartment was overrun by her artwork.

The process is improvisational, loosely organized, eccentric, and beautiful. There are idiosyncratic and honest full-bodied personalities in the cozy settings of their flats instead of talking heads laughing over anecdotes. Some subjects never introduce themselves. Others just provide their identities as home movie footage shows where they fit into the building. Some rooms are thoroughly examined down to the last piece of dust, while others are just glimpsed in the gentle reflections of the flat windows.

The documentary manages to deliver its message impressionistically despite how authentic the subjects’ stories feel.

Yellowed stills of mysterious brilliance and jumbled memories of affordable Manhattan real estate help to create the scene.

Stanley Bard, who managed the hotel from the 1970s until 2007, is shown in archival footage. Bard approved art on the walls of the hotel even if the artist didn’t have the cash to pay the rent. However, The Chelsea under his leadership also developed into a refuge for prostitutes and drug use. Dreaming Walls keeps its quiet authority, never caving into lazily exploitative sensationalism. The directors deserve praise for their restraint given their background, which includes Nancy Spungen’s final deadly night with Sid Vicious.

The audience will decide whether there are cultural issues with the capitalist realities of gentrification.  The developers are not shown as blatantly evil. Zoe and Nicholas Pappas, two longtime local artists, envision a bright future. Other protesters use legal proceedings to delay construction. One renter refers to the current construction as a “slow-motion rape.” The oldest resident of The Chelsea, reclusive artist Bettina Grossman, who passed away between the time of her interview and the film’s premiere, provides the most harrowing testimony against the new management.

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Blackfish, Free Solo, Knock Down the House and a number of other outstanding female-directed documentaries may be already known to you. However, there are several more out there if you require more.

13th (2016) – ( Ava DuVernay)

The USA is home to 25% of the world’s prisoners despite having just about 5% of the global population.
The 13th is unquestionably Ava DuVernay’s best and most significant picture. It is a damning indictment of Black history’s oppression and the legacy of slavery that still haunts today’s Americans. This enlightening documentary explores lynchings, the war on drugs, Jim Crow legislation, voting restrictions, the prison industrial complex, redlining and gerrymandering. Basically all last-ditch attempts by those in positions of authority to maintain the spirit of slavery. he and her interview subjects dissect the “Mythology of Black Criminality,” and the media’s participation.
She also addresses neoliberalism’s appalling inability to transform racist institutions without pulling any punches. It also examines how “States Rights” is a ruse to suppress minorities. This is important to remember at this time when “States Rights” is being invoked as a justification for restricting people’s freedoms.

Despite its somber subject matter, it’s not an unpleasant ordeal to watch. The straightforwardness of its message and the conciseness with which it makes its points are one of 13th’s greatest strengths. Additionally, it has some great tracks by Public Enemy, Dead Prez, and Killer Mike. Anyone who cares about equality and social change should watch this movie.

Jesus Camp (2006) – (Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing)

Jesus Camp chronicles the scourge of far-right militant Christians teaching kids to idolize conservative politicians, disdain Harry Potter, hate homosexual people, and battle tenaciously against the right to an abortion. It’s essentially a documentary about Becky Fischer, a Pentecostal preacher, and her three-week summer camp aimed to radicalize children.

Despite her claims of impartiality, Fischer frequently promotes radical viewpoints to naïve children by playing on their worry about going to hell. She continuously emphasizes the significance of using children as political pawns for her cause. She even lectures about how much President Bush has encouraged them since he is openly upfront about his trust in God.

Jesus Camp is pertinent today given the rise of the religious right in recent years. The co-directors of Love Fraud and One of Us, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, are scathing in their criticism of public officials and religious figures who use the Bible to excuse their despicable actions. The entire cult-like experience is sickening, which is made worse by the fact that racist, anti-science fundamentalism of this kind is still a major issue in the US today. Seek out Pray Away on Netflix for a similarly frustrating documentary directed by a woman (Kristine Stolakis).

Athlete A (2020) – (Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk)

Documentaries depicting abusers of women and predators hidden in plain sight have become increasingly prevalent. Not in small part due to the aftermath of the #MeToo movement’s flurry of alarming discoveries. The documentaries Surviving R. Kelly, Jimmy Saville: A British Horror Story, and Secrets of Playboy are just a few recent examples of how society so frequently ignores victims; especially women and children. The abuse suffered by dozens, probably hundreds, of young girls who competed for the US national gymnastics team is the subject of the book Athlete A. Larry Nassar, the osteopathic doctor for the team, received a life term in jail in 2017 for his heinous acts.

Like so many of these heartbreaking tales, Nassar’s victims were frequently bullied into keeping quiet. Or they were simply told they were “faking it” although there were clear warning signals for years. Athlete Arightly focuses on the victims and their inability to stop an abuser from preying on young women. Watch Eva Orner’s documentary Bikram, Yogi, Guru, Predator for more information about a trusted mentor who preyed on young women.

Ascension (2021) – (Jessica Kingdon)

Jessica Kingdon’s first film, Ascension, is a distinctive one. It’s just a compilation of images showing Chinese labourers engaged in various tasks; all of them pursuing the mythical “Chinese Dream,” with no storyline or talking-head interviews. Explanatory images provide light on everyone’s job process, from industrial workers to social media influencers. At first, it’s a meditative experience, but soon, a crushing sensation of dread and anxiousness sets in. Every day, the Ascension employees perform the same monotonous jobs. It’s intriguing at first, just like when you start a new job, but as you become more accustomed to it, the excitement wears off, and you’re left watching the same monotonous task repeatedly.

With the exception of Dan Deacon’s eerily apocalyptic music, there is no commentary. But the end product is a scathing critique of capitalism. Ascension educates viewers on how much needless trash is produced by manufacturing businesses. It shows that, despite the disparities in their governments and economy, China and the United States have very similar work cultures.

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Despite growing in popularity over the years, documentaries’ effect and their significance are still shamefully undervalued. Documentaries that break the fourth wall; straddle the boundary between fiction and truth, and reflect on the nature of film itself are even more underestimated. The true-crime documentary is of course just as carefully made as any Hollywood blockbuster. The more interesting documentaries, however, occasionally bring attention to their own form. They are less concerned about educating the audience or sparking discussion. It’s more about showcasing the fluidity of cinema and proving that genre is a false construct. The best experimental documentaries ever produced include some of these concepts.

City Hall

Frederick Wiseman, a master of documentaries, would never describe himself as an experimental filmmaker. He has produced more than 40 documentaries in his decades-long career (nearly one every year). The director uses one of the most streamlined, pared-down approaches to cinema verité. There are no voxpops and no narration of any type; only lengthy scenes that play out from beginning to end. But despite a blatant lack of originality, Wiseman’s movies are grand, sweeping, and captivating. And the reason for this is probably the fact that so few people genuinely make movies like he does.

One merely needs to watch Wiseman’s most recent movie, City Hall, which focuses on Boston’s municipal government building. Without a break, the film continues for four hours (by no means Wiseman’s longest). It is undoubtedly not for everyone, but for viewers with adequate patience, it offers many rewards and fantastic characters. Wiseman asks us to discover the entertaining inside the real, and it is abundantly present. Just as narrative films will urge us to discover the real within the entertaining.

The Owls

Cheryl Dunye is most well known for her romantic comedy The Watermelon Woman; a movie about a video store clerk who investigates the strange legacy of an actress called Fae Richards. Even though the film skillfully combines documentary elements with its fictitious plot, The Owls, one of Dunye’s later films, may better suit the definition of experimental documentaries. The Owls, an acronym for Older Wiser Lesbians, is a mostly made-up story about a reunion of old friends and a terrible crime.

The tale is interesting enough, resembling a Long Island-based middle-class Knives Out. But what makes it most fascinating are the story’s occasional breaks. They show interviews with the performers and Dunye herself who also appears in the movie) about the production of the movie. It’s a straightforward juxtaposition between the real and the fake, but it’s powerful, captivating, and fascinating. It causes you to reflect on the nature of what you’re seeing. It is more of a film about a film that is enclosed in a larger film than it is a film within a film.

Can’t Get You Out of My Head

British documentarian Adam Curtis’ style veers widely between the scholarly and the artistic, as well as everything in between. His most recent endeavor is a six-part miniseries made for the BBC that will take your mind on a true head trip. Curtis creates a magnificent tapestry of dystopian and stranger-than-fiction sagas from throughout 20th-century world history. All the footage is taken from discovered film and his somber narration recalls a nightmare version of Ken Burns. Curtis’ skills at combining music and graphics are possibly more memorable than the tales he shares or the points he makes.

The work contains a number of ridiculous and magnificent episodes where the narration entirely disappears. Leaving us only to witness bizarre, anachronistic montages set to music by Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, and Burial. Curtis is undoubtedly a serious individual who is passionate about history and wants to share his thoughts. But he also possesses a quirky, wicked sense of humor. Curtis’ distinctive creative sensibility is one of the things that draws you to his wildly original and experimental documentaries.

The Exquisite Corpse Project

The term “exquisite corpse” refers to a common technique that allows writers and artists to work together to create fragmented, stream-of-consciousness-style art. They can each sketch a separate bodily part to produce a monstrous Frankensteinian creation. In a narrative setting, Writer #1 might write 10 pages, and Writer #2 might follow suit after just having viewed the last page of Writer #1’s work.

The Exquisite Corpse Project is guided by this type of narrative concept. A group of five comics, including Raphael Bob-Waksberg of Bojack Horseman and Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything, are given the “exquisite corpse” task by their filmmaker buddy Ben Popik. If they succeed, he will produce and direct the resulting film. With consequences that are both puzzling and entertaining, what initially appears to be a documentary progressively transforms into the artists’ invented tale. It offers a wonderful view into the creative process and displays the results of that labor, just like The Owls did. Anyone who enjoys absurdist stories and sketch comedy should watch this.

My Girlfriend Candice

There are probably no bad movies in Casey Neistat’s vast video collection. The world-renowned YouTuber made a video every day for 18 months. He is possibly responsible for transforming ordinary daily events into epic filmmaking and vlogging and video essays into a cinematic art form. His short experimental documentaries are bite-sized works of art filled with joy and unrelenting love for New York City.
My Girlfriend Candice, a road movie that follows the love affair at the center of his life, is the ideal fusion of his defining characteristics. These are incisive editing, melancholy romanticism, and caustic narration. This true account, a modern National Lampoon’s Vacation, is upbeat and full of astonishing self-awareness but also permeated with profound grief and nostalgia. As well as verbal and nonverbal admissions of guilt. One scene, including a short romantic comedy captured on three iPhones, resembles a Wes Anderson-directed music video for OK GO. Although you may disagree with Neistat’s worldview and find him difficult to deal with at times, this is also a big part of what makes his work so unique and fascinating.

Close-Up

Close-Up by Abbas Kiarostami is the prototypical hybrid docufiction movie but also so much more. It tells the true tale of a con artist who tricked a family into thinking he was a well-known film director. Even though the film starts out as a conventional documentary, Kiarostami will eventually cast real-life actors to reenact the story’s events, playing themselves. This makes it a compelling story in and of itself. It’s a bizarre, personal, character-driven drama that goes beyond its ostensibly high-concept premise. It more blurs the line between truth and stories about that reality than it does between fiction and fact. Even while the stories we tell about events aren’t always as accurate as the events themselves, may they not be at least as real?

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