The 30 Best Documentaries On Max Right Now

In May 2023, HBO Max became Max, a move that makes HBO just another brand in the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio. Now, critical darlings like "The Sopranos" and "Succession" live alongside "MILF Manor" and more "90 Day Fiancé" spin-offs than anyone can count. Thankfully, whether you agree with the restructuring or not, Max still offers an impressive array of documentaries; they're just harder to find.

On Max, you're not only able to watch "Navalny," 2022's Oscar-winning best documentary feature, but also runners-up "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" and "All That Breathes." The service also offers Max Originals like "Beanie Mania," a delightful deep dive into the '90s toy craze, and classic docs produced for HBO, like Spike Lee's searing "4 Little Girls." The breadth of content on Max may seem overwhelming, but that's where guides like this come in.

Perhaps no filmmaker alive is better suited to look at the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which killed four little girls, than Spike Lee. Lee has always had an incisive eye for how racism echoes through generations, and his Oscar-nominated documentary "4 Little Girls" traces the reverberations of those four lost lives through the decades. Using home movies and interviews with the children's families and friends, the searing documentary restores dignity in life to Carol McNair, Addie May Collins, Carole Rosamond Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, resurrecting and preserving the memories of human beings who became the central figures in a history-altering tragedy.

• Starring: Maxine McNair, Harold McNair, Helen Pegues

• Director: Spike Lee

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

The HBO documentary "537 Votes" takes an in-depth look at the 2000 election, laying out the insanity that gripped the country during those few weeks when we had no idea who the next president would be. The film paints an excellent picture of the political climate of the time, focusing on the way the Elian Gonzalez story may have swayed the future of the United States. As the country devolves into paranoid conspiracy theorizing about the integrity of our elections, "537 Votes" feels more essential with each passing day. The film was produced by Adam McKay, and it zips along like "The Big Short," playing almost like a farce — albeit one with incredibly dark implications for the future of the country.

• Starring: George W. Bush, Al Gore, Bill Clinton
• Director: Billy Corben
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Shaunak Sen's Oscar-nominated documentary "All That Breathes" is about the work of two brothers in New Delhi who run an animal hospital that cares for the black kites that soar over the city. New Delhi is a crowded city where people and pollution endanger the lives of animals who share their space, and Sen wisely uses this one hospital as a window into the idea of how man lives alongside nature. You can't go wrong with this one — "All That Breathes" features beautiful nature photography, incredibly likable humans, and an important social message. It somehow ends up feeling even greater than the sum of its parts.

• Starring:  Mohammad Saud, Nadeem Shehzad

• Director: Shaunak Sen

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

Artist and activist Nan Goldin once drew both admiration and ire for her fearless, intimate photographs exploring sexuality in the time of AIDS. Nowadays, she devotes her time (and her cultural cachet) to fighting against the Sackler family, who run the conglomerate largely responsible for the opioid epidemic. Goldin is particularly against the fact that the Sacklers have rehabilitated their public image by donating to art museums, so Goldin directs her collective to disrupt them and demand change. "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed," Laura Poitras' urgent documentary about Goldin, is both a biography and a work of journalism itself, an act of activism against the opioid crisis as much as it is a portrait of a woman who has kept fighting, against all odds, for decades. It's a masterpiece.

• Starring: Nan Goldin

• Director: Laura Poitras

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 119 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Asif Kapadia's 2015 documentary "Amy" serves as a tender look at the tumultuous life of British singer Amy Winehouse, who died several years earlier after a public battle with addiction. A lot of what made Winehouse such a compelling tabloid presence — her beehive hairdo, her tattoos, her relationship with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, and her openness about her addiction — is deconstructed in "Amy," then supplemented by an archive of home videos that humanize her. It's a compelling watch both for superfans who know every word of "Back to Black" and for skeptics who only know the singer by her public image; by the time we see her open-mouthed, awed gratitude at winning the 2008 Grammy for record of the year, it's impossible not to be moved.

• Starring: Amy Winehouse, Mitchell Winehouse, Pete Doherty

• Director: Asif Kapadia

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

While perhaps best known to mainstream audiences as Fezzik in "The Princess Bride," Andre the Giant, otherwise known as Andre Roussimoff, was one of the biggest professional wrestling stars of his era — literally and figuratively. "Andre the Giant" provides a humanizing look at a figure who has been largely mythologized and misunderstood in popular culture. With empathy and insight into what made him such a warm and endearing performer, as well as appearances from wrestling legends like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, it's a must see for any sports or pop culture fan.

• Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright

• Director: Jason Hehir

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: N/A

Seemingly nothing more than simple animal-shaped bean bags, Beanie Babies were nevertheless  one of the most sought-after toys of the 1990s. Assuming that the toys' value would increase over time, customers flocked to store shelves to pick up the playthings, but the bubble soon burst, leaving kids and their parents with dozens of worthless collectibles. Wrapped up in humor and nostalgia, "Beanie Mania" dives into both the economy that led to the craze, as well as the collapse that followed.

• Starring: Colleen Ballenger, Lena Trivedi

• Director: Yemisi Brookes

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: TV-PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

One of the most upsetting documentaries on this list is nonetheless thought-provoking and fascinating. "Beware the Slenderman" follows two young girls, Morgan and Annisa, who stabbed their friend because of a fictional monster known as the Slenderman, who they learned about on the internet. The unsettling documentary explores the myth of the Slenderman, and details how two young girls could believe in something so fiercely that they would commit a horrific act of violence.

• Starring: Morgan Geyser, Anissa Weier, Angie Geyser

• Director: Irene Taylor

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 117

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

We lost "Star Wars" legend Carrie Fisher and her mother, the equally-legendary Debbie Reynolds, within a day of each other in 2016. The following year, HBO premiered Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens' intimate look at the duo, "Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds."  The movie takes viewers behind the scenes of their unique relationship; Fisher and Reynolds lived next door to one another, and, despite their ups and downs, were as close as could be at the end of their lives. Thankfully, both participated in the filming of the documentary before they died, so the movie gives fans one last chance to soak up Fisher's sparkling, sardonic wit.

• Starring: Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, 

• Directors: Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

With a New Jersey attitude and heaps of humor, "Class Action Park" reveals the little-known history behind an infamously dangerous water park. The documentary features interviews from celebrities like Chris Gethard and Alison Becker, who visited the park as teens, as well as former staff who discuss Action Park's egregious lack of safety standards and protocols, which lead to multiple accidents, injuries, and deaths.

• Starring: John Hodgman, Faith Anderson, Alison Becker

• Directors: Seth Porges, Chris Charles Scot III

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 90 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

The true crime genre is booming, with serial killers in particular continuing to be an enduring source of fascination, as seen with the recent Netflix series "Dahmer." "Crazy, Not Insane" takes a different approach to the genre by psychologically analyzing the criminal justice system. The film primarily focuses on psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis and her work with high-profile violent offenders, including Ted Bundy. Gibney provides a unique perspective on serial murderers that fans of the true crime genre are sure to appreciate.

• Starring: Dorothy Lewis, Richard Burr, Laura Dern

• Director: Alex Gibney

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: TV-MA

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Superstar David Bowie had many public personas, but he largely kept his true self hidden. "The Last Five Years" features unprecedented behind-the-scenes footage of Bowie's creative process while he was fighting cancer and creating what would become his final two albums, as well as the play "Lazarus." Though the documentary leaves plenty of questions about the Starman unanswered, it's still a heartbreaking glimpse into how one of the world's most beloved artists chose to spend his last days.

• Starring: David Bowie, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey

• Director: Francis Whately

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 90 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

"Everything Is Copy" investigates the maxim that guided journalist, screenwriter, and director Nora Ephron, and that led her to put her personal life on the page. The film also questions why Ephron's final years battling cancer served as the one exception to this rule, as many people in her life had no clue she was ill until the end. With equal parts humor and heartbreak, the documentary exposes one of the greatest modern writers through appearances from collaborators like Mike Nichols and Meryl Streep. It's a must-see for any film fan.

• Starring: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg

• Directors: Jacob Bernstein, Nick Hooker

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

As a country, we 've barely begun to grapple with the events that took place at the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Jamie Roberts' documentary "Four Hours at the Capitol," released mere months after the shocking attack, is a stunning assemblage of found footage, news broadcasts, and interviews with those who were there. It plays like an action film, reconstructing events nearly minute-by-minute. 

It's impossible to watch "Four Hours at the Capitol" and come away with any impression other than that this was one of the most significant political events of our lifetimes. To that end, "Four Hours at the Capitol" isn't just an excellent documentary, but also an important historical document in and of itself; this is the kind of film that will be watched for years, a record of how we tried to understand the massive upheaval we were living through.

• Starring: Chuck Schumer, Eric Swalwell 
• Director: Jamie Roberts
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

Though Martin Scorsese is best known for films like "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas," the director is also a music fan and master documentarian. This multi-part documentary shines a light on George Harrison's life before, during, and after the Beatles. While John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the band's dominant creative forces, "Living in the Material World" examines Harrison's underutilized genius and underlying musical talents, as well as the contributions he made to the musical and spiritual worlds after the group separated.

• Starring: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

• Director: Martin Scorsese

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 208 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

While many aspects of Scientology are largely common knowledge now, "Going Clear" was groundbreaking at the time of its release for lifting the lid on the highly secretive religion. Based on Lawrence Wright's book, the film provides a thorough and comprehensive history of Scientology's teachings and the impact they have had on its followers, including celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Scholars and former members expose Scientology in shocking and stark relief, but the documentary is never anything less than highly watchable.

• Starring: Jason Beghe, Paul Haggis, Mike Rinder
• Director: Alex Gibney
• Year: 2015
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

One of the seminal documentaries, "Grey Gardens" is a fascinating study of its two subjects, Big Edie and Little Edie. While Big Edie was Jacqueline Onassis' first cousin and came from wealth, she and her daughter lived in a dilapidated, filthy house that was overrun with rodents and raccoons. Despite its controversial legacy — critics allege that the film exploits its subjects — the film has cemented the two as cultural icons. Regardless of how you feel about the production, it's a gripping piece of filmmaking.

• Starring: Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, Brooks Hyers

• Directors: Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles

• Year: 1975

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

A classic sports documentary, "Hoop Dreams" centers on two young basketball players in Chicago as they embark on a quest to become professional athletes. The film follows William and Arthur through all four years of high school as they transfer to different schools, face injuries, and battle the systemic oppression that ultimately keeps them stuck in place. While "Hoop Dreams" features plenty of heartbreaking moments, the documentary never pities its subjects. Instead, it treats them with empathy and respect, something modern audiences can still learn from.

• Starring: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates

• Director: Steve James

• Year: 1994

• Runtime: 170 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Directed by Alex Gibey, one of the great modern docu-journalists, "The Inventor" compiles interviews with journalists, authors, former Theranos employees, and Elizabeth Holmes herself to craft a shocking expose about a company that was doomed to fail from the very beginning. As much a character study of its founder as an exploration of why people fell for Theranos' promise in the first place, "The Inventor" is a terrifying look at how far people will go for money, regardless of who might get hurt along the way.

• Starring: Elizabeth Holmes, Dan Ariely, Alex Gibney

• Director: Alex Gibney

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 119 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

"I have a secret life," Donna Summer says in the opening moments of HBO's documentary. "You're looking at me, but what you see is not what I am." That paradox drives "Love to Love You, Donna Summer," a film crafted by Summer's daughter out of archival footage, stunning home videos, and interviews with the people who knew her best. Summer comes across as a woman uncomfortable with fame, fixated on the fact that she played a role on stage that didn't reveal the real her. The film doesn't shy away from Summer's complicated public image — her disparaging remarks at the height of the AIDS epidemic get their due — but it's a film that centers on what a strong woman, mother, and artist she was. And, my god, what a voice.

• Starring: Donna Summer, Brooklyn Sudano, Neil Bogart
• Directors: Brooklyn Sudano, Roger Ross Williams
• Year: 2023
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

The Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Milk," Dustin Lance Black, stars in this intimate chronicle of his personal journey, centered on the life of his mother. Based on his memoir of the same name, "Mama's Boy" tells the inspiring story of how Black's mother, a polio survivor, was raised in the working class, conservative, Christian South, but still embraced her son in the midst of the fight for marriage equality in the United States.

• Starring: Dustin Lance Black, Paris Barclay, Tom Daley

• Director: Laurent Bouzereau

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: N/A

A chilling true crime documentary from one of the genre's rising directors, "Mommy Dead and Dearest" examines the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who killed her own mother, Dee Dee. Through interviews and archival footage, the film uncovers the likely root of the crime, an insidious case of Munchausen by proxy syndrome. While exploring the possible cause of Dee Dee's illness, the film also reveals why her daughter fought back in such a brutal way.

• Starring: Jim Arnott, Dee Dee Blanchard, Gypsy Rose Blanchard

• Director: Erin Lee Carr

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 82 minutes

• Rating: TV-MA

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Widely considered to be the first feature-length documentary, "Nanook of the North" follows an Inuk man named Nanook (Allakariallak) and his family over the course of a year. A silent film with numerous sequences that were allegedly staged, "Nanook of the North" was nonetheless groundbreaking, not least because it showed respect and deference for its subjects. While raising questions about the art form, a documentary's responsibility to tell the truth, and what a "verité" film really means, "Nanook" also paved the way for all the docs that followed.

• Starring: Allakariallak, Alice Nevalinga, Cunayou

• Director: Robert J. Flaherty

• Year: 1922

• Runtime: 79 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Daniel Roher's Oscar-nominated, CNN-produced documentary "Navalny" follows the incredible real-life story of Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin. With a staggering amount of access to the man at the center of the firestorm, "Navalny" provides a jaw-dropping peek at some of the shocking events from the past several years. The opposition leader has been threatened, poisoned, arrested, and more, and the "Navalny" cameras were there at every step of the way; in other words, the film is basically a thriller in the guise of a documentary.

• Starring: Alexei Navalny, Christo Grozev, Yulia Navalnaya

• Director: Daniel Roher 

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

For musical theater nerds and documentary fans, D.A. Pennebaker's "Original Cast Album: Company" is an all-time classic. The film follows the production of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim's seminal work, "Company." Sondheim leads the cast, which has gathered to record the official album, through a grueling and exacting process — they perform for 15 hours until Sondheim is satisfied with the outcome. The film is a fascinating glimpse into not just Sondheim's artistic process, but those of his collaborators as well.

• Starring: Elaine Stritch, Charles Braswell, Stephen Sondheim

• Director: D.A. Pennebaker

• Year: 1970

• Runtime: 58 minutes

• Rating: TV-14

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

One of the newer documentaries on this list, "The Princess" uses archival footage to examine Princess Diana's life as seen through the eyes of the media and public. It's an engrossing exercise that proves how surveilled the princess became once she joined the royal family, while also exposing the gross manipulation of the media narratives surrounding her. The film is spare and fast-paced, but also powerful in its dissection of the effects of public perception and a lack of privacy on an individual.

• Starring: Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II

• Director: Ed Perkins

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: TV-PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Countless children have learned how to read, count, and understand the world around them thanks to "Sesame Street," and the documentary "Street Gang" provides a thorough history of how the seminal public television series and its beloved characters came to be. Though it gives plenty of rightful credit to Muppets creator Jim Henson, the film ensures that each person behind the scenes gets their moment in the spotlight.

• Starring: Jon Stone, Joan Ganz Cooney, Joe Raposo

• Director: Marilyn Agrelo

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

James Carville and George Stephanopoulos are well-known media pundits who got their start working for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. The captivating odd couple star in "The War Room," a documentary that's all the more fascinating with modern hindsight. As politics has become increasingly private and secretive, the film provides a strange kind of nostalgia for how campaigns worked before the internet and social media changed everything, as well as a unique insight into the Clinton machine.

• Starring: James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Heather Beckel

• Directors: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker

• Year: 1993

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Unlike the original Woodstock festival, the 1999 incarnation was not a celebration of peace and love. Instead, the weekend devolved into utter carnage. The crowds were whipped into a frenzy by a dangerous lack of infrastructure, bands eager to spread chaos, and — as "Woodstock '99: Peace, Love, and Rage" tells it — a general sense of anger and disaffection among America's youth as the millennium drew to a close. The best of HBO's "Music Box" series, Garret Price's film offers a day-by-day reconstruction of just how bad things got, featuring fascinating interviews with some of the artists who took the stage during that wild weekend.

• Starring: Wesley Morris, Scott Stapp, Jewel

• Director: Garret Price

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: TV-MA

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Max offers what the Criterion Collection calls "The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates." You'll have to search separately, but both 1960's "Primary" and 1963's "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment" are available. Each is less than an hour long, but together they provide a riveting, up-close look at one of the most consequential men in American history.

"Primary" follows candidate John F. Kennedy during the Wisconsin primary. His opponent Hubert Humphrey seems nice. Kennedy, though, is electrifying. "Primary" is worth a watch purely for one of the most jaw-dropping shots in all of documentary filmmaking, the kind of shot you can't believe exists as you're watching it. The camera follows the candidate through a crowded room as he shakes hands with excited voters, pressing in on all sides. The filmmaker shoots from directly behind Kennedy's head — as if the camera is inhabiting his psychic space — as he walks up a staircase and out onto a stage. Not to be morbid, but it's impossible not to think about what will happen to that head three short years later.

"Crisis" finds JFK in office as Governor George Wallace prepares to block Black students from entering the University of Alabama. Staff (including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy) offer the President advice on the implications and optics of such a pivotal moment. It's documentary-as-historical-document, and we witness JFK's decision-making as he commits the Presidency to the moral cause of equality. It's as tense as any thriller.

• Starring: John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey

• Director: Robert Drew

• Year: 1960 – 1963

• Runtime: 60 minutes, 52 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%