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.

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%

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%

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

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%

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%

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%

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%

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%

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%

"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%

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%

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%

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%

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%

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%