DOCUMENTARIES

Weiner

You know the feeling of secondhand embarrassment? When you see someone bomb the staff talent show? That is the sensation that courses through this documentary about Anthony Weiner’s New York mayoral campaign meltdown in 2013. His tumultuous online sexual exploits felled the campaign and turn this documentary into a Shakespearean tragedy. —Zach Schonfeld

The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened

In the 1970s, Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince had five critical successes on Broadway, and even their one flop—1981’s Merrily We Roll Along— makes for an excellent documentary. This funny, sad, meditative film is a must-see for any theater fan, but anyone who has experienced a major disappointment will find a lot in it to enjoy. — Joe Westerfield

O. J.: Made in America

The film traces Simpson’s life, from the projects through his stardom at USC to a superlative career in the NFL and then as a pitchman and sportscaster. The film doesn’t leave any doubt that he is a murderer, but it also elicits empathy for a black man trying to fit into a white world. Such nuance marks a great documentary. — Matthew Cooper

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week—the Touring Years

Here is a bounty of little-seen concert clips and astonishing scenes of ecstatic hysteria from female fans. Why the band had to stop performing is seen as both sad and unavoidable, as the madness and even danger surrounding their tours became intolerable. Thankfully, the studio beckoned. — Bruce Janicke

Amanda Knox

This year, the nine-year-old murder trial of American student abroad Amanda Knox made headlines again. But this time, those dark days in Perugia, Italy, were told, for the first time, through her perspective. At the beginning of the film, Knox says, “Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing, or I am you.” — Yasaman Khorsandi

Newtown

“Although sadly we’ve had so many mass shootings before and since, there was something about that age”—of the 20 first-graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012—“that did grab the world by its throat and say, ‘If this doesn’t get us to reconsider what’s happening, what will?’” Kim Snyder spent three years in Newtown, Connecticut, with parents and families of victims, first responders and doctors, neighbors, teachers and friends. The result is a riveting, poignant account of personal and communal grief. — Stav Ziv

Ice Guardians

The premise: Hockey goons are good for the game—they prevent cheap shots that do more damage than fisticuffs. The premise: If players know they will have to face a fearsome fighter, they will be less likely to play dirty. — Douglas Main

Eat That Qestion: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

Frank Zappa was a rocker, satirist, classical composer, vulgarian, visionary, guitar solo obsessive and filmmaker. After his death in 1993, the iconoclast left behind a bevy of brilliant quotes and interview moments stemming from his tortured relationship with the press. (Music journalism, Zappa once remarked, consists of “people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.”) Don’t miss the part where he talks about having a column rejected by Newsweek. —Z.S.