|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
36
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
|
Watch Now
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
Oct 19, 2022
Season 4 Review:
The show’s as sharp as ever in “Soldier of Illusion,” the two-parter that opens Season 4. As pure entertainment, it adroitly combines a high concept with lowbrow humor, including Alexander Skarsgård in a role that might take you back to his orange mocha frappuccino days. And like so many of the best Documentary Now! episodes, it shines because it’s remarkably ambitious. ... Documentary Now! has pretty much perfected that formula [satirizing something both highly specific and kind of obscure can yield incredible results].
Read full review
The Daily BeastOct 19, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Sure, one who has seen My Best Fiend and Burden of Dreams might be able to unlock more of the double-episode season premiere, “Soldier of Illusion.” Anyone who enjoys series like Reboot or The Comeback, however, will still have a laugh at Skarsgård’s character directing episodes of faux sitcom The Bachelor Nanny. ... This season saves the very best for last, though, with a stunning ode to Agnès Varda’s one-of-a-kind filmmaking.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comFeb 20, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Sure, there are orgy and drug jokes in “Batsh*t Valley,” but they never over-do any of their gags, often moving on to something else clever just as you’re getting the previous joke. ... Perhaps because the season starts so strongly, the final two episodes felt like a bit of a letdown to me, but they’re still smarter than most comedy television.
Read full review
Feb 20, 2019TV Guide MagazineFeb 14, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Documentary Now! goes to new heights of comic inspiration. ... I mean this as the highest compliment when I say it's almost as good as the real thing. [18 Feb - 3 Mar 2019, p.14]
Aug 20, 2015
Season 1 Review:
The humor has as much to do with the form as the content, and much care and cleverness have been devoted to making these pieces look right, from film stock and lighting, to period graphics, to furniture and clothing; the art direction is exceptional, and as such, delightful throughout.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comAug 17, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Clever. This is a funny, smart comedy for fans of documentaries or even just those who wish they had more time to watch non-fiction filmmaking. In fact, Documentary Now! is so good that it should spark more interest in the very art form it satirizes but also clearly loves.
Read full review
The PlaylistOct 19, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Overall, this season of “Documentary Now!” is not only a loving, yet playful tribute to the documentaries of yore, it also reminded me why I love documentary cinema so much. The format of interrogating life through probing questions, through sifted memory, and through real-time recording is enthralling and can make the most ordinary subjects extraordinary. It can also be emotionally manipulative trash, which this season also reminds its viewers.
Read full review
ColliderOct 18, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Great parody works when the passion can be felt for the original project, and with Documentary Now!, the often shocking attention to detail and the diligent appreciation for these films shows that this season and this show, in general, contains some of the best modern parody in film or television
Read full review
Oct 20, 2022
Season 4 Review:
You can appreciate the attention to getting it even better than the real thing and if not, you’ll likely crack up at a batshit German actor shrieking at popping-and-locking dancer before a live studio audience of shepherds. The rest of the season’s episodes stick to this notion of spot-on parody plus one incongruous element or unlikely environment. ... [“Trouver Frisson”] is their love letter to fellow movie lovers. It knows that there are a handful of us laughing through tears.
Read full review
Oct 18, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Like the best of the season—and the series in general—“Soldier Of Illusion” is rich with detail big and small. ... Another high point of the season is “How They Threw Rocks.” ... The season’s other three episodes are a little more mixed in their execution, and their effectiveness will depend on the viewer’s familiarity with the films that inspired them. ... Even a Documentary Now! episode that doesn’t quite hit on all levels is a feast for the eyes; and at barely 23 minutes each, these episodes are extraordinarily intricate pieces of miniature art.
Read full review
Feb 20, 2019
Season 3 Review:
Along the way to its third season, which premieres Wednesday night, the series’ humor grew more attenuated, so its episodes started to feel less like extended Saturday Night Live sketches and more like covert conceptual art projects, where the joke, so to speak, is that such meticulously fetishistic re-creations exist in the first place.
Read full review
Feb 19, 2019
Season 3 Review:
“Batsh*t Valley: Part I and Part II” airs as one back on back installment to open the third season of “Documentary Now!”, and it’s probably among the most accessible choices the series has made. ... Meyers' script is fast paced and sharp, and the prize here is Zadegan’s portrayal of Ra-Sharir, who hits all the right Sheela notes without making her character a carbon copy.
Read full review
Sep 14, 2016
Season 2 Review:
Even viewers unfamiliar with the original works being parodied will find plenty to enjoy, but the show’s chief draw is undoubtedly tied to its source material. Every mini-movie has a strange humanity to it, looking to echo the heart of the subject, as well as the style.
Read full review
Sep 13, 2016
Season 2 Review:
The War Room introduced us to the concept of corrupting-the-process campaign consultants as image-makers, and in its comic, half-hour way, Documentary Now!’s The Bunker--written with a pitch-perfect ear for 1990s blather by comic John Mulaney--does a fine job of distilling this feature-film message quite succinctly.
Read full review
Aug 18, 2015
Season 1 Review:
The first episode, entitled “Sandy Passage,” certainly sets a high bar--a pitch-perfect, brilliantly performed send-up of Albert and David Maysles’ seminal Grey Gardens (1975).... The other two episodes made available for preview aren’t quite up to the level of “Sandy Passage,” but they’re still far from duds.
Read full review
Aug 20, 2015
Season 1 Review:
A key to the series’ success and longevity will be how well it’s able to balance the insider spoof with the satire and offer moments that do more than just painstakingly re-create; moments that remind us of the absurdities of the form and the ways we’ve been trained to see through a story.
Read full review
Oct 18, 2022
Season 4 Review:
“Soldier of Illusion” — with Alexander Skarsgard as Herzog and August Diehl as his excitable leading man, Klaus Kinski — is overthought and diffuse, and not very funny. “Documentary Now!” is better when it burrows into a single mood or character or idea. ... [“Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport” is] a pleasant, prickly trifle, and Meyers’s script offers nuggets for the terrific cast.
Read full review
Sep 14, 2016
Aug 19, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Two later episodes parody the TV series "Vice" and "Nanook of the North," the 1922 silent film credited with launching the documentary genre. Both are well done, and each has a twist. Each also has an awful lot of Hader and Armisen in costume, so take that as an endorsement or as a caution, depending on your feeling about them. I didn't laugh, but maybe you will.
Read full review
Sep 13, 2016
Season 2 Review:
The results can be a little fuzzy and tepid, as in the “Salesman” parody--the original, a poetic evocation of loneliness and failure, doesn’t lend itself so well to caricature. More successful are broader exercises in which the strategy is to recast the original along baser, more ridiculous lines.
Read full review
ColliderSep 1, 2016
Aug 18, 2015
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score