February 2025 documentary review 10-pack: 'Resistance: They Fought Back,' 'King of the Apocalypse,' 'Sons of Ecstacy,' 'The Strike' and more

Reviewing ten documentaries from the early part of 2025

Welcome to my monthly roundup of capsule reviews of recent documentaries of note. This month, we look at Jews who fought the Nazis, a pardoned January 6 ringleader, a mobster’s second act, a prison hunger strike, NFTs, life on a reservation, a horror movie that never was, modern-day Beirut, and an ode to immigration by a couple of political hacks.

Resistance: They Fought Back

This documentary was released briefly in theaters last year before a PBS broadcast late last month, which was timed for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The point is clear: There’s a widespread belief that Jews killed in the Holocaust failed to fight back, and the film, directed by Paula Apsell and Kirk Wolfinger, tells some stories of Jews who did just that.

It’s undeniably powerful, even if it jumps all over the place. Some of the stories, as well, will be familiar to those who have seen previous movies like Escape From Sobibor and Defiance.

King of the Apocalypse

Here’s another documentary that certainly nailed the timing. An MSNBC premiere last weekend, it tells the story of Stewart Rhodes, head of the violent extremist group the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison, the longest sentence of any January 6 defendant. But yes, Rhodes was recently granted clemency by Donald Trump.

The compelling but somewhat uneven film explores Rhodes’ history as a Yale Law School grad who eventually drifted into the militia movement. The main interview subjects are his estranged ex-wife and son, both of whom allege abuse.

We also see Rhodes himself in a couple of brief interviews, where he seems most concerned, ironically, about conspiracy theorists to his right who believe Rhodes is a “fed.” He even calls Trump a “buffoon” at one point.

Like so many of the violent hooligans who Trump set free, Rhodes probably belonged in prison for much longer, and it wouldn’t be especially surprising if, like quite a few of his insurrectionist brethren already, he ends up back behind bars before long.

Sons of Ecstacy

Speaking of fathers, sons, and long prison sentences…

This Max documentary from last month is about the famed Mafia turncoat Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, and specifically about how after Gravano, during his stint in Arizona in witness protection, bankrolled an ecstasy-selling ring for his son, who ended up in a feud with a rival dealer.

This is one of those documentaries where it’s sort of hard to take what anyone says seriously because most of the people being interviewed are career criminals. Sammy the Bull, specifically, feels the need to justify his testimony against John Gotti back in the ‘80s.

In all, the film is interesting when it gets into mob history, less so when it’s about ecstasy feuds. Sammy’s daughter, Karen, is also a participant; you may remember her from Mob Wives, which was the first reality show to ever violate the oath of Omerta.

Minted

This one, directed by Nicholas Bruckman, landed on PBS this month, taking a look at the non-fungible token (NFT) craze, and specifically its effect on the art world.

Some compelling voices are heard, although there’s little in the film to disabuse me of the motion that NFTs are just about the stupidest thing that has ever existed, that the people pushing it are extremely sleazy, and I can’t feel too bad for anyone who invested in it and lost money.

Without Arrows

Following last year’s Sugarcane and Bad River, here’s another documentary, shot over a long period, about the American Indian experience.

Directed by Jonathan Olshefski and Elizabeth Day and also a PBS debut in January, the film’s main subject is Delwin Fiddler Jr., of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who spent years in Philadelphia before returning to the reservation where he grew up.

There are some compelling stories here, although it’s not quite as aesthetically accomplished as two documentaries from last year about a similar topic.

In the Shadow of Beirut

A lot of Americans probably only know Beirut through the prism of our foreign policy history and only know Sabra and Shatilla from the massacre that took place in 1982.

Directed by Stephen Gerard Kelly and Garry Keane — and executive produced by, of all people, Hillary Clinton — this documentary, which was Ireland’s submission for the International Film Oscar, landed on VOD in January and follows day-to-day life in today’s Sabra and Shatilla.

It’s a compelling depiction of the life of four families, all of which is scored with music that sounds like that of Friday Night Lights. Also, there’s a guy in it with a beard that makes him look like Lebanese Jason Kelce.

Journey to America With Newt and Callista Gingrich

Has the 2025 Vibe Shift extended to PBS documentaries? That’s one conclusion to draw from this bizarre, baffling film that landed on PBS in January.

It wouldn’t be that difficult to imagine, at any point in the last few years, a PBS nonfiction film dedicated to extolling the virtues of the American immigrant experience. This version has the structure and aesthetics that are familiar, except that the hosts and narrators are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, the only person in history whose career path went from House Speaker’s staffer to House Speaker’s mistress to former House Speaker’s wife to U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

We hear the inspiring stories of immigrants, who include… Henry Kissinger; yes, the doc yaddas-yaddas past all the war crimes. And a Chinese immigrant who found purpose in going to school board meetings and yelling about critical race theory. And yes, of course, there’s a strong emphasis on “legal” immigration.

The part about Hedy Lamarr is the most interesting, although she was already the subject of her own documentary.

George A. Romero’s Resident Evil

A type of documentary that I almost always love- a full doc about a movie that was never made and why, in the tradition of Jodorowsky’s Dune, The Death of Superman Lives, and Lost in La Mancha.

This one, directed by Brandon Salisbury, is a look at how the horror legend Romero nearly directed an adaptation of the video game series Resident Evil in the late 1990s. The marriage made a certain amount of sense since both were associated with zombies, although ultimately the sides fell apart over competing visions (Romero wanted things to be gorier.)

This is not exactly the most interesting version of that subgenre, mostly because I don’t care all that much about Resident Evil, nor can I get all that worked about how we failed to get Romero’s vision of such.

The Strike

A PBS debut earlier this week, this is the poignant story of a group of prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California who went on a pair of hunger strikes to protest endless solitary confinement policies.

JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey are the directors, and we hear directly from many of the inmates who were involved, and we learn about how they were inspired by IRA prisoners’ strikes in Northern Ireland.

The film can be viewed on the PBS app, under the Independent Lens series.

The Buddy Way

A debut on ESPN last week, this documentary tells the story of veteran college and NFL coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III, who died in 2023.

Directed by Rory Karpf, best known for directing a documentary about Ric Flair (the ESPN one, not the Peacock one), the documentary depicts Buddy as a wonderful guy who everyone loved. I was convicted of that, although whether he was as major a figure in football history as the doc suggests, I don’t know.

The film debuted on ESPN but it’s not a 30 for 30, but rather comes from Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. It seems to mostly have been made because Peyton Manning knew and admired the man, has a production company, and wanted to make a movie about him.

Still, fine use of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”