February 2026 documentary review 10-pack: ‘Elway,’ ‘Viva Verdi!,’ ’33 Photos from the Ghetto,’ ’Miracle: The Boys of ’80,’ 'Vivien's Wild Ride,' 'Homegrown' and more
Reviewing ten recent documentary features.
Due to the timing of the release of Melania, this month’s 10-pack has been delayed. But now, here we go, with reviews of documentaries about an NFL Hall of Famer, some Italian musicians, photos from the Holocaust, a famed hockey team, a film editor, some January 6 offenders, and more:
Elway
This Netflix documentary, which debuted just before the new year, followed the life of John Elway, the two-time Super Bowl champion and NFL Hall of Famer.
Produced in cooperation with NFL Films and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, the documentary catches up with Elway at age 65. It first looks like it’s going to follow the Aaron Rodgers: Enigma formula of “quarterback complaining about how everyone was always too mean to him,” but Elway is a bit more self-aware, and occasionally self-critical, than that.
Directed by Ken Rodgers and Chris Weaver – I once interviewed Rodgers, when he co-directed the Reggie White 30 for 30 — the documentary follows Elway from Stanford, where he was a top prospect, but his last game of college was famous for reasons having nothing to do with him- it was “the band is on the field” game.
The film covers his infamous rejection of the Baltimore Colts, to his long career with the Denver Broncos, from The Drive to his two Super Bowl wins at the end of his career. In between, there’s a lot of discussion of his Super Bowl losses, and his reputation for blowing the big game.
There’s also plenty of time spent on Elway’s post-playing career, including his divorce, and his time as general manager of the Broncos. The doc ends with him as a doting, retired grandfather.
Was he a jerk at times? Sure, and there are re-litigations here of battles- and his failures to win early Super Bowls — that were fought during the Reagan administration. But he, again, acknowledges that. And the film mostly represents a fun throwback to an era of the NFL that I fondly remember.
The film does not discuss Jeff Sperbeck, Elway’s longtime agent who died last spring when he fell off a golf cart while Elway was present, although it is dedicated to his memory.
Viva Verdi!
This film, a very fun documentary about Italian opera singers in their twilight at Casa Verdi, got a rare distinction: It was nominated for an Oscar, for Best Original Song, despite myself, other critics, and just about everyone else who follows the Oscars closely never having heard of the film until that moment.
As part of the “this movie has been in the works for years” file, not only have most of the featured since passed away, but the Oscar-nominated song was written in 2017.
Viva Verdi! was directed by Yvonne Russo, and it’s more than just the answer to a trivia question, of what’s the hardest white whale of this year’s Oscars Death Race. The “characters” are wonderful, and the music, even more so.
The film is now streaming on the documentary platform Jolt.
33 Photos from the Ghetto
This is a documentary, which debuted on HBO Max at the end of January, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Directed by Jan Czarlewski, the film is about the small amount of photos that survived from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, all taken by a Polish firefighter named Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski.
I was reminded a bit of the great documentary, Three Minutes: a Lengthening, in the way that the film uses modern technology to examine the photographs of the past, for a greater understanding of what happened.
Miracle: The Boys of ’80
Ahead of the Winter Olympics, here’s a documentary about the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team- another one? Hasn’t this story been told quite a few times over the years, both in the popular feature film Miracle and lots of docs?
It tells the story the same way most of the other ones have, complete with most of the same people saying most of the same things. It borrows the common modern sports documentary trick where we watch the players watch the game (not, however, on iPads.) There’s some amusing stuff about the rivalry between the Minnesota and Massachusetts factions on the team.
And all the familiar cliches are there, and Mike Eruzione says “we were a bunch of lunchpail guys.” I’m reminded how these guys would reassert themselves every time the Winter Olympics rolled around. I remember Bill Simmons dubbing Erizione as “America’s houseguest,” and that was during the 2002 Games, almost 25 years ago.
But hey, perhaps it will be enjoyed by the new audience that hockey has suddenly acquired.
Miracle: The Boys of ‘80 is streaming on Netflix.
Vivien’s Wild Ride
This documentary, which aired in early February on PBS’ Independent Lens, tells the story of a film editor (Vivien Hillgrove), who began losing her eyesight.
The big twist is that Hillgrove directed the film herself, while continuing to worry about what her fading sight will mean for her future professional viability.
It is, though, a very visually striking documentary, and Hillgrove has lived a truly fascinating life. “I’m happy I dropped acid in the ‘60s,” she says.
Vivien’s Wild Ride is streaming on the PBS app.
Homegrown
Here’s yet another documentary about January 6 defendants, the lies they believed, and where it left them.
This one was directed by Michael Premo and yes, there are some nuances. The different groups believed in different things, some were more racist than others, some more Trump-adjacent than others, etc. And there’s an occasional surprise. One guy admits that his entry to conspiracism was… Michael Moore’s anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11.
But the fact remains that if you’ve seen one documentary about J6 participants, you’ve seen them all. They’re all the exact guy you expect them to be, and 95 percent of the time, they all say the same things they always say. And like so many others in the J6 community, they’re astonishingly careless about committing crimes, admitting crimes, and planning crimes, while they know they’re on camera.
I feel like at this point, I’ve heard from these violent idiots enough. I’m glad they got the prison time they did, but they should have stayed longer.
Homegrown is available on VOD channels.
The Hell of Auschwitz: Art Spiegelman and Maus
There was already a documentary last year about Art Spiegelman’s life, called Disaster is My Muse. Pauline Horovitz’s film is about Maus specifically.
She talks to experts, although Spiegelman only appears in archival footage. His material, though, is much more interesting than what just about everyone else has to say.
The Hell of Auschwitz is available on VOD, but I recommend watching Disaster is My Muse instead.
Driven: A Freddie Freeman Story
This is an MLB Network documentary from last fall, that I just caught up with, but I’m glad I did. It might not be easy these days to find any sympathy with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but their future Hall of Fame first baseman, Freddie Freeman, is a fascinating character.
The film really leans into the home run Freeman hit to win Game 1 of the World Series in 2024, especially his having dealt with his son’s serious illness earlier this that, and also the homer’s similarity to the one Kirk Gibson hit, also in Game 1, in 1988.
Is Freddie Freeman a good guy, at a time when not everyone in baseball is? That documentary certainly gives the strong impression that he is.
Ain’t No Go Back to a Merry Go Round
Directed by Ilana Trachtman, this is a well-put-together telling of a rather obscure story from the civil rights era, about the time in 1960 that a group of Black Howard University students fought to desegregate a merry-go-round at Glen Echo Amusement Park, near Washington. And members of the Jewish community, in that neighborhood, ultimately joined the protest.
Several participants ended up as Freedom Riders a few years later.
This fascinating film, which had some in-person screenings last year, including at Black and Jewish film festivals, and will continue to do so, was released in January on the on-demand site Kinema.
Chain Reactions
Alexandre O. Phillipe specializes in films about films, like Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist, Lynch/Oz and 78/52, about the shower scene in Psycho. I’ll give him a mulligan on The People vs. George Lucas.
In this film, he provides a complex analysis of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with some help from five guest contributors: Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama. Each provides keen insight, and I was intrigued, even as someone who’s never been all that into that particular film.
Released in theaters last year, Chain Reactions is now available on Shudder.