March 2025 documentary review 10-pack: The In-Between, Matthew Perry, After Antarctica, ‘90s Boy Bands, Pistachios, and more

Capsule reviews of ten recent feature documentaries.

My reviews of some recent documentaries, which have varying degrees of current availability.

The In Between

Way too many documentaries these days just don’t care about aesthetics at all, but The In Between does not have that problem.

Robie and Alejandro Flores’s autobiographical documentary, which played at festivals last year before debuting on PBS’s Independent Lens in early February, is gorgeous, featuring beautiful vistas throughout the Texas border region.

The filmmakers are siblings, and the film follows Robie’s return to her hometown following the death of her other brother, as she questions her approach to the town.

This is available on the PBS app.

Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy

This hour-long Peacock documentary feels a bit thrown together, but it successfully makes the points it wants to make. Namely, that Matthew Perry was a talented and beloved actor, that his addiction issues were manifold and tragic, and that the doctors who supplied him with drugs deserve swift punishment.

There’s a lot of talking-head interviews with lawyers and cops, combined with lots of archival footage, including some voice-over straight from Perry’s memoir.

Aside from Morgan Fairchild, who played Perry’s mother on the show, none of the Friends cast members participate, although Perry’s friend Hank Azaria checks in via Zoom to share some remembrances.

The documentary is available on Peacock.

The ‘90s Boy Band Boom

There have been numerous docs and docuseries in recent years dealing with the ’N Sync/Backstreet Boys boy band heyday of the late ‘90s, and this one from The CW is only the latest.

This one has access to the music, if not most of the people. This one at least isn’t entirely focused on the misdeeds of the disgraced Svengali Lou Pearlman.

It’s mostly inoffensive, and Nick Lachey makes the good point that the type of dudes who mocked boy bands should have gone to boy band shows because there’s no better place to meet women. However, one talking head says, ridiculously, that there was “no Internet” in 1999 (I think he means there was no YouTube).

The documentary is available on The CW’s streaming platform.

Eight on Eight

A recent CNN docuseries called Kobe: The Making of a Legend, which I wrote about here, was released on the fifth anniversary of Bryant’s death and provided a balanced look back at the life of the Hall of Famer. It explored Kobe’s life and career while also spending plenty of time on the Colorado case. It was a bit unwieldy but ultimately fair.

Eight on Eight… is not that.

This recent ESPN+ documentary, adapted from a magazine article published a year after Bryant’s death, tells the stories of eight people who had positive interactions with the late basketball star. He was nice to cancer patients. He brightened up people’s days.

Look, I’m sure all these people’s stories are true, and he really did touch their lives. But if Kobe Bryant’s estate put out a press release, it wouldn’t look much different from this. And if Kobe Bryant wasn’t dead, this project would be inconceivable.

Pistachio Wars

This an intriguing, muckraking documentary about the Resnick family, which owns Wonderful Pistachios and has run roughshod over large swathes of California. They also have a talent for looking incredibly creepy in all archival footage.

Yasha Levine is the filmmaker and face of the doc, and it’s very Michael Moore-influenced, as the documentarian films himself showing up places he’s not wanted.

It’s an intriguing plot similar to that of Chinatown, where the villain is trying to steal all the water. And while the Resnicks aren’t singularly responsible for the recent California fires as has been alleged, there is much shadiness afoot.

This one can be rented from the platform Gathr.

Ship of Dreams: Titanic Movie Diaries

This documentary features a group of extras and below-the-line (very below-the-line) crew people who worked on James Cameron’s Titanic.

This is one of those projects that the participants probably had a lot of fun reminiscing, but the stories they tell, for the most part, aren’t all that interesting, and there’s not much left over, more than 25 years later, that’s untold about that film.

More than anything else, the doc gave me a chuckle, remembering the Mad About You episode where Paul Reiser’s character gets a job directing The Making of ‘The Making of Titanic.’

Ship of Dreams is available on VOD channels.

After Antarctica

This is a first-rate documentary about Will Steger, an explorer from my native land of Minnesota who’s made a career out of going to the few places even colder than Minnesota, including both the North and South Pole. That included 1991’s historic International Trans-Antarctic Expedition, in which Steger led an international group of explorers across Antarctica, on dogsleds, just as, back in the real world, the Cold War was ending.

This fascinating film shows Steger today, looking back at his life and his regrets — as it turns out, it’s not easy to keep a marriage going when you’re heading off to Antarctica for six months — with archival footage of that ’91 expedition.

After Antarctica, directed by Tasha Van Zandt, has been kicking around the festival circuit since 2021, although it fell through the cracks completely. I have no memory of it ever being released, but it’s on Roku Channel now. It’s probably my favorite doc on this list.

Memes & Nightmares

Call this one Exit Through the Gift Shop if it had been about NBA Twitter.

This mockumentary, now out on Hulu, was directed by Matt Mitchener and Charles Todd, and it’s set in the world of basketball Twitter meme-makers. When one meme “disappears,” it sets off a mystery/wild goose chase that takes us into a wide variety of NBA fan subcultures.

It makes a fine companion piece to last year’s Black Twitter: A People's History, also from Hulu. It’s set in a world where it’s still called Twitter, and there aren’t any Elon Musk jokes (maybe there should have been?)

Bike Vessel

A recent debut on PBS’ Independent Lens, Bike Vessel is the story of a father and son who embark on a bike trip from St. Louis to Chicago. No, it’s not quite the Will Steger Expedition, but it’s still quite a physical achievement, even if the father didn’t come from years of poor health.

The son, Eric D. Seal — who directed the film — and his father, Donnie, emerge as great characters. They even drink pickle juice. I love cycling and pickles, but I can’t imagine ever combining the two.

I loved the film as long as it focused on those two. I’m not sure we needed an academic to keep popping up to explain the historical racist implications of everything we’re seeing. Nor the “expert” who gives the nutty, RFK Jr.-like observation that if food ingredients are “something you can’t pronounce,” you shouldn’t eat it.

Bike Vessel is on the PBS app.

Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP

Also, a recent debut on PBS, as part of the American Experience series, Forgotten Hero is a fine historic documentary about Walter White, the head of the NAACP between the 1920s and the 1950s. He’s a man who the film convincingly argues never quite got his due.

White, who died in 1955, was light-skinned and white-passing, which helped his career at times and hurt it at others. This fascinating film isn’t afraid, at any point, to delve into controversy.

Forgotten Hero can be viewed on the PBS app.