Five Modern Documentaries That Will Leave You Smiling

Since the turn of the new millennium, the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature has been awarded to an eclectic mix of hard-hitting works, many of which take the audience on just as compelling a journey as any original or adapted screenplay. And while docos such as Taxi To The Dark Side (2007), The Cove (2009), Inside Job (2010), and even last year’s Blackfish, Dirty Wars and The Act Of Killing  have pried open audience’s eyes to disturbing realities glossed over by mainstream media, they’re not the kind of docos you’d want to sit down to on a Friday night after a shitty week at work.

If you’re overdue for an information injection but would prefer not to lose a night’s sleep to feelings of helplessness and dread, here are a handful of modern documentaries that promise to inspire, entertain, and leave you with a smile on your face, regardless of whether or not you’re interested in the subject matter.

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The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters (2007)

If I’m ever asked for a documentary recommendation, The King Of Kong is always waiting patiently at the tip of my tongue, and I’m still yet to find a single earthling that hasn’t thoroughly enjoyed this deceptively niche exploration into the world of classic arcade gaming, and I hope I never will. What starts out as an almost laughable story about a bunch of balding, 8-bit nerds in a 3D-world, quickly becomes a riveting underdog story that gives David and Goliath a run for their money.

In this case, David is Steve Wiebe — a potentially OCD suburban dad who’s never quite found a proper vehicle for his meticulous attention to detail — who pledges to break the Donkey Kong world scoring record. Goliath comes in the form of Billy Mitchell — a Machiavellian, hot-sauce manufacturing, redneck version of Nick Cave — who has held the record for decades and is God amongst men-of-the-lollypop-joystick (which is about 30 blokes and one elderly woman operating out of an old arcade hall called ‘Twin Galaxies’). Seeing Billy’s delusions of grandeur butt up against Steve’s pragmatic, everyman personality is a thing of beauty, and their rivalry is proof that in the corrupt-yet-strangely-noble world of classic arcade gaming, RSI isn’t the only concern.

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Indie Game: The Movie (2012)

Another (yet completely different) documentary set in the gaming world, Indie Game: The Movie is so nail-biting you almost forget the fact that its subjects spend most if its duration sitting down. In a market that’s largely dominated by epic-scale, photo-realistic games that require thousands of staff over many years to complete, one can easily forget the little guys. And in this case, the little guys are independent programmers slaving away at personal projects with little to no support.

We follow the journeys of two of these little guys as they code and bug-fix their ways to the brink of insanity on two very different platform games: Fez and Super Meat Boy. These self-confessed geeks rail against the soullessness of big-budget gaming in the same way indie filmmakers do against blockbuster movies, and believe that simple concepts with complex mechanics and personal connections to the character’s story are the only ways to retain the purity of the gaming experience. But perhaps the greatest thing about Indie Game is that it solidifies the following fact: that one or two people locked in a room with nothing but elbow-grease and a creative dream can move mountains. Big, bright, pixilated mountains.

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Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (2008)

This is another doco that delves into a specific sub-culture, and in the process speaks to something more universally human. We follow the surviving members of Anvil!, one of the original thrash-metal bands from the late seventies/early eighties, who although universally regarded by their peers as the founders of the sub-genre, never saw the heights of mega-stardom of bands that came after such as Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.

But that doesn’t mean they ever threw in the sweaty neck-towel. We meet Lips and Robb Reiner (not to be confused with Rob Reiner, the director of This Is Spinal Tap — the seminal mocko that coincidentally shares many similarities with this doco), Anvil’s original lead vocalist and drummer, who despite being stuck in small-town Canada with back-breaking day jobs, off-camera drug habits and shattered dreams, still spend every spare second screaming to tiny audiences in even tinier spaces. While you can’t help but pity their refusal to let go of the initial success that came with their first three LPs, you also can’t help but admire the fact that they’ve just finished recording their thirteenth without the support of proper management or production.

I don’t want to give away too much, but lets just say that Anvil! is a genuinely uplifting story that reminds us not to give up on our dreams whether or not they end up becoming realities. The doco is a testament to the process of creating as a means of expressing oneself, as opposed to the eventual creation or end product, and I’d be surprised if by the end of the proceedings you’re not cracking out the old six-string or paintbrush or pen to breathe life into long-dead aspirations.

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Some Kind Of Monster (2004)

A kind of mirror image of Anvil! and coincidentally concerned with one of Anvil’s peers, Metallica, Some Kind Of Monster is proof that fame and success can turn a bunch of head-banging rebels into a group of pretentious, self-entitled, ego-maniacs. If Lips and Rob are emblematic of unwavering authenticity, then James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich are prime examples of empty artistry.

Throughout the course of the doco, we’re granted unfettered access to how Metallica go about making a Metallica record, and very quickly realise that their process has become about anything but the music. Hetfield and Ulrich live in a perpetual state of tantrum, fuelled by childish irrationality and pride, to the point where they enlist the 24-hour support of a psychologist, who hilariously becomes so attached to the group that he begins to consider himself its unofficial fifth member.

If Anvil! was confirmation that you should stay true to yourself no matter how much the unforgiving world attempts to bring you down, then Some Kind Of Monster is proof that mega-stardom can big you up to the point that you don’t know who the hell you are anymore. Yet in the end, both docos serve as a reminder of what’s important: friendship and the music, man.

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Spellbound (2002)

Another nail-biter coming from the last place you’d expect, Spellbound transports audiences to a world that on paper sounds anything but riveting — a nationwide spelling bee — and keeps you hanging on the contestants’ every letter. These youngsters might be too short to ride a roller coaster, but they sure as hell know how to make you feel like a philistine, and might make you think twice about relying so heavily on predictive text.

Sure, with any depiction of competition amongst students you’re going to get the odd stage-parent lip-syncing to every letter of ‘sesquipedalian’, but these master spellers are genuinely invested in the process, and in a world of selfies and ‘ROFLcopters’, it’s important to be reminded that the kids are all right.

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Jeremy Cassar is a screenwriter from Sydney.