Film

Project Nim

Project Nim traces a 1970s experiment to teach sign language to a chimp raised as a human child. It's a gripping character study disguised as science history, built from archival footage and interviews with the people whose lives Nim upended. Funny and disturbing in equal measure—a film about what we project onto animals and what they actually need.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like documentaries that treat a scientific experiment as a human drama, where lab footage and first-person interviews slowly turn comic and uncomfortable, and you're happy to draw your own conclusions.

Skip it if you want a tidy, warm animal story; this is cool-eyed and often cold, and its pace is steady rather than urgent, so it can feel slow to anyone expecting a clear emotional arc.

What it asks of you: Ninety-three minutes of interviews and archive footage, unhurried and watchful, with jokes that arrive late and sit uneasily beside the discomfort you slowly accumulate.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Man on Wire2008

From the same director, another meticulously constructed true-crime narrative with archive material and interviews. It's taut, clever, and builds to genuine suspense despite you knowing the outcome.

But If you're not already interested in the real-life 1974 tightrope walk between Twin Towers, the premise alone might feel narrow or niche.

Man on Wire poster

Blackfish2013

Another examination of an animal caught in a human system, built from footage and testimony. It has the same unsettling moral clarity and asks what captivity really costs the creature at the centre.

But Deliberately darkens as it goes. If you're looking for uplift or redemption, this isn't the film—it earns its bleakness though.

Blackfish poster

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth2012

A densely layered documentary about a failed housing project, using only archival material and testimony. Masterful editing and sound design transform a dry subject into compelling human tragedy.

But No interviews or narration to guide you—you assemble meaning yourself, which demands real attention from the viewer.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Project Nim

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People2016

Both films trace the same experiment framework applied to different apes, but this one was never cynical about what it meant. Watching them together shows you how much perspective has shifted on what we should do to animals in the name of understanding them.

A 1978 National Geographic special observing Francine Patterson's experiment teaching sign language to a gorilla. It's Nim's direct predecessor, filmed with a completely different emotional register—earnest, reverent, almost devotional where Nim is critical.

But Dated presentation and pacing; no dramatic tension because it's genuinely trying to document what it believes is science. The earnestness can feel naive now.

Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People poster
More like this (7)

Grey Gardens1976

A portrait of two reclusive women in a decaying mansion, filmed over months. Intimate, tragicomic, and genuinely strange—it has the same quality of watching people who've stepped outside normal life.

But Deliberately ambiguous about whether the filmmakers are documenting or exploiting. Some viewers find it uncomfortable and invasive.

Grey Gardens poster

The Act of Killing2012

An Indonesian death squad leader re-enacts his crimes for the camera. Sounds impossible; it's actually a philosophical inquiry into memory, performance, and moral reckoning. Completely unique.

But The premise is difficult and the film doesn't shy from it. You're watching a man who murdered thousands, which can feel morally vertiginous.

The Act of Killing poster

Grizzly Man2005

Herzog's study of a man who lived among bears, edited from his own footage. It's part nature doc, part elegy, part inquiry into why we romanticise dangerous closeness to wild things.

But Moves slowly and asks you to sit with Herzog's philosophical questions rather than offering clear answers.

Grizzly Man poster

Hoop Dreams1994

Three hours following two basketball players from high school onward. It's epic in scope, funny and heartbreaking, with the texture of real life rather than a shaped narrative.

But Nearly two hours longer than most documentaries. The payoff is worth it, but you need to commit.

Hoop Dreams poster

The Imposter2012

A man claims to be a missing Texas boy—then you learn he isn't. The film unfolds the deception while asking what makes identity real. Wickedly entertaining and genuinely confounding.

But Plays games with the audience deliberately. If you want straightforward information instead of provocation, it'll frustrate you.

The Imposter poster

Casting By2012

A deep dive into Hollywood's casting directors—the invisible architects of cinema. It's a love letter to taste, judgment, and the people who truly *see* actors.

But If you're not already fascinated by filmmaking craft, the subject matter might feel too insider or slow to grip you.

Casting By poster

Okja2017

Shares Nim's central anguish—a non-human creature caught between human systems trying to determine its nature. But where Nim is documentary and documentary's tragedy, this is narrative and narrative's anger. Both ask what we owe to the beings we claim to care for.

A girl tries to rescue a giant engineered creature from corporate captivity. It's a fantastical fable about what happens when you try to commodify a living being, complete with spectacle and heart.

But Bong Joon-ho's vision is strange and the tonal shifts are deliberately unsettling. It doesn't behave like a normal story and that's the point.

Okja poster

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Recommended by

Blackfish, The Secret of NIMH, The Beginning of Life, Crazy Horse, Generation Like, Koko: A Talking Gorilla, Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People, One Lucky Elephant