Television series
The Last Movie Stars
Ethan Hawke's radiant six-part documentary traces Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's parallel careers and fifty-year marriage, weaving together their films, letters, and testimony from those who knew them. It's a love story told through Hollywood's golden age, intimate and sweeping at once. For anyone who believes great acting and genuine partnership are worth watching unfold.
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Won't You Be My Neighbor?2018
Morgan Neville's portrait of Mr. Rogers' genuine decency and his radical belief that television could nurture children feels like the spiritual sibling to Hawke's Newman film—both celebrate someone whose private self matched their public one.
But At 90 minutes it's more concentrated than The Last Movie Stars, and some find the sentimentality overwhelming. It doesn't have the romance of a great partnership.
Side by Side2012
Chris Nolan's documentary about cinema's evolution—from film to digital—features many of Newman's contemporaries discussing craft. It's a conversation about what movies were when Newman was making them, and why that mattered.
But It's technical and film-buff focused. If you're not interested in cameras, editing, and the machinery of cinema, it won't grip you the way a character study does.
Jane2017
Brett Morgen's documentary about Jane Goodall uses archival footage and letters to build an intimate portrait of an exceptional woman's life and work. Like Hawke's film, it finds the human story inside the historical one.
But The pacing is leisurely and meditative. If you want fast cuts and constant revelation, you might find it slow to unfold.
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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel2017
Both use the same era, the same setting, and ask the same question: what does it cost to be brilliant and ambitious, and what sustains you through it? Maisel is Newman and Woodward imagined as comedy.
Amy Sherman-Palladino's series is set in 1950s New York, where Midge Maisel discovers stand-up comedy in the same era and city where Newman and Woodward were building their partnership. It's a love letter to that moment in American culture—the performances, the marriages, the ambition, the shine.
But It's a comedy-drama about a fictional character, not a documentary about real people. If you want truth, not invention, this will feel trivial by comparison.
More like this (7)
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold2017
Debra Granik's portrait of Joan Didion captures a brilliant mind grappling with loss, age, and the world. It shares The Last Movie Stars' fascination with how artists age, how they work, how they endure.
But Didion can be difficult to follow, and the film doesn't explain her work. You need to come in already curious about her thinking.
Becoming2020
Nadia Hallgren's documentary about Michelle Obama's memoir tour is warm and reflective, interested in the woman behind the role and how she thinks about her own story—much like what Hawke does with Newman.
But It's built around a book tour, so there's a repetitive quality to some scenes. The scope is smaller than Newman's sixty-year career.
RBG2018
Betsy West and Julie Cohen's portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg blends archival footage, interviews, and intimacy to show how a person's work and character are inseparable. Deeply moving about aging, relevance, and purpose.
But Some critics found it overly sympathetic, lacking the critical distance that would challenge RBG's legacy. It's more hagiography than examination.
The Toys That Made Us2017
Kai Nordlund's nostalgic series uses archival footage and interviews to excavate the creation myths of cultural objects. Each episode is a mini love letter to something made with intention, similar to how Hawke frames Newman's films.
But It's more lighter fare—about toys and games—so it lacks the emotional weight of a documentary about a real person's life. Can feel shallow if you're in a serious mood.
TINA2021
Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin's documentary about Tina Turner uses her own voice and perspective to reclaim her narrative. It shares with The Last Movie Stars a fascination with how artists survive adversity and create beauty despite it.
But Parts of it deal with domestic violence and trauma directly. If you're sensitive to that material, the film will be difficult to sit through.
Venom2018
Steve Buscemi's documentary follows three female competitive eaters competing at Nathan's Hot Dog Contest. It's utterly strange, deeply human, and finds meaning in something ridiculous—proof that documentary subjects are everywhere.
But It's genuinely peculiar and oddly specific. If you're looking for something majestic and grand, this is small and weird. Some find it crass.
Grey Gardens1976
Newman and Woodward built lives of grace and intention; the women in Grey Gardens built a prison of devotion. Both films ask: how does love sustain us, and what does it cost?
Albert and David Maysles' documentary about two reclusive women (aunt and niece of Jackie Kennedy) in a decaying mansion is one of cinema's strangest, saddest, most beautiful love stories. Like The Last Movie Stars, it finds the epic in private devotion and the damage ambition leaves behind.
But It's visually chaotic, intentionally unpolished, and genuinely disturbing. The women are eccentric and trapped, and the film doesn't mythologize them. It can feel like cruelty.
