Television series
This is Football
A brief documentary series that travels the world to show how football unites disparate communities. Each episode explores a different aspect of the game—its role in identity, ritual, escape, and connection—through intimate portraits of players, fans, and neighborhoods. It's a love letter to the sport that refuses nationalism or tribalism, instead celebrating the almost spiritual pull the game exerts everywhere it's played.
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The Two Escobars2010
Examines how football and violence intersected in 1990s Colombia with unflinching honesty. A masterclass in documentary storytelling that uses sport as a lens into corruption, ambition, and tragedy. Mesmerizing and haunting.
But Heavy and bleak. It's not celebratory; it's about complicity and death. If you want uplift, this isn't it.
Senna2010
A portrait of obsession and excellence using exclusively archival footage and audio. The editing is so precise it becomes poetry. You don't need to care about Formula 1 to be moved by this study of a man consumed by perfection.
But The pacing is slow and meditative. Some find it remote—all surfaces, no interviews. And the ending is tragic.
Diego Maradona2019
A sprawling, intimate chronicle of genius and self-destruction. Asif Kapadia captures Maradona's charisma and fragility with real tenderness, never reducing him to myth. It's about what fame does to a person.
But It's long and sometimes meandering. His later life is sad to watch. Some sequences feel voyeuristic in ways the film doesn't quite reckon with.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Becoming Champions2018
Same documentary impulse to show the non-glamorous truth of athletic devotion; finds humanity in sport that doesn't make headlines.
A Spanish reality series following a women's futsal team training for the World Cup. Raw, unfiltered access to athletic preparation and team dynamics. Less glossy and more honest than most sports docs—you feel the strain and joy.
But It's in Spanish. Futsal (indoor football) is niche. The production value is deliberately modest. If you want spectacle, this refuses it.
More like this (7)
Last Chance U2016
A hard-eyed look at American college football as a pipeline and business. Each season follows different programs and exposes the racial and economic fault lines that the game conceals. Brilliant reporting.
But You need appetite for systemic critique and moral compromise. It's angry. And it's very long—four seasons to get the full picture.
Free Solo2018
A jaw-dropping documentary about a climber who scales 3,000-foot rock faces without ropes or protection. Visually extraordinary and philosophically unsettling—it asks hard questions about risk, obsession, and what we're willing to die for.
But The vertigo is literal and relentless. If you're afraid of heights, this is torture. And the ethics of filming someone in mortal danger hover over everything.
The Last Dance2020
An inside look at Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls, built on years of intimate access. It's about ego, legacy, and what it costs to be the best. Fascinating regardless of basketball knowledge.
But It's hagiography wrapped in candor—sympathetic to Jordan in ways that can feel incomplete. Ten episodes is a lot for what could be five. Some scenes feel staged.
O.J.: Made in America2016
A definitive eight-hour history of O.J. Simpson that uses football and celebrity as entry points to race, violence, and justice in America. Comprehensive, elegantly structured, never stops being absorbing.
But It's a marathon. The crimes and abuse are graphically documented. It's relentlessly dark about American mythology.
The Dawn Wall2017
Two climbers attempt an impossible ascent on El Capitan's sheerest face. A quiet study in partnership, resilience, and the meditation that danger brings. Shot with stunning clarity.
But Deliberately paced and introspective. Not a lot happens in conventional terms. The jargon can alienate. For some it's calming; for others it's slow.
Icarus2017
Starts as a prank about doping in cycling, becomes a geopolitical thriller about Russian state corruption. A wild pivot that feels earned. It's a genuine mystery with real stakes and moral weight.
But The tonal shift confuses some viewers. It's frustrating—you want clarity that doesn't come. And it's tied to ongoing real-world political tensions.
Pumping Iron1977
An early documentary that captured the ritualistic, almost spiritual dedication to a physical practice; shows how sport (even niche sport) can be a complete worldview and identity.
A 1977 portrait of bodybuilding culture featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger at his most charismatic and unselfconscious. A time capsule of obsession and performance, shot with deadpan wit. Completely absorbing even if the sport leaves you cold.
But Dated in ways that can be uncomfortable—attitudes toward women, toward bodies, toward masculinity. The pacing is slow. Some find the subject matter ridiculous or alienating.
