{"id":275078,"date":"2026-02-05T08:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275078\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:24:11","slug":"10-worst-documentaries-of-all-time-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275078\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Worst Documentaries of All Time, Ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to talk about good documentaries<\/a>, and though few ever set the box office on fire, they do get reviewed the same way movies do (just usually by fewer critics), and they are appreciated at awards shows, like the Oscars. So, the good ones get discussed, and usually obtain some level of attention. The bad ones either come and go very quickly, or they just don\u2019t really make any kind of mark at all, and sometimes they’re best left forgotten.<\/p>\n

Apologies, then, for digging up a bunch of older ones (plus a release that, at the time of writing, is quite recent), since some of these are quite obscure. Maybe there are worse ones that have been forgotten more, or just weren\u2019t watched by the person writing all this out (he\u2019s watched more than 1000 feature-length documentaries, by the way), but the following are all well worth avoiding, in any event.<\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

‘The Mystery of D.B. Cooper’ (2020)<\/p>\n

This should\u2019ve been a slam dunk, because the story of D.B. Cooper is endlessly fascinating, but in ways you’re not really able to appreciate if all you know about the story is what you get in The Mystery of D.B. Cooper<\/a>. Cooper\u2019s identity is still unknown, hence the \u201cMystery\u201d part of the title, and he got away with a large amount of money after hijacking a plane, and while onboard, he jumped out and then no one officially saw him ever again.<\/p>\n

Even without any direct answers, this still should be interesting. Take a look at how David Fincher made a fruitless search for the Zodiac killer in Zodiac<\/a> interesting, for example. The Mystery of D.B. Cooper is such a snooze, though, once it lays out the basics and then drones on for close to 90 minutes. You’re better off just watching a well-made YouTube video about Cooper instead of this movie (like LEMMiNO\u2019s<\/a>, which is less than half-an-hour long and feels significantly more substantial and engaging).<\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

‘The Institute’ (2012)<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image via\u00a0Argot Pictures<\/p>\n

Not to be mixed up with the 2019 Stephen King sci-fi\/horror\/thriller novel<\/a> of the same name, 2012\u2019s The Institute is a documentary about an alternate reality game. Though, that being said, both could sort of be called sci-fi and mystery-related, in some ways, but there\u2019s probably more excitement about where The Institute (2012) could go, rather than ultimately does go, because when answers are provided, they disappoint.<\/p>\n

You come away from The Institute not just feeling like it was muddled, but also like it pretty much wasted your time.<\/p>\n

There really isn’t all that much to this alternate reality game, and the film overall is confusingly structured and presented, albeit not in a way that proves thrilling or particularly interesting. It\u2019s more confusing in a frustrating manner, and you come away from The Institute not just feeling like it was muddled, but also like it pretty much wasted your time while never really being concerned about making much sense in the first place.<\/p>\n

8 <\/p>\n

‘2040’ (2019)<\/p>\n

\"2040
\n Image via\u00a0Madman Entertainment<\/p>\n

Some will call 2040 an underrated documentary<\/a>, or maybe even a charming one, but nah, it\u2019s corny. It\u2019s like An Inconvenient Truth, but it wants to be a more optimistic look at global warming with a focus on how it can be tackled. Its intentions might be good, but the execution feels so off, especially with Damon Gameau, who inserts himself in the documentary, coming across as a strange mix of condescending and possibly na\u00efve throughout.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sense of \u201ceverything\u2019s going to be alright\u201d that feels forced and tedious, at a point. Most of 2040 rings false, and the attempts at making the presentation energetic, light, or \u201cfun\u201d consistently backfire. Put another way, if you’re skeptical about global warming, 2040 won\u2019t persuade you. And, if you do believe it\u2019s happening, you’ll feel like you’re part of the choir being preached to, but your preacher has a sore throat, his microphone\u2019s not on, and all his attempts at humor feel rambling and awkward (maybe even a little creepy), so you could well start questioning why you’re still in his choir.<\/p>\n

7 <\/p>\n

‘Hello, Privilege. It\u2019s Me, Chelsea’ (2019)<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea
\n Image via Netflix<\/p>\n

Barely a movie, since it\u2019s only a bit over an hour long and was just one of many titles that\u2019s been haphazardly thrown onto Netflix in the past decade or so, Hello, Privilege. It\u2019s Me, Chelsea is setting itself up for eyebrows to be raised right from the jump, what with the title and all. Having a full stop in the middle of one\u2019s title is cursed enough, but even that aside, there\u2019s the rest of the title. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s a movie called Hello, Privilege. It\u2019s Me, Chelsea.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the review. That\u2019s the criticism. No, not really. The Chelsea here is Chelsea Handler, who\u2019s best known for being a late-night talk show host<\/a>, and this documentary has her exploring white privilege. It\u2019s a topic that will turn people off straight away for different reasons, but could be done interestingly, or in a self-critical way that felt honest\/sincere, but that\u2019s not what you get here. Hello, Privilege. It\u2019s Me, Chelsea is unfocused and ultimately says very little; even less than you’d expect when it\u2019s only got 64 minutes with which to say something. But it says pretty much nothing. There\u2019s a reason maybe three or four people talked about this when it came out in 2019, and then it went on to become pretty much entirely obscure in the years that followed.<\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

‘2016: Obama’s America’ (2012)<\/p>\n

\"2016_
\n Image via\u00a0Rocky Mountain Pictures<\/p>\n

The central argument of 2016: Obama\u2019s America is that if Barack Obama were to be re-elected in 2012, it would lead to disaster. It\u2019s all very sensationalist and pessimistic, but easier to criticize post-2016, when looking at how things didn\u2019t quite fall apart in the way the documentary might’ve feared. Still, putting the benefit of hindsight aside, it probably would’ve felt alarmist and a bit much in 2012.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of many documentaries directed by Dinesh D\u2019Souza (co-directed with John Sullivan), and this kind of movie is what he does. Some people laugh at and criticize his work<\/a>, some people remain blissfully unaware of it, and then others might well like what he does. He does keep making movies, so there must be some people who watch them. He leans very conservative, but in the interest of keeping things balanced and also criticizing filmmakers who lean left\u2026<\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

‘Slacker Uprising’ (2007)<\/p>\n

\"Slacker
\n Image via\u00a0The Weinstein Company<\/p>\n

In 2004, Michael Moore<\/a> filmed a fairly obscure documentary called Captain Mike Across America, and it was about Moore trying to encourage younger voters to show up and vote in the 2004 election. In 2007, it was released, maybe because there was another election coming up in 2008, and then this documentary was re-titled and re-edited into something less compelling and useful called Slacker Uprising, which feels tremendously dated now, of course, but would’ve also felt dated in 2007 (well, 2008 was when it got released as Slacker Uprising).<\/p>\n

In 2004, Moore also directed Fahrenheit 9\/11, and that one had bite and some actual filmmaking skill behind it, as far as documentaries critical about George W. Bush were concerned. It was biased, sure, but persuasive. The same can be said about Bowling for Columbine. But Slacker Uprising feels, funnily enough, slack. It\u2019s hard to imagine too many people being swayed by it if they had seen it in 2004, and then who it was even for in 2008, when it was re-edited and re-released as Slacker Uprising, who knows? It\u2019s like he wanted a big documentary for 2008, but couldn\u2019t be bothered making something else that was on the same level as Fahrenheit 9\/11. That movie did get an almost sequel of sorts<\/a> much later, in 2018, called Fahrenheit 11\/9<\/a>, and that one also admittedly wasn’t great, but was a good bit better than Slacker Uprising.<\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

‘Death of a Nation’ (2018)<\/p>\n

\"Death
\n Image via\u00a0Quality Flix<\/p>\n

Another Dinesh D\u2019Souza documentary (this time with Bruce Schooley as co-director), Death of a Nation is gonzo in a way that might make it more surprising and fascinating than 2016: Obama\u2019s America, though it\u2019s ultimately shoddier in quality. It spends time looking at leaders from history, highlighting the Civil War and then even World War II<\/a>, at one point, with the main argument (or so it seems) being that Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln alike have faced relentless persecution from Democrats.<\/p>\n

This whole thing takes you on the most bizarre of rides, and one that\u2019ll probably feel dizzying regardless of where you yourself fall politically. Death of a Nation is a real fever dream of a documentary, and ordinarily, big swings should be somewhat appreciated, but the big swings here all miss, and it ends up feeling like one of the most chaotic documentaries ever made.<\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

‘Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones’ (2019)<\/p>\n

\"Rolling
\n Image via\u00a0Chip Baker Films<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones were probably at their best during the 1970s<\/a>, but they obviously had some undeniably iconic songs and albums during the 1960s<\/a>, too (and that\u2019s before going into the band\u2019s longevity, and how they\u2019ve more or less kept going many decades longer). So, Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones should be interesting, because it\u2019s about an interesting band, with a focus on Brian Jones, who was a member of The Rolling Stones early on.<\/p>\n

The film wants to argue that Jones was essential and overlooked, all the while also trying to unpack how his death (in 1969, at the age of 27) was suspicious, but it does a poor job on both fronts. If you’re not familiar with this era of The Rolling Stones, Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones does little to convince you that Jones is the underappreciated key member of the band\u2019s founding, and the look into the theories around his death also feels poorly argued and honestly quite tacky. And it tries to be about a significant band without having the rights to use any songs by The Rolling Stones<\/a>, which makes it all feel extra cheap (that\u2019s a nitpick, compared to the other problems, but it certainly doesn\u2019t help).<\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

‘Melania’ (2026)<\/p>\n

\"Melania
\n Image via\u00a0Amazon MGM Studios<\/p>\n

The story surrounding Melania and its release (still ongoing, at the time of writing) is more interesting than the content of the documentary itself. It cost a lot of money, got very bad reviews from critics<\/a>, but then has also been given very positive reviews by the viewers\/fans who’ve seen it. One\u2019s got to wonder, though, if a $40 million documentary about the wife of a Democrat President came out, and said so little, would Democrats be willing to not only watch it, but heap praise upon what they saw?<\/p>\n

The subject of Melania is Melania Trump, and the film follows her around for a handful of weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration. It\u2019s easiest to liken it to an overlong episode of a not-very-good reality TV show; a feature-length one with a theatrical release, for some reason. It\u2019s a blatant puff piece masquerading as a documentary, and if you’re willing to dive into a rabbit hole, you’ll find a lot about the movie that\u2019s questionable, frustrating, and baffling. It\u2019s an instant all-timer, if you’re talking about all-time not-good documentaries, of course.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

‘Goodnight, Sugar Babe: The Killing of Vera Jo Reigle’ (2016)<\/p>\n

\"Goodnight,
\n Image via\u00a0Bad Mother Pictures, LLC<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a movie made with next to no money, so it might seem alarming to rank it over the astoundingly expensive Melania, but Goodnight, Sugar Babe: The Killing of Vera Jo Reigle feels as wrong as a true-crime documentary could possibly feel. And when you take into account the notion that true-crime documentaries are the ones that arguably have the most things that could go wrong, ethically and tonally, then that\u2019s saying a lot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s saying that a documentary can\u2019t possibly be worse than Goodnight, Sugar Babe: The Killing of Vera Jo Reigle. It\u2019s about a horrific crime, but you can\u2019t even say \u201cAt least it\u2019s raising awareness,\u201d<\/a> because it just feels tacky and weirdly exploitative, of the victim and of almost everyone else it features or interviews. The feeling you get watching this could not be worse or more despairing, and not all the horror and despair feels intentional. It\u2019s abysmal on a technical and editing front, has no sense of pacing, features a weirdly flippant narrator, can\u2019t communicate what it\u2019s trying to say, and it feels disrespectful in a bunch of different ways. If you watched this and were turned off from ever sitting down to view another documentary ever again, that would honestly be understandable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to talk about good documentaries, and though few ever set the box office on fire, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-275078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}