It seems foolish to mess with greatness, but every now and then, someone in Hollywood tries to remake a documentary. Audiences can see a terrific example of this process in Remake, Ross McElwee’s film about the efforts to adapt his breakthrough documentary Sherman’s March into a drama and then an episodic series. Remake, which opens in New York July 10 before landing in Toronto July 17 (check back soon for our interview with McElwee), considers what it means to get another chance in a medium that allows few, if any, second takes.
While the various scripted incarnations of Sherman’s March ultimately expired before they came to fruition, POV’s conversation with McElwee highlighted how few docs actually come to screen as dramas. Although we agreed that the dramatic interpretation of Grey Gardens offers a terrific exception. It’s a surprisingly great film that suggests that docs are under-used as source material. The trend seems to be on an upward climb, however, as Hollywood and independent corners reliably offer a few doc-to-drama adaptations annually. In recent years, films like Next Goal Wins, The Fire Inside, The Smashing Machine, and Song Sung Blue have reimagined non-fiction films with varying degrees of success.
To further explore the “based on a documentary” canon, are ten double bills of dramatic films and documentaries that inspired them.
Music of the Heart
Horror maestro Wes Craven makes a rare step away from slicing and dicing teenagers in this wholesome oddity in his oeuvre. The novelty delivers, though, as Craven directs Meryl Streep to an Oscar nomination in this touching story about a violin teacher who motivates inner city students through music. The film draws inspiration from the Oscar-nominated 1995 documentary Small Wonders about Roberta Guaspari and her fight for music programs in education. Music of the Heart has a whiff of the 1990s’ race relations dramas that may seem a bit dated despite being made with best intentions. It’s basically Dangerous Minds with violins in lieu of gangsta rap. That said, it anticipates later hybrid works that cast people in the drama of their own lives by inviting many of Roberta’s own students to appear in the film, and Streep delivers a terrific performance that’s as good as every other credit on her resume. Instead of learning a new accent, she picked up playing the violin for the part. Bonus point for novelty: Streep got the part after Madonna dropped out.
Stream Music of the Heart on VOD and Small Wonders on OVID.
Grey Gardens
This adaptation of the 1975 masterpiece by David and Albert Maysles and Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer may be the true case where lightning strikes on the list. Few dramas drawing inspiration from a documentary have as high a bar to meet as Grey Gardens does. However, stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange perfectly capture the spirit of the Beales of Grey Gardens. Their performances as Little Edie and Big Edie, respectively, harness the essence that makes the documentary an all-time great: its eye for character. The adaptation understands that the magic of the original film lies in the idiosyncratic distinctiveness of its stars, but the empathetic eye through which it observes their story shows the power of vérité at its finest. The film, directed by Michael Sucsy, who co-wrote the adaptation with Patricia Rozema, won six Primetime Emmys including Best Made for TV Movie and Best Actress for Lange, while Barrymore won the Golden Globe and the actor. It’s an astonishingly good film that defies all expectations.
Stream Grey Gardens, the drama, on Crave, while the doc is freely available on YouTube.
Freeheld
The landmark human rights case that saw former police officer Laurel Hester fight for the right to transfer her pension to her partner, Stacie, after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis fuels the extraordinary 2007 short documentary Freeheld. That short doc won Oscars for director/producer Cynthia Wade and producer Vanessa Roth and seemingly offered an obvious story ready to be filled out with juicy material for stars to take the story back to the Academy Awards. The dramatic version somewhat delivers on expectations. It features deeply moving performances by Julianne Moore as Hester and Elliot Page as Stacie, but doesn’t quite capture the heartbreaking power of the documentary as it gets bogged down in the procedural scenes. Perhaps the difference is one of timing as the documentary serves as a call to arms in the push for marriage equality and rights for same sex couples, while the drama essentially offers a period piece, bringing little new to a topic that was dominating headlines—although it’s certainly an emotionally compelling tale.
Stream Freeheld, the drama, on Tubi.
Loving
Another marriage drama comes in this dramatic adaptation of Nancy Buirski’s acclaimed documentary The Loving Story. Both films chronicle the historic case of Richard and Mildred Loving, a mixed race couple who were charged and convicted for violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. The films revisit how the Lovings took their case to the Supreme Court and won, leading to all legal restrictions for marriage on the basis of race to be overturned. Jeff Nichols’ soulful interpretation of the story simply invites audiences to marinate in the strength of the Lovings’ marriage to identify with their plight. The years between Loving and the Loving case allow the deeply moving drama to speak to the moment as it hit theatres at the end of Obama’s second term and on the eve of Donald Trump’s first reign of terror, powerfully reminding audiences of an all-too-recent past. Ruth Negga scored a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her turn as Mildred, but Joel Edgerton should have been equally recognized as Richard.
Loving is available on VOD, while The Loving Story is on Tubi.
The Walk
Cutting-edge visual effects prove no match for jaw-dropping archival footage in this clunky take on James Marsh’s Oscar winner Man on Wire. Director Robert Zemeckis simply lets the visual wizardry overwhelm the human drama. The film recreates the story of French high-wire thrill-seeker Philippe Petit, who daringly tip-toed across the Twin Towers on a tightrope in 1974. It flops hard, especially since Marsh’s film actually leans heavily upon dramatic recreations to fill out the material. Joseph Gordon Levitt is fine as Petit, but the action of Zemeckis’s interpretation of the story simply can’t muster the same power as Marsh’s elaborately realized account of the tightrope walker’s feat. That’s largely because Petit himself serves as such a colourful storyteller. The absence of his voice and perspective leaves the remake lacking. People call Petit’s act “the artistic crime of the century,” but Zemeckis’s film might deserve that label too.
Stream Man on Wire on Tubi, Plex, and Hoopla. The Walk is on Netflix.
Lords of Dogtown
Could the misfire of Lords of Dogtown account for the relatively slim field of doc to drama adaptations? This project has all the right ingredients for a hit as nearly every hot name from the early aughts leads to it while exploring IMDb rabbit holes. The film adapts the 2001 hit Dogtown and Z-Boys, Stacy Peralta’s energetic and revitalizing portrait of skateboarders. Sean Penn narrates this breezy freewheeling documentary about Los Angeles youth. The doc serves logical source material, especially since it won the Audience Award at Sundance and grossed over $1.5 million at the box office—which sounds small today, but was notable when the film was released in 2001. By comparison, Lords of Dogtown flopped hard while trying to recapture the doc’s testament to youth, even with director Catherine Hardwicke landing the project after her breakthrough Thirteen and Heath Ledger scoring the lead, offering a great performance that was inevitably eclipsed by his turn in Brokeback Mountain later that year. The doc more than recouped its money, but the drama barely made half its $25 million production budget at the box office.
Lords of Dogtown is on Netflix, while Dogtown and Z-Boys is on Crave and Tubi.
Charm City Kings
Charm City Kings valiantly tried to do the Dogtown and the Z-Boys thing by adapting a film about youth culture with an earnest attempt to bring a great story into the mainstream. The film reimagines Lotfy Nathan’s 2013 documentary 12 O’Clock Boys, which observes the lives of urban dirt bike riders as they pop wheelies and tell square society to eat their dust. The remake, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, features some great performances, including a breakout turn by Jahi Di’Allo Winston as teenage biker Mouse. After debuting to critical acclaim at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and scoring an encore slot at SXSW, Charm City Kings seemed poised to be a festival circuit darling. However, it’s arguably one of many cinematic casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic, as thwarted festival plans and delayed theatrical releases inevitably chalk it up to one of many films that year to launch on streaming before falling into obscurity. It deserves renewed attention.
Stream Charm City Kings on Crave and 12 O’Clock Boys on TUBI.
Party Monster
Child star Macaulay Culkin attempted a comeback with this trashy fable about a homicidal New York City club kid in search of his fifteen minutes of fame. However, the former Home Alone star seemed about as stranded as Kevin McCallister on Christmas Eve with this dark and sleazy urban nightmare. In the canon of docs to dramas, however, Party Monster endures as an intriguing entry, even if it’s not an especially great one. The film sees RuPaul’s Drag Race producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato rework their 1998 documentary of the same name, although it’s technically an adaptation of the book Disco Bloodbath by James St. James (Seth Green’s character in the film). This unique case lets fans see how filmmakers interpret the same story across modes of storytelling. Readers can see a similar—although far better—example with Tasha Hubbard’s reimagining of her documentary Birth of a Family in last year’s drama Meadowlarks.
Stream Party Monster, the documentary, on WOW Presents Plus, while the drama is a DVD bargain bin staple.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Bailey and Barbato find themselves on the list a second time. Their irreverent 2000 documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye serves as inspiration for the biopic of the same name that scored Jessica Chastain an Oscar for playing the televangelist whose fame and influence were kyboshed by a charlatan husband. One can debate Tammy Faye Messner’s involvement with, or knowledge of, her husband’s dirty tricks, but both films are largely sympathetic. The drama may be a little too by-the-numbers for its down good, but the documentary offers an audaciously original work that embraces camp and salutes its subject for her advocacy for queer rights and her message of hope and inclusion. RuPaul narrates the documentary and it’s essential viewing for Drag Race fans since the icon receives a name-check nearly every season. Chastain’s performance in the drama is top tier Snatch Game material, even if the make-up leans a bit too heavily on the chipmunk cheeks.
Stream The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the drama, on Disney+. The documentary is on WOW Presents Plus and on VOD and DVD.
A Man on the Inside
It’s not a movie, but in the spirit of Sherman’s March nearly becoming a series, here’s a plug for a documentary that successfully made the transition to episodic drama. The Netflix sitcom A Man on the Inside reimagines Maite Alberdi’s 2020 documentary The Mole Agent about an elderly man who moves into a retirement community under cover while investigating allegations that staff members are mistreating residents. The documentary has many fans for its moving portrait of isolation and institutional loneliness, while the series finds an unexpectedly great premise for situational comedy. It may be a bit of a stretch to buy Ted Danson as a senior who needs the same level of care that other residents do, but the man’s ageless charm sells the ruse well. He finds a late-career highlight in this throwback to 1990s’ sitcoms that delivers heart and humour with equal measure.
Stream A Man on the Inside on Netflix and The Mole Agent on Hoopla.
