As we go into our millionth month of staying at home to curb the spread of coronavirus, many of us are spending our time binge-watching Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime all day, every day (or, if you're working or have picked up hobbies in the daytime: all night, every night). But if you're looking to take a break from your rom-com diet, give the humble documentary a chance instead. There are a ton of great documentaries on Hulu right now, from breakout hit Three Identical Strangers to the amazingly ridiculous, stranger than fiction story of Fyre Fraud.
Whether you're looking for something that chronicles the lives of iconic women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or a true-crime fix, we've rounded up the best docs on Hulu for your viewing pleasure. (You can also take a look at the best documentaries on Amazon Prime here.)
Batman & Bill
Bob Kane is widely credited with creating Batman, but what many comic fans don't realize is that Kane had quite a bit of help from a struggling writer named Bill Finger. Finger helped craft everything from the iconic character's concept and costume to the aspects of Bruce Wayne's backstory that shaped who the character is today. This fascinating doc digs into the Dark Knight's real history and sheds light on the role Finger played in it.
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Minding the Gap
This documentary follows three men whose decade-long friendship is threatened when they join forces to leave their hometown and less-than-stable family lives in the Rust Belt.
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Ask Dr. Ruth
Dr. Ruth Westheimer—aka America's most famous sex therapist—has lived a truly fascinating life. The Holocaust survivor and nonagenarian opens up about her painful past in this in-depth documentary chronicling her life.
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March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step
If you love the first March of the Penguins movie, chances are good that you'll also love the sequel, which follows a young penguin as he embarks on his first major life journey, guided purely by instinct.
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Becoming Bond
Dream-casting the next James Bond is a favorite pastime of film fans today, but the most shocking casting of the character may have already happened. Becoming Bond tells the story of how George Lazenby, a poor Australian car mechanic who had never acted a day in his life ended up landing the iconic role.
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Untouchable
With Harvey Weinstein’s recent conviction still on top of mind, now is the right time to watch Untouchable. The chilling documentary focuses on Weinstein’s rise to power as well as his fall into disgrace, and how his trial catalyzed the greater #MeToo and Times Up movements.
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Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie
Everybody knows what a Barbie doll is, but not everyone knows about Barbie's history and sociocultural implications. Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie explores the creation of the iconic doll, the impact she has had on culture, and how she's evolved in the wake of modern-day feminism.
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Ballet Now
This gripping dance film documents the the three days leading up to Tiler Peck's direction and performance of a ballet exhibition in Los Angeles.
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Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine
This doc tells the story of the rise and fall of Big Brother, a subversive skateboarding that had its heyday in the mid-1990s and the impact the magazine had on the greater skating subculture.
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Jane
The beautiful documentary chronicles the work of Jane Goodall in Tanzania, where she studied chimpanzees. With original footage from Jane’s travels, the documentary is a must-see for everybody, not just biology and science aficionados.
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RBG
Of all the strong women (and there are many), Ruth Bader Ginsburg might just be our number-one icon. This film explores her life as the second female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, focusing on how her early legal action helped change the world for women.
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Fyre Fraud
Directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, the must-see exposes all of the twisted lies behind the infamous Fyre Festival fraud, and how its creators Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule managed to dupe us all— at least until festival-goers arrived at the island in the Bahamas and realized they had been scammed.
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Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show
If you don't remember The Dana Carvey Show, you're not alone. The weird thing is, it should have been the kind of show that people remembered. Still, the series, which starred SNL alum Dana Carvey and had an impressive writers' room and cast of then-unknown talent that included Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K., Robert Smigel, and Charlie Kaufman, was undeniably a failure. This documentary tries to get to the bottom of why.
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Crime + Punishment
This timely and important documentary follows a group of black and Latino cops (and one very tenacious private investigator) who mounted a landmark lawsuit to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities.
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The Amazing Johnathan Documentary
This engrossing documentary starts out as the story of a dying magician's final tour, but evolves into a genuinely bizarre journey as the filmmaker starts to find it more and more difficult to tell what's real and what's just an illusion.
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Three Identical Strangers
Imagine this: One day, you discover you were separated from at birth from your long-lost twin. You finally meet...and then discover you're actually triplets. In this surreal story, three brothers meet for the first time, but the celebration doesn't last long as the truth about their shady adoption story begins to unravel.
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Killing For Love
On March 30, 1985, Derek and Nancy Haysom were found brutally murdered in their home in Virginia. Their daughter Elizabeth, a scholarship student, and her boyfriend Jens Söring, son of a German diplomat, are accused of the crime—but they might not be guilty. Dun. Dun. Dun.
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Jawline
Influencer culture isn't just a way of life for a lot of teens—for some, it's a potential way out of their hometowns onto a path toward following their dreams. That's the case for the doc's subject, sixteen-year-old Austyn Tester, who works to build a following online in his attempts to escape a dead-end future in rural Tennessee.
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Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
Little is known about the private life of celebrated author Margaret Atwood—at least until now. This documentary takes fans and literary buffs into Atwood's world and offers a unique look at her life.
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I Am Greta
Warning: This documentary, about teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg, will make you feel like an underachiever. I Am Greta tells the teen's personal, inspiring story.
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