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Reliving triumphs and controversies, fashion designer John Galliano takes center stage in this grippingly nuanced portrait from Oscar®-winner Kevin Macdonald. Star-studded interviews and rare archival footage reveal the toxicity behind exquisite glamor and spectacle, both on and off the runway.

Rambling through the hedge-maze, entertaining the various conspiracies that circle around The Shining, Room 237 is above all, a well-intentioned tribute to the endurance of this classic and the sustained, eager attention that fans have met Stephen King’s novel and Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation.

Working with unseen outtakes from a 1969 French TV interview, director Alain Gomis fashions a riveting, sharp-edged essay on the media’s treatment of a genius of jazz piano, Thelonious Monk. Hypnotic, nerve-wrangling, and immersive, Rewind and Play lets the music—and the silence—do the talking.

As the pandemic rages, Kentridge turns his mind to the human body. Employing the techniques of early cinema—and a Marx Brothers mirror gag—Episode 2 is alive with Méliès magic, as figures dance across blackboards and notebooks for a sprightly discourse on selfhood and corporeal representation.

Featuring interviews with its subject’s most famous collaborators—Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola—this absorbing documentary largely lets the self-aware artist recount his own unusual journey. Embracing a mindful work ethic, he stands in inspiring contrast to the toxic model of the tortured artist.

When revelatory intel is obtained through a malicious abuse of power, how much should we know about the figures behind great strides in the fight for equality? No mere history lesson, Samuel D. Pollard’s engrossing documentary cleverly and meticulously interrogates its own existence.

An astonishingly singular feat of sensorial cinema, Andrea Arnold’s first foray into nonfiction filmmaking finds yet another indelible heroine in Luma, a dairy cow. Resounding with transformative empathy for the inner lives of animals, this powerful documentary wears its loving heart on its sleeve.

Anger links arms with resilience in Alanis Obomsawin’s riveting two-hour account of the Oka Crisis, a bellicose conflict that received global attention. Unwavering in its commitment to sacred land and First Nations struggles, Kanehsatake is among the filmmaker’s most accomplished works.