Time Sep

104 TIMESeptember 3–10 2018

AH SUMMER! THE SEASON OF SUPERHERO BLOCKBUSTERS
and exhilarating action movies enterprises that demand little
more of us than shutting down some of our brain power and
sinking into cushy stadium seats. But the summer of 2018
has put a wrinkle in that pattern. We’re in the midst of a mini
documentary boom during a season in which a surprising
number of people have made the efort to go out to the
movies—to see anonictionilm. Since its June release Morgan
Neville’s documentary portrait of beloved TV personality and
children’s advocate Fred RogersWon’t You Be My Neighbor?
has grossed $22 million at the box oice. Two other docs—Julie
Cohen and Betsy West’s homage to Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader GinsburgRBGreleased in May and Tim Wardle’s
potent and unsettling adoption sagaThree Identical Strangers
which opened in June—have also hit big at the box oice
grossing some $13.7 million and $10 million respectively.
Those igures are nothing close to what huge hits like
Black PantherorAvengers: Ininity Warhave raked in. But
they’re still surprising. Think of it this way: All three of these
docs have already cracked the list of top 30 highest-grossing
documentaries since 1982—and they’ve been in theaters
for only three or four months. (The top-grossing doc since
1982 according to Box Oice Mojo is Michael Moore’s 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11which has made $119 million to date.)
It’s too soon to tell if this current love afair with
documentaries is the beginning of a trend or simply a
testament to the quality of these three ilms. But sometimes
numbers tell a story that has less to do with proit statistics
than with an almost indescribable state of yearning: What if

MOVIES

The summer of the doc

By Stephanie Zacharek

this summer’s big documentaries—and

a few others that aren’t as splashy but

are still worth your time—are giving

audiences something they didn’t know

they needed? At a time when the press

is under constant attack and many of

our government leaders operate under

a rather elastic deinition of the truth

maybe audiences are looking to connect

with stories they can truly believe in.

THERISE OFdocumentary ilms may

run on a parallel track with the recent

popularity of true-crime podcasts. Of the

new doc cropThree Identical Strangers

is most similar to a whodunit. It may not

be a true-crime story but itisatragic

mystery with a sinister twist. Director

Wardle tells the story of Eddy Galland

David Kellman and Bobby Shafran

triplets who were separated at birth in

the early 1960s and adopted by three

diferent families. The trio found one

another almost miraculously in the

early 1980s and enjoyed a brief run as

minor celebrities—until certain facts

about their adoption disrupted the

fairy tale. The picture asks some teasing

questions about nature vs. nurture and

it’s as suspenseful as any iction that a

screenwriter could dream up.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?strikes

a diferent chord. As the world looks

today it’s a wonder that a man like

TimeOf Rev iews

△

RBG one of this

summer’s knockout

documentaries

chronicles the

adventures of

another kind of

superhero: Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RBG: MAGNOLIA PICTURES; CAR RAMEN: GETTY IMAGES