A good weekend of real documentary viewing relies on a nice mix of fascination, education, and exasperation. A little music is also welcome, too. Luckily, HBO Max has been in the documentary game long enough to have a deep library of films and series that tick all those boxes and more, and it’s just there for the taking.
This weekend (and into the week, of course), I’ve got a few suggestions, new and old, that offer that well-rounded mix. The first is a highly anticipated deep-dive new series about the phenomenon that is Burning Man, while the last two are older-but-excellent picks—one a terrifying look at an internet meme that sparked a tragedy, and the other the story behind the most famous breakup album of all time. Here they are in order of which I’d watch first.
1
The Man Will Burn
Inside Burning Man’s most chaotic years yet
Fresh off its Tribeca Film Festival premiere just a month ago, and now streaming on HBO Max, The Man Will Burn is a new four-part docuseries that lands just as the radical desert festival known as Burning Man heads into its 40th year in August. And buckle up, because it’s going to be one helluva ride.
With Oscar-nominated director Jehane Noujaim (The Square, The Vow) and Vikram Gandhi (Kumare) behind the camera, the series traces the event’s unlikely evolution from Larry Harvey’s 1986 modest eight-foot bonfire on San Francisco’s Baker Beach to the now fully-realized Black Rock City, the temporary Nevada metropolis of 80,000 revelers that rises and vanishes every summer. Then things get messy as the series highlights some of the festival’s struggles, including back-to-back COVID cancellations, 2021’s renegade burn, and the 2023 rains that stranded thousands in the mud.
Compiled from five years of embedded filming and decades of rare archival footage, it features candid interviews with the people behind the event, including co-founder John Law, and celebrity burners including Sergey Brin and Grover Norquist. The cinematic series offers a fascinating look at the ins and outs of the makeshift civilization and the passion of those who make it happen and attend. Episode one is streaming now, with new chapters arriving Thursdays until July 30.
The Man Will Burn
Release Date
2026 – 2026-00-00
Network
HBO
Directors
Jehane Noujaim
2
Beware the Slenderman
When an internet boogeyman inspired a real crime
“The palest man, the blackest suit, bigger than the tallest brute. Six black arms will grab you up, or stalk you till you just give up … Fear the man, the Slender Man, for he can do what no one can.” That little British girl’s voice-over still gives me heebie-jeebies. I saw this goosebump-inducing documentary when it came out in 2016, and—much like the sinister beanpole figure at its center did to its devotees—I couldn’t get it out of my head for days.
One of the internet age’s defining true-crime documentaries, Irene Taylor Brodsky’s (Leave No Trace, I Am: Celine Dion) Beware the Slenderman is a two-hour film that examines the 2014 case in which two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, lured their friend Payton Leutner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, claiming it would appease Slender Man, a faceless boogeyman from the internet’s creepypasta horror canon that the girls believed was real.
Leutner luckily survived the attempt on her life, and this feature-length film traces the ordeal, following the attackers’ families over 18 months. Brodsky mixes haunting police interrogation and courtroom footage with interviews including Morgan’s mother Angie Geyser, Anissa’s father Bill Weier, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who speaks on how ideas can infect young minds.
3
Music Box: Jagged
Alanis Morissette revisits her album that defined the ’90s
Part of HBO’s amazing Music Box series that includes several other beautifully executed instalments, including spotlights on Counting Crows, Yacht Rock, Jason Isbell and more, Alison Klayman’s (White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch) 2021 film Jagged premiered at TIFF and was promptly disowned by its own subject—Alanis Morissette called it “reductive” and skipped the premiere. Intrigued? Me too! But judge for yourself.
Music Box: Jagged is built around a long, candid present-day sit-down with Morissette herself and stitched together with ’90s MTV clips, home video, and energetic tour footage. It charts her path from her days as mononymous teen-pop castoff “Alanis” from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, through her reinventions and eventual rise to superstardom with her breakthrough break-up album Jagged Little Pill, the 1995 juggernaut that sold 33 million copies.
Quiz
8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge
Name that music movie
Trivia challenge
From biopics to rockumentaries — how well do you know the greatest music
films ever made?
BiopicsDocumentariesRockHip-HopClassics
Begin
In the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which actor portrays lead singer Freddie
Mercury?
AJared LetoBBen HardyCRami MalekDDaniel Brühl
Correct! Rami Malek delivered a career-defining performance as Freddie
Mercury, earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2019. His portrayal of Mercury’s electrifying
stage presence and personal struggles was widely praised as one of the finest biopic performances in
years.
Not quite — it was Rami Malek who played Freddie Mercury, and he won the
Oscar for Best Actor for the role. Jared Leto is another actor known for playing rock icons, but he
wasn’t part of this film.
Continue
Which legendary rock band is the subject of Martin Scorsese’s 2008 concert
documentary The Last Waltz?
AThe Grateful DeadBThe BandCCreedence Clearwater RevivalDThe Allman Brothers Band
Correct! The Last Waltz documents The Band’s farewell concert on
Thanksgiving Day 1976, featuring guest appearances by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, and many
others. Scorsese’s film is widely considered one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made.
Not quite — The Last Waltz follows The Band, a Canadian-American rock
group that served as Bob Dylan’s backing band before becoming stars in their own right. The film
captures their legendary 1976 farewell concert in San Francisco.
Continue
In the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman, which genre is the film officially
classified as, setting it apart from most music biopics?
ARomantic dramaBAnimated musicalCFantasy musicalDPsychological thriller
Correct! Rocketman was marketed and designed as a fantasy musical,
incorporating surreal dream sequences and theatrical song-and-dance numbers rather than straightforward
biographical storytelling. This bold approach helped it stand apart from more conventional biopics like
Bohemian Rhapsody.
Not quite — Rocketman is officially a fantasy musical, blending real
biographical events with theatrical, larger-than-life sequences set to Elton John’s songs. Taron
Egerton, who played Elton, actually sang all the songs himself rather than lip-syncing.
Continue
Which 1984 mockumentary follows a fictional heavy metal band on a disastrous
American tour?
AWayne’s WorldBAlmost FamousCThis Is Spinal TapDThe Commitments
Correct! This Is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner, pioneered the
mockumentary format and is considered one of the funniest films ever made. The band’s absurd
misadventures — including getting lost backstage and having their amplifiers go to 11 — became iconic in
pop culture.
Not quite — This Is Spinal Tap is the answer, and it essentially
invented the modern mockumentary genre. The phrase ‘up to eleven’ entered everyday language directly
from this film, and real rock musicians frequently cite it as painfully accurate.
Continue
The 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton chronicles the rise of which pioneering
hip-hop group?
APublic EnemyBN.W.ACWu-Tang ClanDA Tribe Called Quest
Correct! Straight Outta Compton tells the story of N.W.A — featuring Ice
Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella — and their explosive impact on hip-hop and American culture
in the late 1980s. The film was a massive box office success, grossing over $200 million worldwide.
Not quite — Straight Outta Compton is about N.W.A, the groundbreaking
Compton rap group whose raw, confrontational style helped define gangsta rap. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre
served as producers on the film, lending it a strong sense of authenticity.
Continue
Which 1991 documentary film follows Madonna on her Blond Ambition World Tour and is
considered a landmark in music film history?
ATruth or DareBLike a VirginCIn Bed with MadonnaDOpen Your Heart
Correct! Truth or Dare — released as In Bed with Madonna outside North
America — gave audiences an unprecedented backstage look at Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition tour. The film
was groundbreaking for its candid portrayal of a pop star’s private world and became the
highest-grossing documentary of its time.
Not quite — the film is called Truth or Dare in North America, though it
was released as In Bed with Madonna elsewhere. It was a revolutionary piece of pop culture that blurred
the lines between documentary filmmaking and celebrity self-promotion.
Continue
Walk the Line, the acclaimed 2005 biopic about Johnny Cash, features which actress
playing June Carter Cash?
ANicole KidmanBReese WitherspoonCRenée ZellwegerDCate Blanchett
Correct! Reese Witherspoon won the Academy Award for Best Actress for
her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. Remarkably, both Witherspoon and her co-star Joaquin
Phoenix performed all their own vocals in the film rather than lip-syncing to original recordings.
Not quite — it was Reese Witherspoon who played June Carter Cash, and
she took home the Oscar for Best Actress for the role. Joaquin Phoenix was equally praised for his
portrayal of Johnny Cash, and both actors did their own singing throughout the film.
Continue
The 2000 coming-of-age film Almost Famous is loosely based on whose real-life
experiences?
ALester BangsBHunter S. ThompsonCCameron Crowe himselfDChuck Klosterman
Correct! Cameron Crowe drew directly from his own teenage years as a
rock journalist for Rolling Stone magazine when writing Almost Famous. He was famously writing for
Rolling Stone by the age of 16, touring with bands like Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers, just as
the fictional William Miller does in the film.
Not quite — Almost Famous is Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical
account of his own experiences as a teenage music journalist in the 1970s. The character of veteran
critic Lester Bangs, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, was a real person who served as a mentor to the
young Crowe.
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Along the way, Morissette speaks frankly about navigating industry sexism, her struggle with eating disorders, and the inappropriate behavior she faced from older men as a teenager trying to break into a male-dominated industry. Producer and co-writer Glen Ballard, Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson, Kevin Smith, and the late Taylor Hawkins—her friend and touring drummer before Foo Fighters fame—round out the standout interviews. The 99-minute doc has an impressive 82% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jagged
Release Date
September 14, 2021
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Alison Klayman
A well-rounded weekend
Great documentaries prove that truth really can be stranger than fiction—not to mention dustier, creepier, and catchier (see what I did there?). When the credits roll, How-To Geek’s streaming coverage has plenty more recommendations for whatever’s in your subscription quiver.
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