Atomic Fangirl

“…even though I’d never really imagined making a true crime documentary, working in documentary [filmmaking] these days, true crime kinda got this gravitational pull.”

Story: Charlie Shackleton is a documentary filmmaker on a mission; to do a documentary on a true crime novel he’d had his eye on for a while. But when he doesn’t get the rights to the novel? He does the next best thing; he makes a documentary about making documentaries, and by extension, the true crime genre itself.

Genre I’d put it in: Squashed Documentaries Turned Into Different Documentaries
Release Date: 2025 (festival/limited), 2026 (DVD and Blue-ray )
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based on the director Charlie Shackleton’s unrealized documentary, based on the nonfiction book “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge” by Lyndon Lafferty

Gotta say: I love true crime. Well, kinda. One of my major concentrations in undergrad was criminology, and I’m a huge horror movie nerd. So basically, I love a story that both digs into the darker depths of humanity while ultimately proving that justice can prevail. Sometimes though, true crime digs into stories where justice not only doesn’t prevail, it’s actively mocked. In Project, Shackleford takes a book about an unsolved crime, fails at being allowed to adapt it, and then leaves us with the idea that perhaps not everything can be neatly tied up with a bow. This might be the most meta documentary I’ve ever seen.

“Alright. So what am I looking at?”

Story: Director Josef Gatti deconstructs ten “inner workings of nature”, looking at our mundane world in ways that spotlight the makeup of our universe.

Genre I’d put it in: Science Documentaries You Actually Want To Watch
Release Date: 2026 
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: A feature length documentary based on the TV series of the same name.

Gotta say: I have to come clean with y’all. There are some times when I don’t want to write a review for a film I’ve watched. Perhaps it’s left little impression on me. Perhaps I’ve got too much to say for good or ill, and don’t feel like submitting a dissertation. But for Phenomena, I’m absolutely delighted to be behind my keyboard. This film’s focus on the beauty of life, the universe, and everything had me enraptured. And I want to tell you about it. Because you need to seek this one out. This documentary feels like the coolest episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy mixed with 60s counterculture filmmaking whipped into a fluffy but substantial treat for your eyes and brain. Hell, just the film’s poster made me stop and really gaze into it. (I want that poster please. I’ll beg if I have to. Or I can just stare at this review’s image. That works too.)

“If they can break what’s always been the biggest and strongest union in this country? Believe me, other unions will not be able to withstand the onslaught.”

Story: The Teamsters – “the largest collective bargaining agreement in all of North America” – fight for the rights of over a million employees throughout the USA. So when the UPS/Teamsters in 2023 contract was up for renewal, the 2018 contract seemed to require a major overhaul. But will the employees, the union reps, and the UPS honchos come together, before over 340 thousand employees strike?

Genre I’d put it in: Documentaries Worth Paying Attention To
Release Date: 2026 (festival circuit)
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original:  Based on the 2023 collective bargaining between UPS and the Teamsters in 2023.

Gotta say: I used to be an HR specialist. As an HR gal, I wasn’t allowed to chat with union reps, so naturally, those reps seemed like an awesome secret society, fighting for the workers. America shows the hard work of negotiating a union contract from the viewpoint of the reps, and the individuals who are affected by the outcome of a new agreement. And I was fascinated. America is just as fascinating.