Must-watch Louis Theroux documentaries
Louis Theroux is back with a deep dive into the shadowy online world of the manosphere. His latest documentary, “Inside the Manosphere”, has been met by mixed reviews with some critics hailing it as among his most chilling and powerful works, while others question why he has given the misogynistic influencers exactly the platform they crave.
Whatever your opinion, Theroux has an impressive back catalogue of documentaries worth watching, each one tackling a thorny topic with his signature faux naivety and awkward charm. Here are some of the best.
When Louis Met Jimmy (2000)
A decade before Jimmy Savile died and investigations into his “sickening crimes” finally began, Theroux went to stay at the media personality’s house, said The Guardian. “Hints of a darker character, beyond his hammed-up eccentricities used for cover” emerge here, captured in “off-camera confessions of violence while Savile was still mic’d up”. Later, Theroux would be criticised for “failing to grill” the notorious paedophile properly. In 2016, he revisited the subject in “Savile” to “wrestle with his guilt”.
The Most Hated Family in America (2007)
Before the explosion of “endless true crime and cult documentaries”, this “jaw-dropping” film about a “family church in Kansas who love to picket the funerals of dead soldiers” caused quite a stir, said The Guardian. In it, Theroux meets a family at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church – a virulently homophobic group known for its hateful protests. “Frightening viewing, with incredible access and almost unbelievable characters, its success spawned two follow-up films.”
Extreme Love: Dementia (2012)
This “heart-wrenching” documentary sees Theroux travel to Phoenix, Arizona to spend time at a residential institution for those suffering with dementia, said The Standard. During his visit, he meets both the patients and their families “coming to terms with losing one version of their loved ones, and getting used to another”. It’s one of his “sweetest” and most tender films, delving into the pain of the people whose lives are impacted by the cruel disease.
Drinking to Oblivion (2016)
In this “staggeringly moving watch”, Theroux embeds himself in the specialist liver centre at King’s College Hospital, London, where he meets patients whose “alcoholism is so severe that it has put them at death’s door”, said The Independent. Among his interviewees is a “petrified” man who has been drinking two bottles of vodka a day and is “hardly able to stand” as he battles with withdrawal. It’s an “astonishing film that gives a face to an addiction suffered by half a million people in England”.
Forbidden America: Extreme and Online (2022)
Theroux travels to America to meet the “poster boys of the online alt-right” in this unsettling film, said The i Paper. Among his subjects is Nick Fuentes – a “Holocaust denier who believes women shouldn’t be allowed to vote”. Theroux’s “barely disguised disdain” for his interviewee’s “deeply disturbing beliefs” is on full display here and he does a solid job of challenging their hate-fuelled views.