Hulu Documentary Highlights: Jane, 78/52 Hitchcock's Shower Scene, The China Hustle

Hulu seems to get what it's about. Give you a lot of TV, grab a couple of indie movies here and there, and stock up on documentaries? Ok that last part is surprising, but Hulu has become a home for great nonfiction film including the three in today's highlight.

Jane

The famed primatologist tells her story in this affecting and intimate doc from Brett Morgen. The film serves multiple functions at the same time. It's a great introduction of Goodall's work for a new generation. It lets Goodall tell her story on her terms including her motivations, her influences, and her outlook. And Morgen carefully times questions to her Goodall elaborate or reveal her thought process be it about putting sick chips out of their misery or how she parented her child.

Something that stands out: Goodall takes the audience through her evolving understanding of the chips (be it their parenting, thievery, or even later how they fought), and makes it clear than understanding them, helps us understand ourselves.

78/52 Hitchcock's Shower Scene

It seems pretentious to make an entire movie about one scene, and it kind of is. But Alexandre O. Phillippe film justifies its run time with a series of excellent interviews detailing the effect the scene has, what it meant for film at the time, and how it got made.

It's a smorgasbord for film geeks who get to hear all of the intimate details from folks including Janet Leigh's body double, facts about the scene, and the lengths Hitchcock went too to make it, and a flurry of interesting interpretations.

My Favorite Moments: Hearing Guillermo Del Toro speak so eloquently about Hitchcock, the film, and how the film invokes its emotions only makes me love him more.

The China Hustle

Wall Street cons are alive and well in this doc from Jed Rothstein. Based on the title you might assume this is about cheap labor or currency manipulation. In truth, the film is about how investment firms are using Chinese companies as a smokescreen for pump and dump deals. There's admittedly too much focus on certain individuals fighting the good fight, and perhaps not enough on why the government is failing to regulate this, but if you've seen The Wolf of Wall Street this scheme is going to sound waaaay too familiar.

A Moment of Stomach-Turning Anger: Folks who lost all of their retirement money to this scheme detail what they were sold and what they got.