6. Bowling For Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002)
Moore examines the 1999 Columbine tragedy to question both America's unnatural relationship with firearms and how, parodoxically, more guns makes a country feel safer. But what makes America so violent in the first place? The film presents a range of culprits, from the culture of fear utilised by advertising to the increasing desensitisation attributed to film and TV; from the permanent backdrop of world wars to the carte blanche granted by the Second Amendment. Violence begets violence. Yet it's considerably harder to rewire the mindset of generations than it is to find a scapegoat. When the finger is pointed at Marilyn Manson (his music an alleged influence on the Columbine killers), he sagely bats it away. As has become Moores undoing, the publicity stunts detract from his polemic somewhat - such as taking two Columbine survivors to demand an apology from Kmart for selling ammunition - but nevertheless he made America sit up and listen. An insightful, entertaining and provocative film that, sadly, becomes more important each passing year.
5. The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters (Seth Gordon , 2007)
When Will Ferrell was dedicating his life to pratfalling across every sport known to man, why oh why did no one spot the comic potential of competitive gaming? For, beating behind the hairy chest of The King of Kong there is at its heart a story of high scores and low self-esteem, fame, glory and incredible hubris. Its also one of the funniest films youll ever see. We follow everyman Steve Wiebe as he attempts to take the highest score on Donkey Kong away from the world record-holder Billy Mitchell who, surely, is as sublime a character as Ron Burgundy or White Goodman. Wiebe is humble, Mitchell is not. Through no fault of his own, Wiebe has struggled through many different career paths but lives happily with his wife in Washington. Aside from becoming a legendary figure in the video arcade realm, Mitchell is the self-styled Sauce King, selling a range of hot sauces with his family in Florida. Fans gather from all corners of the country to witness the greatest rivalry in gaming history. Or it would be if Wiebe wasnt just too darn nice. Its Flanders versus Mr Burns. Whoever submits the higher score to Walter Day, a man who selflessly maintains the official top scores for all arcade games in America, will be crowned World Champion. I wont ruin the outcome here (seriously, watch the film: its hilarious) but I will tell you that yes, that is Mitchell immortalised as Bobby Garrett Ferguson in "Regular Show", and youre quite right to spot Mr Litwaks referee shirt in Wreck-It Ralph as an homage to Day. Good work.
4. Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
News that Banksy has made a documentary should be met with considerable scepticism, if not suspicion. Its storyline, a straight-faced study of street art that swerves into a biography of an artist who may or may not exist, recalls the wheels within wheels of Orson Welles' F for Fake. Banksy appears before the camera (albeit in silhouette and with his voice distorted) to explain how a chance meeting with Frenchman Thierry Guetta led to a brief and bizarre ambush on the art world. Practically overnight, Guetta adopts the alias Mr Brainwash, unleashes a gallery full of derivative pop-art mash-ups and rockets up the rich list. Just like Banksy, we are left to figure out what on Earth just happened. Yet there may be more going on here than meets the eye: is this a satire on the ephemerality of art? The emptiness of celebrity culture? Graffiti's rise and fall into the Establishment? Or a Catfish-style cautionary tale? It could be that our spray-can saviour has left plenty of herrings with a new coat of red...
3. Room 237: Being An Inquiry Into The Shining In 9 Parts (Rodney Ascher, 2012)
When was the last time you watched The Shining? Remember the bit with the genocide of the Native Americans? No? Okay, how about the scene with the Minotaur? And there was that bit, wasnt there, about the Moon landing? Are you sure youve watched The Shining? If you have, youre in for a treat with Room 237. Nine contrasting theories, interpretations and readings (including the above three) attempt to decipher what lurks behind the titular hotel room door, the significance of its number and the meaning of the film in general. After all, who knows what an obsessive such as Stanley Kubrick must have hidden in the corridors? Our theorists appear only in voiceover, with Ascher presenting a mix of Shining clips and other Kubrick films to suggest a symmetry running throughout the directors work. Its certainly compelling stuff, from the straight-faced (well, we imagine) assertion that continuity errors are in fact "clues" to the puzzle (a Kubricks cube?) to the claim that, indeed, the director faked the Moon landing and chose to make his Stephen King adaptation into a public, but cryptic, confession. One theorist has even deconstructed the floor plans of the Overlook hotel to prove the existence of an "impossible window". This film is guaranteed to send you back to the subject matter, perhaps with a finger permanently glued to the pause button.