2. The Queen of Versailles (2012)
The economic message of Queen of Versailles makes it an extraordinarily topical documentary, but it manages to avoid becoming a political diatribe; instead, the documentary is a sobering and very human look at an extraordinarily wealthy family and how they deal with financial ruin. David Siegel owns Westgate Resorts, a real estate company that sells luxury timeshares, and is looking to use his billions to build a house the largest house in the entire country. He and his wife, Jackie, gush over how excited they to replicate the Versailles mansion in France, and they owe it to themselves to do it. The Siegels initially come off as arrogant and disgustingly profligate, but once the economic crisis hits they become increasingly humbled by their dwindling finances. They suddenly become more and more relatable as we are allowed to see how they struggle to preserve what money they have left; once the money starts to vanish, the Siegels start to become almost human. Jackie quickly becomes the films focus as she wrestles with losing a lifestyle that she, really, has never earned. We are introduced to her as the gold-digging trophy wife (implicitly, of course), but by the end of Versailles the viewer has difficulty deciding whether Jackie has earned their sympathies or not. The documentary ultimately paints a convincing picture of how superficial a life of opulence can be, since the Siegels pleasures seem flimsy and unrealistic once their estate is compromised. Not to mention, the giant Versailles mansion (which is never completed) is a simultaneously apt and poignant illustration of what accumulating wealth can become.