I used to compare Alex Gibney to Woody Allen for the way he released a new movie every year, an amazing achievement in artistic productivity that seemed nearly impossible to accomplish without sacrificing the superior quality of his work. Then he came out with two terrific films in 2013, both of which are receiving attention in summations of the year in documentary.
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is almost definitely the WikiLeaks movie to see this year, rather than the Benedict Cumberbatch fictionalized version that I am told is less than stellar. Those looking for the story of WikiLeaks, despite the perhaps slightly misleading title, may not be entirely satisfied with the documentary, but it offers some fascinating and new insights into the personal and political motivations—and how those intersect on an individual level—of both Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning and Julian Assange.
The Armstrong Lie is, in my view, the stronger of the two, detailing what Gibney has called “the anatomy of a lie” and providing the most fascinating portrait of Lance Armstrong to date. Unlike his previous documentaries, Gibney appears in this one, as he is forced to factor in his own biases and changing perspective when he gets swept up in, and subsequently disillusioned with, Armstrong mania.
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