25 best critically acclaimed movies on Netflix

13. They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (2018)

Director: Morgan Neville
Cast: Peter Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Orson Welles, Steve Ecclesine

I wrote about this documentary in a prior article on the return of Orsen Welles. This year, Netflix distributed Welles’ last film that he spent the last years of his life trying to finish, The Other Side of the Wind. This film tells the story of Welles film and is more of a compelling tale than the actual film it documents – and I thought The Other Side of the Wind was pretty good.

The best part about They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is that as soon as the movie ends, you can watch The Other Side of the Wind with the best context available. It also serves as a history lesson in the mysterious and iconic life of Orsen Welles, one of Americas greatest filmmakers.

Orsen is celebrated profusely now that he’s gone, but when he was trying to raise money for this film, he couldn’t get a nickel from the Hollywood system, hence the title. Imagine that; the man who gave us Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil couldn’t gain the confidence of Hollywood producers who believed that his time had passed.

Citizen Kane is regarded as one of if not the greatest film of all time. Being his first film, I can’t imagine the pressure of trying to live up to that feat, knowing that critics and audiences will never love your work the way they embraced your first movie.

I think it’s likely that the pursuit of creating a piece that could match Citizen Kane haunted Orsen until his death in 1985. This documentary is a film buff’s dream into a once-missing piece of cinema history.