Diego Maradona (2019)

Diego Maradona is special because it doesn’t “cover” a legend so much as resurrect him in real time, built from a torrent of intimate, never-before-seen footage that makes the 1980s feel immediate and electric. Asif Kapadia turns Maradona’s rise in Naples into a gripping, atmospheric saga where adoration, pressure, and self-destruction swirl together with the pulse of a stadium—less a sports recap than a portrait of fame as a force of nature. The film’s great clarity is in how it separates the private Diego from the public Maradona without reducing him to either saint or villain, letting you feel the cost of being worshipped. It’s not a gentle watch—there’s frank talk of drugs, sex, and corruption—but if you want a documentary with the energy of a thriller and the emotional weight of a tragedy, this delivers.

Asif Kapadia is clearly trying to turn Maradona’s Napoli years into a propulsive rise-and-fall thriller, and the access to unseen footage gives it real electricity and intimacy. The catch is that it’s a tightly curated slice of a much bigger life, so if you’re hoping for a comprehensive career overview or deep historical context around every scandal and consequence, you may leave feeling it’s selective and a bit conveniently shaped. It also doesn’t shy away from the uglier realities—cocaine use, strip-club material, and a generally grim atmosphere—so it can feel more like a cautionary tale than a celebratory sports doc. If you want a fast, immersive character study it delivers; if you want the full Maradona story with balanced scope, this isn’t that film.