Cert PG Stars 3

Sports fans who believe modern games are too regimented and unaccommodating of maverick talent will enjoy this inspirational and thought-provoking documentary from director Gabe Polsky, who previously made the little seen but brilliant Russian ice-skating doc, Red Army.

With loads of great footage and interviews with Serena Williams, Pele and Michael Jordan, it holds up legends such as boxer Rocky Graziano, and Brazilian footballer Garincha, as examples of great sportsmen who had to improvise new styles in order to overcome physical attributes which could have seen them rejected at the beginning of their careers.

Celebrating the behaviour of pioneering mavericks and diverse figures such as high jumper Dick Fosbury and err, musician David Bowie, the film argues though performance data is necessary in attainment, it can’t measure an individual’s competitive nature and creativity which are fundamental to achieving greatness.

Scathing of any educational system which demands conformity, the film claims unstructured play for the young is crucial for development, which means I’m totally ace-ing this homeschooling lark.

Cert PG Stars 3

Football and philosophy collide in this poignant documentary as a quirky take on the beautiful game morphs into a sad portrait of desperate middle age and a glimpse behind the former Iron Curtain into the Kafka-esque running of the Romanian state apparatus.

Director Corneliu Porumboiu visits his hometown of Vaslui, Romania, to interview the guileless, earnest and evangelical Laurentiu Ginghina, who boldly claims to have invented a new less violent and more creative sport by changing the rules of football.

However a professional football coach shrugs and says the innovations are merely a variation on longstanding training techniques.

There’s an air of Billy Liar and Walter Mitty about the nondescript Ginghina, who explains at length how a series of thwarted opportunities has resulted in his being trapped in the grinding life of a government bureaucrat.

And the newfound freedom he declares players gain from his improvements involve the imposition of complex and restrictive rules, a contradiction our daydreaming would-be sporting pioneer seems oblivious to.

Cert PG 88min Stars 3

Flock to this tasty New Zealand documentary which sheds a light on the drama of competitive chicken shows.

As in any beauty pageant the competitors are thoroughly groomed and fed on a diet of bird seed, though possibly with bigger servings than their human counterparts. Being plump here is encouraged.

It’s an increasingly tense affair as well seasoned veterans and raw youths of the Christchurch Poultry Club vie to knock the champ off their perch at the national show.

Plus there’s fowl play in the committee room where a battle between modernisers and traditionalists threatens the existence of 148-year-old club.

Feathers are ruffled as members scratch around for votes, and the simmering hotpot of politics are brought to boil with an attempted presidential coup.

Though the politics are vicious the enthusiasm for the show birds is endearing and the tone stays jolly throughout. This warm and affectionate portrait of semi-rural life offers a clucking good time for everyone.

Cert 12A 92mins Stars 3

For anyone who knows nothing about the alcoholic former footballer, George Best, this unauthorised documentary is a sympathetic and straight forward introduction to his life.

For those looking for fresh insight, it’s back to square one.

The Belfast boy’s playing career peaked aged twenty two, and his drinking lasted until his death from liver disease at fifty nine years old.

All too-familiar footage of his playing days is mixed with interviews with his wives, Angie and Alex.

Former colleagues wax lyrical of his virtues but admit they refused to visit him as he lay on his hospital death bed.

Best’s contribution to popular culture was to be the first to fuse football and celebrity, leading us to where it’s reported the far less skilful player, David Beckham, feels entitled to whinge about not being ennobled.

This film is at its best on the pitch, where Best’s outrageous ability still makes me grin like a schoolboy.

Cert 12A 130mins Stars 4

This gobsmacking documentary about the magnificently flawed Argentinian footballing genius is a must-see for the ‘hand of god’ goal generation.

The infamous incident defeated England and helped him to almost singlehandedly, ahem, power his country to success at the 1986 Mexico World Cup, as well as cementing his contradictory image as a cheat and hero.

But that’s only the prelude to a glittering period of superstardom tarnished by a spectacular fall from grace, which involved cocaine addiction, and being banned from playing.

He drove unfashionable and unsuccessful Italian club side, Napoli, to two top-flight championships in Italy’s brutally savage Serie A, and to European success.

In doing so Maradona roused a proud city, inspired the region and became worshipped with an almost religious fervour, which is a terrible height to fall from.

Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo is a concrete gladiatorial arena full of flags and flares, and is packed for a riotous press conference where Maradona is first unveiled to the home supporters.

Whatever team you were supporting in 1987, it can’t have been as much fun as supporting Maradona’s Napoli. Mind you, if you thought the terrace songs of English football fans were sick and disgusting, you should hear the Italians in full voice.

It’s a look at a remarkable age of football from an age before players were obsessed with personal branding and access became limited to their immaculate online instagram lives, as for example, Lionel Messi, or Christiano Ronaldo.

Touching upon Maradona’s poverty stricken childhood, we see the pressure of his being the family breadwinner from age of 15 years old. And there are interviews with girlfriends and his personal trainer.

Oscar winning director Asif Kapadia, previously produced celebrated documentaries on singer Amy Winehouse, and racer Ayrton Senna, but where their untimely tragic deaths provide a strong narrative framework, here Kapadia has to create one, and it feels forced and arbitrary.

To emphasise the psychological importance of the accusation of his fathering a child, the narrative is mostly limited to Maradona’s career with Italy’s FC Napoli, meaning Argentina’s calamitous campaign in 1994’s USA World Cup is bizarrely excluded.

However it’s a victory for research and editing and uses a wealth of astonishing never seen before footage, accompanied by a soundtrack as winning as the football.