Live!

Live! (2007) is a sharp mockumentary thriller you can watch online on iFILM. A flailing TV network bets its prime-time slot on the ugliest idea in the room: a live show where six volunteers play Russian roulette for five million dollars.

Driving it is Katy (Eva Mendes), a coldly ambitious network executive who'll cross any line for ratings. Human-rights groups are furious, Congress is up in arms, the network's lawyers tally the risk — and somehow the line of people willing to gamble their lives keeps growing. Shot as a documentary about the making of the show, the film follows both the producers and the contestants, each with a private reason for sitting down at that table. The fake-doc framing is exactly what makes it crawl under your skin.

Director Bill Guttentag turns a satire of television into an uncomfortable question aimed straight at the viewer: how far past a human life does a rating have to be worth. David Krumholtz, Katie Cassidy and Jeffrey Dean Morgan round out the cast. Stream Live! online on iFILM.