This true crime document about Pez hit the Netflix top 10 — and it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

This true crime document about Pez hit the Netflix top 10 — and it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

A new documentary is soaring in the Netflix viewership rankings.

The quirky true crime documentary, dubbed "The Pez Outlaw," was originally released last October, but reappeared on Netflix this month and is currently ranked #6 on the streamer's most-watched movies list. This is ahead of former No. 1 holders "Dog Gone," "The Pale Blue Eye," and "The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker."

If you're a true crime fanatic or just have a sweet tooth, you'll definitely want to check out "The Outlaw of Pez." Here's everything you need to know about this outlandish Netflix documentary.

The Pez Outlaw is a fish-out-of-water story based on the true story of Steve Grew's misadventures. Hailing from a small town in Michigan, Steve boards a plane bound for Eastern Europe with only one mission: to track down a secret factory that holds the key to the world's most desirable and valuable Pez candy dispenser.

The mission sounds simple enough, and if successful, Steve can quit his job of 25 years and get his family out of debt. Soon the Pez smuggler is making more money than he ever dreamed possible by selling rare candy dispensers to collectors, but his actions attract the attention of the so-called "Pezident" and he embarks on a mission to destroy the Pez outlaws.

Blending elements of outlandish comedy and true crime with a deft production style, The Pez Outlaw is a funny and engaging documentary that proves that anything can be worth money.

The above synopsis may have been snarked at, but the critical reception of "The Pez Outlaw" is certainly no joke. The feature-length documentary currently holds a rare 100% score (out of 25 reviews) on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (open in new tab). Audience attendance is also astounding at 83%, indicating that viewers are also hooked on the Pez-themed hijinks.

Callum Marsh of The New York Times (open in new tab) compared the documentary to the very candy it centers on, saying, "Like Pez, the film is charming, colorful, and perhaps too sweet." Meanwhile, Adam Graham of The Detroit News (open in new tab) described it as: a very quirky and thoroughly enjoyable documentary about dreaming big, serving a niche, and the perils of trying to be "the man." [Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com (opens in new tab) similarly called the documentary "an unforgettable David vs. Goliath story," and Marshall Shaffer of Decider (opens in new tab) said the film has "a sense of pace and storytelling that and inevitably better than a Hollywoodized fiction film."

One of the most positive reviews came from Bobby Lepire, a contributor to Film Threat (opens in new tab), who wrote, "This is the kind of film you show to people who don't like documentaries and change their minds. It is that good and powerful.

If you like lighthearted Netflix documentaries like "Pepsi, Where's Jet?" you need to put "The Pez Outlaw" on your watch list as soon as possible. It has everything you could want: big characters, a fast-paced presentation style, and a storyline that is anything but outlandish.

Netflix subscribers suffering from true crime burnout should also give this one a shot. It is far less brutal than other films in the genre, and the subject matter is bizarre enough to make it feel distinctly different from its contemporaries. The Outlaw of Pez will definitely be one of the must-see documentaries on Netflix."

Categories