Sometimes, a history lesson works better when it’s a little ragged and personal. Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes and consisting primarily of a sit-down interview with the former Soviet leader, Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev speeds through a vast stretch of the 20th century, explaining the decline of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain through the eyes of the man whose reforms precipitated much of it. But Herzog himself brings a surprising — and, it turns out, necessary — element to their interactions: that of the grateful world citizen, one of billions who felt the first pangs...