City Hall

City Hall (2020) is a documentary about the Boston mayor's office, directed by Frederick Wiseman. It follows Mayor Marty Walsh through his many meetings and conferences, and then shows us much, much more.

Be advised--this is a 4 1/2 hour movie. We watched it at home over three evenings. Every scene is so interesting that it's not a movie that you want to fast forward. If you're not up for a long, long binge, watch it in two or three parts, as we did.

Mayor Walsh is the "star" of the documentary, but Wiseman has shown us many other people carrying out meetings and activities that we don't even think about when we hear "City Hall." These include zoning, animal care, and the city's help line.

Wiseman is a genius, and any documentary he's directed is worth seeing. I think City Hall is one of the great ones. The movie has a solid 7.4 IMDb rating, but I thought it was even better than that, and rated it 10.

P.S. As I write this review, Mayor Walsh has been nominated by President Biden for Secretary of Labor. His confirmation is in progress. I assume he won't be Mayor of Boston for many more days. This makes the movie even more compelling.

There's no need to convince Wiseman fans to watch this. All I'll say is that it is one of his best films that I have seen (out of only a tiny fraction of his filmography), and critics who have seen much more of his films seem to agree.

There's also no point trying to convince Wiseman haters to watch this. It's more than 4 and a half hours long, and it's about day-to-day city politics.

If you've never seen a Wiseman, or particularly a late-period Wiseman, a film this long is probably not a good place to start. But if you like being shoved into the deep end of the pool, know beforehand that Wiseman is a documentary filmmaker who does not directly interview subjects or insert any commentary. He points and he shoots as a fly on the wall, often looking behind the scenes at how major institutions function. There will be plenty of boardroom meetings. You will either find his films extremely boring or extremely fascinating. I come out of his films feeling smarter and more educated. They don't tell you what to think, but they provide knowledge about the world that often feels useful and applicable.

City Hall was filmed in late 2018 and early 2019. A lot of the film follows Boston mayor Martin "Mahty" Walsh. I tried to analyze throughout the film why I liked him so much. What I came up with was that he was a workaholic who genuinely loved his job as a mayor - not the power that comes with it, but the actual job. In contrast, I found myself thinking of a fictional mayor, Aiden Gillen's portrayal of Thomas Carcetti from The Wire, who writers and political consultants based on Martin O'Malley--a mayor who craved power and popularity, who wanted to do "good" but hated the grunt work.

The film also watches everyone from city hall telephone operators to road workers. We watch meetings where people discuss solutions for the opioid crisis, homeless services, and how to develop neighborhoods without displacing their original residents. One other big thing I noticed: no one debates whether these things are important or necessary, only the best strategy to solve them. Frank Capra wasn't this idealistic.

Which isn't to say the film is all rainbows and sunshine. We get a very long community meeting about the opening of a dispensary in a poor neighborhood where residents vent their concerns and the developers don't always have answers. Throughout the film, many point out Boston has a reputation as a racist city and it's racial and ethnic conflicts can't be solved overnight. Some meetings are about trying to contain the damage by Trump administration policies, such as changes to the Fair Housing Act of 1968's Desperate Impact Rule, or the emotional fallout of his Muslim bans on Boston's immigrant communities.

This year in particular, City Hall is surreally hopeful. But that is very welcome.

I really enjoyed the way the documentary was filmed. It was an honest, clear portrayal of city governance in Boston. I do hope this documentary inspires people to get more deeply involved in civic life. This documentary demystifies city governance and makes me so proud of the elected officials and public servants here in Boston.

Movie has no open or closed captions for benefit of deaf and hearing impaired viewers.

I was going to write off the film, and then that full queen sized bed and BBQ got crushed.

It is fly on the wall, but that fly really landed on a boring wall. Hours of people talking about how they want to meet people halfway and develop community based solutions to the needs of marginalized communities with consultation and communications based on meeting in a community oriented setting...

There are interesting moments, but it just feels like a marathon. If you work in white collar job this just feels like being dragged into a work meeting with no written agenda.

I'm not really sure who this is for, if you're involved and into municipal government you'll probably stop watching because it feels like the boring bit of the work. If you don't like municipal government then you probably won't enjoy watching government employees edging 4 hours closer to their pension.

If you live in any city, you can access city council meetings and consultations online. I'd just use the 4 hours to learn about some park or bridge or development going on near you. You'll get the gist and you'll come out of it knowing more about your own town.