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.

Remember those meetings you had to attend, because it's part of your job, and they ran too long with people bringing up and debating endlessly things you could not care less about, and you just can't wait for it to be over? When you are finally released, you assess 10% was useful and the rest of the 4.5 hrs was an interminable time drain?

That is this movie....

"Fly on the wall is interesting" and not having an opinion or agenda jammed down your throat is, perhaps, somewhat refreshing... but good lord... endless scenes of bored people in meeting rooms punctuated by the occasional "character" fighting a parking ticket or lesbian wedding does not juice up a interminable Monday "all hands" without end.

Respect to the idea... and style... but Editors win academy awards for a reason, and this long days journey into the night, needs one badly.

What a self-indulgent offering. He just let the camera go with no apparent effort at reining in these blowhard politicians. If he could make a point in 2 minutes, he'd let the scenes go on for ten. You think sitting in a meeting where you have an interest in the outcome can be boring? Just wait til you are watching these party hacks sitting around a table and droning on about subjects that really don't interest you. I understand this building is being torn down which I guess was all the reason Wiseman needed to make this documentary. Fine, put it in the archives as a permanent record of its role in the city but don't expect anyone but the participants to want to watch this.