As someone who will take a bus to go six blocks, I am in awe of Matt Green, who has vowed to walk every block in New York City and is seen walking along briskly in this unusual documentary directed by Jeremy Workman, with Jesse Eisenberg as executive producer.
Green has been into his mission for seven years and he has already walked 8,000 miles of New York streets. He has in the past also trudged across the United States. What’s striking is that he is basically a homeless walker. Green doesn’t maintain an apartment. He crashes with sympathetic friends. It costs him, he says, about $15 a day for food and getting to and from where he has chosen to walk.
What’s interesting is that he doesn’t just walk, but relishes examining the history and culture of New York’s boroughs, and in the film he points out landmarks as he comes across them. He expresses deep curiosity about nearly everything he sees, and knowing much about New York’s history appeals to him.
Green has done so much walking that you can’t say it is a publicity gimmick. It seems more of an obsession, and the filmmaker has captured the spirit with which Green goes about his life of covering the territory he has committed himself to traversing.
Although the film itself is stimulating as well as informative, have a good rest before you see it. Unless one enjoys walking too, the challenge of just watching Green in action may tire out the less physical among us. I immediately went to catch a bus. A Greenwich Entertainment release. Reviewed November 21, 2018.