City Hall

Play trailer

City Hall

2020

4h 35m

Documentary

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

64 Reviews

67%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman examines the rich history of Boston City Hall.

Critics Consensus

A glimpse of local government at work that's as patiently observant as it is engrossing, City Hall adds another insightful gem to master documentarian Frederick Wiseman's filmography.

Read Critics Reviews

Jason Bailey

The Playlist

02/15/2021

A

A reminder that government, for all of its speed bumps and snags, can work. It can help. The people running it just have to want it to.

Go to Full Review

K. Austin Collins

Rolling Stone

11/13/2020

4.5/5

On its surface, in so many ways, City Hall could read as an endorsement. But politics aren't that simple -- and Wiseman's movie most certainly isn't, either.

Go to Full Review

Mark Feeney

Boston Globe

11/09/2020

3.5/4

What Frederick Wiseman has been doing for all these years and in all these films is trying to make art of decency and process. In the good ones, he's succeeded. "City Hall" is one of the very good ones.

Go to Full Review

Jake Mulligan

Dig Boston

08/06/2021

4/5

Even just taken as a portrait of Boston in the midst of what'll now forever be known as 'the moment before the pandemic,' it's a work of massive regional significance.

Go to Full Review

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Hammer to Nail

06/10/2021

Whatever one's political leanings ... the spectacle of public servants at work proves profound, the hard labor of daily management a Herculean task of truly epic proportions.

Go to Full Review

M.G. Mailloux

In Review Online

06/05/2021

City Hall lacks that sort of nuanced, curious approach to its material, and in its absence, Wiseman doesn't have much to offer beyond standard homage to contemporary liberalism.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

04/24/2021

Dreadful documentary, it's 4 hours of watching the mayor and his assistants doing what they are supposed to do "working" for a salary. Critics always praise the worst documentaries and movies, always! no matter what.

See more

david f

@dfulmer 01/18/2021

A great, long look at that civic institution had by every town, big and small.

See more

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

POST RATING

Frederick Wiseman

Director

Karen Konicek

Producer

Frederick Wiseman

Producer

Sally Jo Fifer

Executive Producer

Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman

71%

%

Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman

Watchlist

Style Wars

80%

95%

Style Wars

Watchlist

Ailey

90%

88%

Ailey

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Ailey

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Best-Reviewed Movies by Genre 2020

Riz Ahmed Wins Best Actor, Nomadland takes top prize at Gotham Awards

View more photos

Synopsis

Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman examines the rich history of Boston City Hall.

Director: Frederick Wiseman
Producer: Karen Konicek, Frederick Wiseman
Production Co: ITVS International, Puritan Pictures, Ford Foundation - Just Films, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) [us]
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Runtime: 4h 35m

Join The Newsletter

Join The Newsletter

Cookie Settings