The World Before Your Feet movie review (2018)

Professor Helmreich appears briefly here, proclaiming that in four years he has walked the estimated 6,000 miles of streets that make up Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. That figure, which we see at the beginning of the film, only covers what Helmreich calls “inhabitable areas.” Green’s measurement hews closer to 8,000 miles, as he has been traversing open spaces, deserted areas and the like, while documenting his journey with maps and photographs on his blog. As the project progressed, it became a huge research project as well, supplemented by historical facts about New York City. “Every street is a fossil,” we’re told, and numerous times throughout “The World Before Your Feet,” Green and Workman prove this thesis by discovering remnants of NYC history like the now unused building where Margaret Sanger handed out birth control back in 1916.

There are eight million stories in the naked city, as the old TV show used to tell us, and each plays out in hundreds of neighborhoods. Each place has its own quirky charms and idiosyncrasies, much like the people who inhabit them. Green tells us to think of New York City—or wherever we live—like a person we are familiar with yet don’t know completely. It’s Green’s desire to fully know New York, whose geography has been morphing for over four centuries. His quest feels both quixotic and honorable, evoking one of those old English tales of knights on the hunt for the Holy Grail. I won’t disagree with you if you also think Green’s idea is bat-you-know-what crazy.

Unless you’ve a vested interest in New York City or, like me, you were born and bred within its confines or in its neighboring shadows, “The World Before Your Feet” may seem like a hard pass for you. But this well-made and intriguing documentary isn’t about New York so much as it is about an unusual idea seen to fruition. Personal location bias aside, this film spoke to the compulsive in me. I felt a kindred spirit while watching Green meticulously plan his routes and wrestle with his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. This feeling extended to the numerous scenes where a giddy Green points out trivial yet interesting facts about what we’re seeing. You can feel his joy and excitement for even the most mundane of details. It keeps the proceedings lively and informative.