The World Before Your Feet

The World Before Your Feet is a quirky, deeply insightful, and touching 2018 documentary starring Matt Green. Directed by Jeremy Workman, this film charts the unconventional, fascinating journey of Green in his attempt to traverse on foot every street, park, cemetery, beach, and nook and cranny in New York City. It is a movie that defies conventional wisdom and trades the routine dissecting of life mysteries through well-trodden paths, and paves the way for discovering the world through pedestrian exploration.

Matt Green, the film's protagonist, is a former engineer who abandoned the corporate world to indulge fully in discovering the magic and charm of New York City. His journey is not for a cause, a protest, or a recorded achievement, but purely a case of unbridled curiosity and the search for personal knowledge and understanding. He does not have a permanent dwelling, often house-sitting or couch-surfing with friends and strangers, willing to trade the comforts of financial security for this personal quest.

The World Before Your Feet is a melange of human interest, urban discovery, and personal adventure rolled into one captivating image of New York. It delves into a city too often witnessed in a state of hurried transit and presents it in a new, slower-paced light that enhances the magic of this metropolis. The film is brought to life through the eyes of Green, who becomes the viewer’s conduit to an engaging mix of fun facts, discarded stories, and local episodes that generally escape the commuter's eye.

Green's thesis of stepping on every block of New York's 8000-mile range finds him amid varied backdrops - from the densely populated neighborhoods of Manhattan to the vastness of Staten Island. His obsession with detail doesn’t limit itself to the streets. He explores the city's green spaces, its shores, paths, alleyways, cemeteries, and any public place that piques his interest. He intermingles with the city's diverse, unscripted crowd, absorbing enriching stories, historical anecdotes, and cultural idiosyncrasies with an admirable zest that robs the viewer of any previous notions of the mundane everyday.

This film goes beyond just being a walkumentary, primarily due to the depth of Green's insights which are endorsed by a surprising intellect and uncanny observational strength. Green schools the viewer in New York history, covering everything from bullet holes leftover from an American Revolutionary War battle to the architectural quirks of a nondescript house. The film is shot with delicate intimacy, bringing to the screen the melange of emotions, experiences, and learned wisdom that Green encounters in his journey.

The World Before Your Feet, through its charmingly unobtrusive soundtrack and the keenly observed visual palette of cinematographer Jesse Eisenhardt, reinforces Green's worldview that the journey matters more than the destination. The film doesn’t seek to glorify Green as an eccentric adventurer or a solitary wanderer. Instead, through Green's experiences, it compels the viewer to introspect over society’s conventional standards of success, happiness, and the pursuit of knowledge.

It stands as a challenging testament to the idea of a simplified life, stripped of modern material desires, devoted entirely to the quest for understanding a city and through it, understanding life. It subtly emphasizes the richness that comes from observing the world at foot pace and celebrates each step as a meaningful endeavor towards larger existential discourse.

In summary, The World Before Your Feet is a heartfelt documentary that pays tribute to the city of New York through the eyes of Matt Green. It's a film packed with curiosity, grit, and perseverance, showcasing the beauty of the city that never sleeps in a unique and extraordinary way. It challenges the viewer to take a step-back, quite literally, and witness their surroundings with renewed interest and awareness. It is not merely a film about a man walking every street in New York City, but rather a representation of the immersion, the intimacy, the unexplored narratives, and the unsung heroes that exist in every corner of the world when one chooses to pay attention. The film seamlessly combines the elements of urban exploration, personal journey, and thought-provoking philosophy, making it a cinematic feast valuable to any casual viewer or ardent cinephile.