Steph:
I’d call this a pretty terrifying reality check about how little progress we’ve actually made on racial justice issues since the 1960s, and I think the film argues, importantly, that we’ve gone backward, with images of the police-military from the ‘60s looking quite like what we still see today and worse, and it’s difficult to articulate how the film affected me, but it’s enlightening and heartbreaking and true, with so many parallels to our racist society today that it’s also entirely infuriating. ⏰⏰⏰⏰⏰
Josh:
Angry but largely mournful documentary locating the titular imaginary cities (the 2 Riotsvilles) as a paranoid cornerstone of the militarization of America’s police departments, and what I enjoyed most about this movie was the kind of ephemeral interplay that arose between seemingly disparate moments (such as the horrific Gulf bug spray as (“Kill it!”) that played during the Republican convention, and the way police repurposed an exterminator’s truck to spray unfathomable volumes of teargas at nearby Miami residents) and some of the footage from newscasts and public television that reminds us of how much things have changed in this country, while in terms of police brutality and repression, time seems to be standing still. ⏰⏰⏰⏰
The Bare Minimum 