What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire is the story of a community of black people in the American South during the summer 2017, when a string of brutal killings of black men sent shockwaves throughout the country. A meditation on the state of race in America, this film is an intimate portrait into the lives of those who struggle for justice, dignity, and survival.... (Full plot summary below)
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What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire is the story of a community of black people in the American South during the summer 2017, when a string of brutal killings of black men sent shockwaves throughout the country. A meditation on the state of race in America, this film is an intimate portrait into the lives of those who struggle for justice, dignity, and survival.
Leave your thoughts about What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire?.
| CineVueJohn BleasdaleThe vision of the black American experience might be grim, but it is never miserablist or despairing. The songs, the traditions, the love and the community are still there, even if the world seems to be undeniably on fire. |
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe movie unfolds impressionistically. To call it a portrait of collective resilience is accurate, but that description shortchanges its richness on both human and historical scales. |
| Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarSolemn in tone and indispensable in significance, the latest from an artist with a track record for surveying marginalized Americans is structured like a collage of incendiary and heart-wrenching moments that toe dip into social justice issues without staying long with any one idea. |
| Screen DailyLee MarshallShot with grace and sensitivity in black and white using available and natural light, What You Gonna Do is a visual treat, the easiest on the eye of all the director’s films to date. It is also, for all its unevenness, a stirring, committed portrait of black lives at a crossroads in the American South. |
| The A.V. ClubBeatrice LoayzaMinervini is not at his most provocative in What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire? That’s a good thing. |
| IndieWireBen CrollWhat You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? is hardly a disappointment, but it does, in places, feel like a missed opportunity. |
| VarietyJay WeissbergWhile always attractive, the look conveys a level of non-spontaneous construction that often takes away from the potency of hard, brutal reality. |
| Slant MagazineChuck BowenThe film is beautiful and occasionally quite moving, but its subject matter deserves more than art-house irresolution. |
| The Film StageEthan VestbyOne’s pulse is not raised much during the two-hour runtime. This is especially disappointing from a director who has made sure to capture parts of America no other filmmakers seem to want to touch with a ten-foot pole. |
| RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyIn the end, What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? feels less like a complete piece, and more like the start of something searching for its perfect form without an ideal end in sight. Considering the country’s current political landscape, it seems fitting. |
