Spike's follow-up to his landmark When the Levees Broke begins as an incisive continuation of his best documentary, but the sheer range of issues plaguing New Orleans ultimately works against Lee by splitting focus among a throng of horrific problems each worthy of their own in-depth investigation. No longer fit under the umbrella of Katrina, all these issues sideline some of the other topics Lee covers. Rather than build to a unified snapshot of a linking subject, If God Is Willing merely seems to culminate in the notion that someone up there does not like New Orleans. This occasionally makes for moments as powerful as anything in When the Levees Broke, but the overall documentary is too torn between everything that catches its eye that it lacks the same impact.
My full review is up at Spectrum Culture.
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