Spike Lee isn’t any stranger to documentaries about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it delivered to New Orleans, as he beforehand made two of the very best: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Components and If God Is Prepared and Da Creek Don’t Rise. The acclaimed director and documentarian has seemingly accomplished his trilogy along with his half in making Katrina: Come Hell and Excessive Water, a three-part 2025 Netflix authentic docuseries in regards to the storm, the flood, and its aftermath. Critics have watched the sequence, which is now streaming with a Netflix subscription, and appear to be saying the identical factor in regards to the new TV sequence.
The primary two episodes directed by Geeta Gandbhir (“We Gonna Trip it Out Like We All the time Do”) and Samantha Knowles (“Shelter of Final Resort”), respectively, assist create a “stirring tribute,” because the Guardian’s Jack Seale writes, nevertheless it’s Lee’s “God Takes Care of Fools and Infants,” which options interviews with the likes of NOLA native Wendell Pierce, the place the doc turns into a “wealthy oral historical past”:
You would arguably watch [National Geographic’s] Race Towards Time as an alternative of the primary two episodes of Come Hell and Excessive Water. However ensure to come back again for the closing documentary function directed by Spike Lee. A wealthy oral historical past of the town within the 20 years for the reason that hurricane, this movie rattles off the myriad injustices that continued to devastate New Orleans after the waters receded, as reported by inventive figures such because the actor Wendell Pierce and the musician Branford Marsalis, amongst Katrina survivors.
Esther Zuckerman of the New York Instances made comparable feedback about three-part Come Hell and Excessive Water, declaring that whereas the primary two episodes do a fantastic job of telling the story, it’s the Spike Lee portion that “set this sequence aside”:
Every of its three episodes is directed by a unique filmmaker. Every is emotional and exactly rendered. However the third is what actually units this sequence aside, directed by Spike Lee, who was answerable for the groundbreaking 2006 docuseries When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Acts. With new insights and materials drawn from the practically 20 years since, Lee returns to New Orleans with sorrow, rage and irreverence to color a portrait of how deeply the group has been failed.
Evaluating it to the huge variety of different Hurricane Katrina documentaries which have come out forward of the storm’s twentieth anniversary, Ben Travers of IndieWire writes that the primary two chapters “play like loosely linked context” forward of Spike Lee’s 90-minute finale:
Come Hell and Excessive Water, as an entire, is an odd amalgamation of this 12 months’s different choices, partly as a result of it isn’t a full-on Spike Lee Joint. The primary two episodes, directed by Geeta Ghandbir and Samantha Knowles, respectively, play like loosely linked context forward of Spike’s foremost presentation. They lay out the 2005 hurricane’s impression on New Orleans in broad beats, utilizing new interviews and previous footage to assemble an efficient overview for individuals who don’t bear in mind and an affecting reminder for individuals who do.
Then there’s the Boston Globe’s Chris Vognar, who described “God Takes Care of Fools and Infants” as a “Spike Lee Joint” that charts its personal path that’s one thing fully distinctive with the filmmaker’s unflinching commentary and visible model:
The primary two episodes of Hell and Excessive Water are of a bit, methodically detailing what occurred and the way a lot of the post-storm tragedy might have simply been prevented. However Episode 3 is a Spike Lee Joint, which implies it charts its personal path via the Katrina wreckage. He isn’t seen, however he’s ceaselessly heard, shouting out follow-up questions and providing sympathies. He fills the display with fragments of textual content from his interview topics: ‘Too little too late.’ ‘Systemic racism.’ ‘White of us.’ He embraces tangents, about Black self-love and COVID and different topics.
It’s secure to say that critics actually benefit from the third and closing act of Katrina: Come Hell and Excessive Water, which is obvious by the acclaimed documentary’s good rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If you wish to be taught in regards to the tragedy Hurricane Katrina and the way New Orleans modified within the aftermath, Spike Lee’s painfully related doc will do the trick.