small blocks, big beef

The characters here work, argue, court each other and get into trouble on the same few blocks, in front of whoever happens to be standing there.

In Do the Right Thing a customer objects that the Wall of Fame in a Brooklyn pizzeria holds only Italian actors, and the argument travels outward through the neighbourhood until everyone has a position on it. Sin-Dee comes out of a 28-day stretch in jail in Tangerine and spends Christmas Eve crossing Los Angeles on foot to find out who her boyfriend has been seeing. Three friends in La Haine wander a Paris suburb for a day after a riot, waiting on news of a friend the police put in hospital.