City of Tiny Lights

This movie spends a lot of time showing Tommy Aktar sucking on cigarettes and drinking double shots of bourbon. He also goes back and forth to places in London, mostly at night. The back story of relationships with a former friend who is now a young real estate and the widow of his best friend when he was a young man are somewhat interesting...but the script is not written well enough to create tension regarding real estate, a Muslim mullah and a high-priced call girl that has gone missing. Way too long.

First, for the bad sound review, watch it in a theater or on a good streaming site. If you're using Kodi, make sure you know how to adjust the sound. I saw it while Jillian Michaels was telling me to walk faster on my treadmill and I got every word. The sound mix is just fine, thank you. Next, the mood is right out of Raymond Chandler, complete with hard, tough observations that sound as if they're from the '40s. Put that in modern London with first gen Brits and it kind of fits, strange but true. The hero drinks Wild Turkey straight, too.

The teen angst parts are good, they fit with the present story and are well acted. Overall, the film is good entertainment and has a wonderful multi-cultural mix. Who knew cricket had so many insights into life?

Riz Ahmed is the standout in this grimy yet stylish neo noir that is let down by some dodgy camerawork and an uninteresting story.

There appears to be something wrong with the sound mixing, perhaps a post production goof but this film is very hard to follow as the dialogue is lost in the background noise.

I might add that I am both British and used to London and regional brit accents, yet I still struggled, In the interests of full disclosure, I never made it to the end of the film due to said issues, so my low score reflects my dissatisfaction with the audio quality.

Learn to lip-read, or avoid

"I deal with the lies people tell, and truths that they don't," says Tommy, a London detective. Everyone has secrets. Tommy enters the underworld of the big city in search of a missing woman. Along the way he revisits intimate betrayals, a tragic accident and an ex- girlfriend in a love triangle. Tommy struggles with his moral compass in such matters of the past. This inner struggle is worse than the storm of trouble of the outside world – which, by the way, includes terrorists, government agents, and shady real estate agents - for without knowing his heart or who or what to rely on, how can he react? What direction does he go? Who can he trust if he can't trust himself? Martin Luther King said it best, "if you don't have anything you are willing to die for, then what do you have to live for?!"

From the director of Dredd, which I loved, this film was eight years in making. "Cinema should address such stories," said the director "it takes people to wholly different place." I think what Travis is getting at is that this Pakistani detective story gives us a glimpse not only of the London underworld but also of a very different perspective than many people are familiar with. The film delightfully incorporates lessons from the game of cricket including getting in the head of opponents (as with baseball, there is not much physical activity going on in cricket, and it is more of a mental game rather than a physical challenge for participants of this sport).

It is wonderful seeing the film in a packed theater and on the big screen. As characters enter a nightclub, the seats vibrate with the throb of the base speakers kicking in. Americans do not understand why the detective doesn't have a gun, but they are illegal to possess in the U.K. There are camera shots from drones that add interesting angles to the filming location. Funny moments include a lot of escort jokes. "I'm surprised you showed up," said an escort to a detective. "Why are you surprised?" "People pay me and I don't have to come," she says. Even though the film is in English, it would be easier for North Americans to understand if there were subtitles or a phrasebook handed out at the start of the film for the wacky U.K. vocabulary! The film began with depth, energy and power, yet this promise was squandered. There were not that many twists to the story. World premiere seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.