Asphalt City

As someone who does this for a living, this was pretty close to the mark. Although the amount of tragedy and grief we see the protagonist experience in his first few weeks is somewhat more than a senior paramedic would see in an entire career, it was necessary in order to tell the story and depict what EMS workers go through in a two hour time limit. Yes, some scenes were exaggerated, but it is no secret that over a career as a paramedic, these are things you WILL see, for sure. Legitimately.

The acting was absolutely superb - on all accounts. The chemistry between Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn was incredible. Sean Penn did such a good job here, he really sold his role with Rutkovsky. Tye Sheridan was a fantastic protagonist who really captured the truth of what it feels like starting in EMS in NYC. The place really is a jungle out there. Direction was great. A near perfect film - just some minor gaps in the story telling that , honestly, I forgot about.

I'm not sure how this movie has a low score. This was a very solid 8/10, IMO.

"You can't save everyone."

That's the most important lesson that rookie FDNY paramedic Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) needs to learn from his veteran partner Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn) in the dark and edgy new film, Asphalt City.

The pressure of knowing you're the only thing that might be keeping a victim from turning into a fatality haunts the duo as they drive the overnight shift on the mean streets of East New York.

Gunshot victims, heart attacks, premature births, dog bites, gang violence, and schizophrenics are just a sample of the people who we briefly meet and are just as quickly dismissed and disguarded in Director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire's new film. Like the EMT crew, we're never given time to care about these people, especially those who may be one short push from the grave.

And that's the point that Rutkovsky continually tries to impress on his new partner. Do what you can, in the time that you have, and move on. Don't remember their faces. Don't remember their families. Because to carry that with you will drive you insane. Above all, don't feel responsible because you didn't put them on the ground with a fatal gunshot wound in their femoral artery.

Unfortunately, as the movie unfolds, "Rut" has a change in his personal circumstances and takes one case too much to heart. Meanwhile, Cross is struggling to keep his head above water. Between the low pay, his horrible living situation, and the lack of friends or family, Cross feel he is continually drowning in unending tragedies. He has zero confidence in his ability to save anything - not a gunshot victim, not even a dog.

One has to wonder, are the people who seek these jobs craving the absolute psychosis that comes with it, or are they made psychotic by the stream of crazy?

Cross does have a goal: to pass the MCAT and leave this dark, depressing world behind for the more regulated system of a hospital. But it's obvious that he's learning far more with his on-the-job training than he'll learn in any study guide.

Mike Tyson pops up as Cross and Rut's superior officer. Michael C. Pitt is cast as the EMT who's chiefly entertained by picking on the new guy. Every one of the EMT's seems to be walking PTSD victims.

Gritty. There's no better word for Asphalt City. It's a film as gritty as the city it portrays. You'll be exhausted, but go for the rush.

There is absolutely no doubt that 'Black Flies' is a grim movie. I confess I hadn't even heard of it and it seems to have slipped under the radar but for all of it's gloom and doom it is well worth watching. One thing the movie does very well is to make the viewer fully aware of just how horrendous being a paramedic can be and boy will you respect them more after this.

This is a well acted film with the two leads showing good chemistry and at times some ad-libbing if I'm not mistaken. One thing I absolutely hated though is the totally unnecessary nudity from one actress which added nothing to the movie apart from cheap thrills. It got to the stage where I was actually yelling at the screen 'put some cloths on love for crying out loud'. Rant over, this is a good effort, bleak but pretty decent.

Sean Penn is great in this dark New York City drama. The film is centered around two paramedics one seasoned and one new to the game that then become partners. They work the overnight shift in New York City as paramedics, so they see some crazy intense stuff along the way. Either I am missing it or I am not properly following it, but the film does not seem to have much of a plot other than to shoe how gritty the city is to these paramedics and it shows two men young and older on how they deal with it. I don't think the plot was there until about the last 30 minutes which is a huge flaw of this film.

'Asphalt City' aka 'Black Flies' has a point to make and goes the extra mile to drive it home. Casual moviegoers who want light, something uplifting are in the wrong place. Though you're not wrong to question if it's too heavy or removed from reality at times. It seems appropriate they set the tale in NYC as it was once the haven for hard boiled action flicks, horror nasties that liked to play up it's once seamy nature. As one who never sat thru the Nic Cage pic 'Bringing Out the Dead', I thought the ride here thru the ups and downs of a paramedic was unique if not scattershot.

Cross (Tye Sheridan) a newbie NYC paramedic gets a crash course in death, sadness and the futility of helping the public. Who sometimes distrust, loath, don't appreciate or abuse people in civil service frontline jobs. Mainly stuck to the nightshift, he lives in a rundown apartment with strangers and studies to become a doctor. Soon enough his world mentally starts to unravel and an incident with his veteran partner 'Rut' (Sean Penn) is either a really bad mistake or something much worse. A wakeup call to not go down the wrong path, circling the drain.

Story is mainly a collection of emergency calls various states of panic, distress and the learning curve that goes along with it. Film is purposely dark and you see the correlations between the mens journeys at certain points. Michael Pitt & Gbenga Akinnagbe play fellow paramedics and in a bit of stunt casting Mike Tyson their immediate supervisor. Really the strength is two leads - Sheridan, Penn - willing to throw themselves into their roles and what is has to say about the toll paid on people doing this for a living.

'Asphalt City' left me wondering a lot about paramedics. What they get paid, the worst of what they see and ultimately why they do it. Having it all go down in the city that never sleeps as opposed to small town USA wasn't lost on me. I knew the effect they were going for here at all times. Only in the last quarter of it's two hour runtime did I wish for a more fleshed out story, sanctuary from it's dark nature. It's not a home run, but it's also not bad like some people are making it out to be.