Asphalt City

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.

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.

'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.

Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) is a rookie paramedic in the chaotic New York City. Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn) is his world-weary veteran partner. Lafontaine (Michael Pitt) is another paramedic and Chief Burroughs (Mike Tyson) is their commander.

Tye Sheridan is a great young actor. Sean Penn is solid. I can't see Mike Tyson as anything other than Mike Tyson. I want a real actor in that role. Why not have Mike Tyson play Mike Tyson in one of the emergencies instead. He could be punching out a guy.

This is a lot of crazy emergencies all jammed into a two hour movie. I would have preferred a single-night story. Single-night stories can have the intensity of time. This is going for hyper dynamic story telling. I get it. I'm not generally against it but it does seem over the top. One can excuse it since the story is told over a long time. All this craziness wears me out in a two hour movie. Otherwise, it's fine.

I can't tell if that's a step up for Mike or a step down for Sean Penn. Unfortunately for Penn, I need to say the latter. This movie came and went without any promotion for it, despite what a great film it is. Tye Sheridan got to flex his acting muscle sparing with Sean Penn and of course Mike Tyson, who was fit for the role so it made sense. The film kept reminding me of the Martina Scorsese film Brining up the Dead, which starred Nicolas Cage in a role similar to Sean Penn, in fact, the concept of both movies almost makes Asphalt City a sequel. It does not help that there are not enough movies about the subject to think otherwise.

Anyway, this movie is too good to be hidden away like it seems to be.