Cidade de Asfalto

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.

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.

'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.

"We all work in the darkness, you don't got to let it inside you."

Asphalt City is directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire and stars Tye Sheridan, Sean Penn, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson.

Based on the book called Black Flies the long in development Asphalt City originally had Mel Gibson attached in the Sean Penn role back in 2019 before he dropped out or was replaced for unknown reasons. This movie tries to present the harsh reality of what it's like to be an EMT in a big city like New York and while watching I was reminded of three separate and better movies. This movie sort of has the same kind of stress and dread a Safdie Bros movie would have because every scene a character is pretty much involved in a stressful situation and there's this existential dread hanging over this movie. Then this obviously bares comparison to Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead and in the last half it turns into Training Day with the movie making us question the morals of Sean Penn's character and if he should have his job or not.

Performance wise Penn and Sheridan both do a good job. However Mike Tyson whenever he does pop up was more distracting than effective in his role. Michael Pitt didn't really need to be in this movie either. Overall I'd say this is a somewhat effective movie that is worth watching once, it kind of loses itself because it gets overly consumed in dread and darkness like Tye Sheridan's character does here but in the final five minutes I'd say it kind of works it's way back and presents an overall positive message where you'll finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Some excellent acting all round (even Mike Tyson was believable), and not enough props given to the actor that played Lafontaine, Michael Pitt.

While I don't need a film neatly served up to me, there was just a little too much flip-flopping around, including things that are brought up and never explained- eg. Swapping Cross and Rutkovsky around with who took the baby, so you are uncertain for a while, who did what.

The misery is relentless- the hostility from the patients with mental illness or other issues I sort of get (the amount of gang members they pick up, and have to deal with abuse from their friends is unreal), but constant harassment/bullying from their own team not to mention some of the police. Is it really this dysfunctional?

Still, enjoyed the film nonetheless, always good to see something original about a role we don't see on the silver screen that often.

Nice to see Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow from The Wire), albeit in a small role.