Asphalt City Review – Intense, Powerful, Shocks with Authenticity
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Tuesday, 26 March 2024 10:46
- Written by Janet Walker
Asphalt City, from Vertical and Roadside Entertainment, presents an intense, attention-grabbing, day in the life drama as two New York Fire Department EMT confront every imaginable emergency and the obstacles to providing care to those in need.
The film begins with the sound of sirens and the flashing lights as an EMT rookie, Ollie Cross, played by Ty Sheridan, is lying in the back of the ambulance waiting to arrive at the scene. The doors burst open, and it is the scene of a gang shooting in East New York, Brooklyn.
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Trying to maneuver the stretcher past the crowd that have formed a barrier, we hear, Ollie's partner, LaFontaine, played by Michael Pitt, directing them to the red tags and leave the yellow, they moved out to the courtyard, and as they begin to work on the double gunshot victim, Ollie freezes, and LaFontaine is replaced by Gene Rutkovsky, played by Sean Penn.
These scenes are chaotic and feel like we've been dropped into a war zone. The victim codes on the ride to the hospital and has hard as they try, it's hopeless. The film doesn't rest on this one intense immediate scene, it moves quickly into a series of EMT calls, cardiac cases, intubations, mentally ill and dangerous homeless, overdoses, domestic violence, and dog bites.
The stress of the job is palpable, and the aggression is felt both inside the station house and outside. After a Pitbull mauled a child, the camera films the blood-soaked face of the dog, and clumps of skin from the child, the parent of the child and the owner of the dog are arguing in Spanish, the intensity is escalating and finally, Rutkovsky tells Ollie to remove the dog. He finally catches the dog, and the men decide to take the law into their own hands. Ollie turns and the gang is pointing a gun and him. In a second the dog is put down.
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Throughout the film Rutkovsky, we can tell is exhausted from the system, and jaded, and the question that seems to recur as the emergencies intensify and post trauma health of the victim becomes more questionable the ethical ambiguity which hangs like an approaching storm cloud is should care be withheld from certain patients which can be the difference between life and death.
They answer a call, and the husband lets them into the house, explaining that his wife, fell, and was unconscious for a minute. The EMTs immediate realize what the situation is, as her face is swollen and bloody from the beating she has endured. The husband is aggressive, and like other scenes the street and city noises reverberate and suddenly the husband is shoving Rutkovsky, the NYPD arrives, and the aggression spills over and Rut shoves a cop.
He is suspended which places Ollie back with LaFontaine, who we realize as we ride in the wagon with them, he is into playing heavy metal, headbanging, music loudly. As it is Brooklyn, the film wouldn't be complete without every landlord's nightmare, the tenant who has died, alone, in the apartment, and isn't discovered until the stench of death seeps through the door into the hallways and homes of the other tenants.
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If the stress of the job wasn't enough, Ollie, who is studying for the MCATS, just moved to Manhattan from Colorado, and has the expected housing issues, a cheap lower east side, Chinatown apartment shared with others and no privacy. Rutkovsky, has relationships issues, his third wife, Nancy, played by Katherine Waterston, wants a divorce and is moving upstate with their daughter.
Once Rutkovsky returns to work, the first 911 call he and Ollie receive is from a homeless shelter, where a pregnant woman, soaked in blood has just given birth, the baby and placenta are both on the bed, a needle is still in her arm. They care they provide sets up the final explosive scenes.
Asphalt City is an intense, powerful, reverberating film that shocks with authenticity. An uncompromising first responders combat drama as they struggle with the intensity of life on the streets fueled by adrenaline.
Riveting and gripping, Asphalt City opens exclusively in theaters Friday March 29, 2024. See it.
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Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Release Date: March 29, 2024.
Runtime: 125 minutes.
Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire.
Screenwriters: Ryan King, Ben Mac Brown. Based on the novel "Black Flies" by Shannon Burke.
Producers: Warren Goz, Eric Gold, Christopher Kopp, Lucan Toh, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth, Tye Sheridan, Tina Wang.
Executive Producers: James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, Mitchell Zhang, Luke Rodgers, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, Jamie Buckner, Shannon Burke, Babak Anvari, Ryan King.
Cast: Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Carmen Pitt, Katherine Waterston, Mike Tyson, Raquel Nave, Kali Reis.
