Director: Potsy Ponciroli
Writer: Chad St. John
Stars: Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley, Ben Foster
Synopsis: In 1970s Detroit, John Miller falls for a local gangster’s girl. In retaliation, the gangster enacts a frame job to send the innocent man to prison. Life ruined, Miller plots a revenge campaign against the man who took his girl away.
Sometimes it’s easy to wonder whether or not we may have already found the perfect blueprint for cinematic entertainment. It feels like all we need for a great filmgoing experience is the gritty beauty of the ‘70s, a bevy of top-tier needle drops, and a vengeance-fueled rampage. Somebody on a quest for revenge is just always going to scratch a certain part of our brain. That’s likely because it’s one of the most raw forms of human emotion we can showcase in such an extreme manner. It’s also an evergreen avenue to approach storytelling through. Its most familiar beats are comforting to us, and the sub-genre is able to feel fresh by the varied levels of insanity a storyteller can conjure when sending their character often through hell and back. Potsy Ponciroli’s Motor City seems to understand this, and he uses copious amounts of insanity and style to grip his audience. It may not always be the most riveting film, but it’s a rollicking good time at the movies. After all, how could anybody shy away from a film that likens a massively-built Alan Ritchson to that of a lion through the magic of editing?
Motor City is practically oozing with style. And Ponciroli wastes no time setting his audience up for the stylistic selling point of the film. The cold open begins with an abrasive shock. A battered and bloody John (Ritchson) bursts onto a roof holding a one-legged carcass and sawed-off shotgun. Mayhem ensues on the rain-slicked streets of ‘70s Detroit, before the punch-in title card appears and the story properly begins. John, a Vietnam vet who just got off probation, is preparing to propose to Sophia (Shailene Woodley). For all the brute force Ritchson exudes on screen, his boyish smile in her presence is so charming. You can’t wait to see how he proposes, especially considering the likelihood of his not saying a single word during it. I’m referring to Ponciroli and screenwriter Chad St. John’s decision to provide themselves with quite the challenge; practically all of Motor City is free of dialogue.
The mileage this film gets out of its lack of dialogue honestly varies. It’s an exciting prospect when sitting down for the film. And it’s compelling to see all the ways the film skirts around this hurdle. Shades being drawn come to represent sinister intrigue, or uncontainable excitement captured through large windows provides simple understanding for the audience. The context clues are sometimes quite obvious, and other times a bit more subtle. But ultimately, it feels like the refusal to rely on dialogue hampers the film more often than not. There’s not a ton of thematic depth to the instances where dialogue is used, except on rare occasions. It also doesn’t really allow for much characterization of any of the supporting cast. Fellow Vietnam veterans/cohorts Youngblood (Lionel Boyce) and Singh (Amar Chadha-Patel) are charming enough, but feel a bit hollow. Kent (Ben McKenzie), a detective who seems to feel a gut instinct about the events of the film, is barely present. And the over-the-top villainous Reynolds (a slimy, tormenting Ben Foster) is a blast to watch, but it doesn’t feel in service of anything other than purely driving the plot. These broad brushstrokes are all entertaining at the end of the day, but one might walk away craving a bit more from an experience that feels it could be much richer.
Where the lack of dialogue does allow the film to excel is in the sound design. It’s an aspect of Motor City which really shines. The sounds in this film are booming. Even better for hardcore action fans, most of the sounds come by way of brutal street violence. Faces are dragged across pavement, shotguns and explosives blast through warehouses with ease, and prison cells become echo chambers of silence interrupted by startling violence. It absolutely rules, and makes way for what should unquestionably be hailed as one of the best action sequences of the year. John finds himself tackled into an enclosed space by leading heavy Savick (a menacing, and always great, Pablo Schreiber). What follows is such a visceral battle that to reveal any of its leanings or circumstances would feel like a crime. Just know that it’s brutal, it’s bloody, and it’s deeply inventive. It’s an excellent punctuation to the climactic finale Motor City has in store (which is still plenty violent and action-packed).
It’s in the coda of Motor City that the film leaves a bit of a genuine shock. Although relegated to a single scene, the tonal shift present is intentionally jarring. It’s quite the stylistic pivot for the film, bordering on poetic and beautiful in a way only a bloody action film could pull off. Yet I can’t help but admire the soft-natured tone it carries. Still remaining a harsh tale of revenge, it’s all wrapped up in the sweet love John holds for his dear Sophia. It’s proof that Motor City could perhaps be even more than the purely genre-leaning film it’s so comfortable operating within. Still, if you’re showing up for a tale of vengeance with competently-filmed action sequences and a ton of style, Motor City will likely excite, and serve as a reminder that we need films of a similar vein.
Motor City is celebrating its North American premiere in the Centrepiece category of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
