Asphalt City

2023

Action / Drama / Thriller

35
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 55% · 54 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 55%
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 8401 8.4K

new york city based on novel or book trauma drugs paramedic medical

Plot summary

A young paramedic is paired with a seasoned partner on the night shift in New York revealing a city in crisis. Discovering the chaos firsthand, he is tested with the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death.

Director

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire Photo
Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

Top cast

Michael Pitt Photo
Michael Pitt as Lafontaine
Sean Penn Photo
Sean Penn as Gene Rutkovsky
Katherine Waterston Photo
Katherine Waterston as Nancy
Tye Sheridan Photo
Tye Sheridan as Ollie Cross
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB 1080p.WEB 2160p.WEB
1.12 GB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   de  
23.976 fps
2 hr 5 min
Seeds 4
1.12 GB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   de  
23.976 fps
2 hr 5 min
Seeds 3
2.31 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   de  
23.976 fps
2 hr 5 min
Seeds 5
2.31 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   de  
23.976 fps
2 hr 5 min
Seeds 5
2.09 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   de  
23.976 fps
2 hr 5 min
Seeds 2
5.58 GB
3840*2160
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
N/A
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ChangoMutney 7 / 10

There's a really good film trying to get out

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.
Reviewed by refinedsugar 6 / 10

Grim. Bleak. Darkness. Sadness. Light.

'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.The story is mainly a collection of emergency calls of various states of panic, distress and the learning curve that goes along with it. The 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 here 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.
Reviewed by bishysbus 7 / 10

Training Day with Paramedics ...

It's atmospheric, slow, dark. All the things that a good and bloody drama should be.Perfectly cast with some great acting and not too over the top. Even the legendary Mike Tyson makes an appearance which, even though questionable as a casting, he pulls it off perfectly.Thrown in at the deep end, the main protagonist, a rookie paramedic is on the verge of madness. The film shows exactly what emergency workers have to attend to, day in, day out, and how it affects them, bustling on the verge of madness and faced with the adversity of violence.It certainly packs a punch. Known as 'Black Flies' in the UK. Give it a watch.
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