Motor City
Just to elaborate on the central gimmick a bit:
In fairness, the movie does show that maybe some movies talk too much, because it was pretty easy to follow. On the other end of that, it's kind of the final boss of a negative tendency I see within other indie flicks: too much reliance on music.
There are so many indie flicks where the music just pounds relentlessly. This is no different, only it purposely makes music the central character. It's not that the soundtrack is bad. I think with less of it, in a more conventional movie, I would have really enjoyed it. But almost every minute of this movie has music high in the mix, and it goes from being emotional punctuation to irritating, because it never lets the movie breathe. There's no reprieve from it. No moments of downtime, silence. No impactful dialogue. In fact, sometimes when they DO throw in dialogue, it just seems out of place. Like, why did you choose to include THAT line of all things?
Many of the greatest moments in film have included perfect usage of music, but not if you continuously drown people in it. This isn't news to anybody here, but it's something the filmmakers seemingly forgot. Whenever a new song would hit I'd just groan because it's just another example of the incessant attempts to reach those highs where music and visuals come together in a beautiful marriage. All emotional resonance would go out the window.
Movies don't need people to talk all the time. I still believe in the audience and their ability to follow, though I suppose with phones and attention being the way it is, people miss beats if they aren't spelled out to them. I appreciate this movie on that front. That doesn't mean it was overly enjoyable. Momentarily, sure, but as a whole package, not worth watching.
In fairness, the movie does show that maybe some movies talk too much, because it was pretty easy to follow. On the other end of that, it's kind of the final boss of a negative tendency I see within other indie flicks: too much reliance on music.
There are so many indie flicks where the music just pounds relentlessly. This is no different, only it purposely makes music the central character. It's not that the soundtrack is bad. I think with less of it, in a more conventional movie, I would have really enjoyed it. But almost every minute of this movie has music high in the mix, and it goes from being emotional punctuation to irritating, because it never lets the movie breathe. There's no reprieve from it. No moments of downtime, silence. No impactful dialogue. In fact, sometimes when they DO throw in dialogue, it just seems out of place. Like, why did you choose to include THAT line of all things?
Many of the greatest moments in film have included perfect usage of music, but not if you continuously drown people in it. This isn't news to anybody here, but it's something the filmmakers seemingly forgot. Whenever a new song would hit I'd just groan because it's just another example of the incessant attempts to reach those highs where music and visuals come together in a beautiful marriage. All emotional resonance would go out the window.
Movies don't need people to talk all the time. I still believe in the audience and their ability to follow, though I suppose with phones and attention being the way it is, people miss beats if they aren't spelled out to them. I appreciate this movie on that front. That doesn't mean it was overly enjoyable. Momentarily, sure, but as a whole package, not worth watching.
Mini Review: Ben Foster plays such a convincing shit hee and I like everybody else involved, but god damn did this movie bury itself. The minimalist dialogue decision felt unnecessary. I clocked this direction early but it irritated me. To its credit, it was easy to follow what was happening even without words, but it came across as corny and unnatural. I can appreciate trying to go for something different and putting the music on main, but it didn't work.
More Reviews of Motor City
chmul_cr0n
The gimmick is a little gimmicky, but it works. Kudos to everyone involved. You could almost say it takes a page out of the John Wook book of silent revenge thrillers, but not r...
Janomi
Motor City is excellent because its nearly silent revenge-thriller approach gives the movie such a bold identity. Telling a revenge story with almost no dialogue creates a diffe...
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