Film Review: ASPHALT CITY (2023): A Dark and Tense Film About New York City Paramedics on the Edge of Sanity

Asphalt City Review

Asphalt City (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, written by Ben Mac Brown, Shannon Burke and Ryan King and starring Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Michael Pitt, Katherine Waterston, Raquel Nave, Mike Tyson, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Kali Reis, Ramon Aleman, Jagan Badvel, Shelly Burrell, Jamie Cooper, Jagruti Deshmukh, Daniel Foote, Donna Glaesener and Decater James.

Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s bleak and harrowing drama, Asphalt City, features two intense lead performances from its leads, Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. Asphalt City is essentially a no-holds-barred glimpse inside the lives of two nighttime New York City EMT workers. This picture is relentless and powerful while also being gritty and unflinching. It maintains the viewer’s interest from beginning to end despite being a bit too over-the-top at times. The movie’s direction is always hard-hitting and, for the most part, the picture maintains a sense of realism throughout.

Set mainly in Brooklyn, this movie deals with the devastating realities our two lead characters face in their chosen job. For Ollie Cross (Sheridan), the descent into hell that occurs throughout the film changes the character’s outlook on life for the worse. Ollie has aspirations to attend medical school and studies the best he can even though his apartment doesn’t offer him the most conducive living conditions to pursue his dream. Ollie’s partner, Gene Rutkovsky (Penn), is seemingly a seasoned veteran worker although he, too, grows frustrated with the daily chaos that is endured working the night shift. In a lighter scene in the film, Gene asks Ollie to ask him a question from his medical school studies and Gene can’t answer it correctly or at all.

Asphalt City has a lot on its plate, thematically speaking. Sometimes, the film doesn’t work, particularly when diving into the characters’ relationships with women. Ollie’s interaction with a woman named Clara (Raquel Nave) lacks full development and seems to exist only to provide a couple of sex scenes which feel unnecessary and only serve to show Ollie’s discomfort with the working conditions he has grown accustomed to. When Ollie ends up grasping Clara’s neck out of frustration during sex, it feels like the filmmakers are over intensifying the results of the trauma that Ollie witnesses at his job on a daily basis. If anything, the harsh realities that Ollie faces should make Ollie more appreciative of Clara. There’s no denying that the character of Ollie could do what he does to Clara but it feels like a scenario that makes the movie darker than it should be to be relatable.

When the film focuses on the terrifying scenarios that are faced while in the field, it is, for the most part, absolutely spellbinding to watch. One sequence feels like it comes from a horror movie as Ollie witnesses many flies buzzing around what appears to be dead bodies in a particularly gruesome scenario. Another scene where a woman with HIV named Nia (Kali Reis) is dealing with the possibility of giving birth to a dead baby is definitely intense to watch. Both Penn and Sheridan play this scene frighteningly well. This section of the movie will do a lot to progress the plot forward and the story line comes full circle due to the developments that occur here in this plot thread.

Sean Penn is excellent as the weathered Gene who has failed in relationships and is hanging on by a very thin thread. This character is very well-written and there is a scene set during the daytime on the beach where Gene interacts with Ollie that feels genuine and powerful. Penn and Sheridan are both excellent actors and their characters here face off with intriguing results as the movie gets very heavy-handed but still remains dramatically intriguing throughout.

Mike Tyson has a supporting role as Chief Burroughs who has to scold Gene when he doesn’t live up to the standards which are expected from him. Tyson is believable in his brief, but pivotal, part in the movie. Also strong is Michael Pitt as Lafontaine, a partner of Ollie’s who’s aggressive and nasty and pushes Ollie to the breaking point. Pitt is quite credible in another small, but essential, section of the picture.

Asphalt City is a nerve-wracking movie to watch. It goes far to portray the horrors that are endured by those who dedicate themselves to helping others. The realities of what lies behind helping those immersed in tragic circumstances are, more often than not, fascinating to watch. A sequence with an older woman cursing Ollie out in the back of the ambulance is authentic-feeling as well and one of the better scenes in the first-half of the movie.

As a whole, Asphalt City is probing entertainment that is not necessarily “enjoyable” to watch. Quite the opposite. However, the actors carry the movie. Sean Penn is always fantastic and Tye Sheridan ultimately creates a multi-faceted character with a lot of depth as he internalizes his struggle to maintain sanity under very devastating circumstances. It’s a powerful film that should be seen despite its minor flaws.

Rating: 7.5/10

Leave your thoughts on this Asphalt City review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications?  FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Google News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, and Threads.