Film Review: CHARM CITY KINGS (2020): A Winding, High-Octane Ride Through Baltimore’s Dirt-Bike World

Charm City Kings Review

Charm City Kings (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Angel Manuel Soto, and starring Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Donielle Hansley, Kezii Curtis, Chino, Lakeyria Doughty, Chandler DuPont, Tyquan Ford, Teyonah Parris, Milan Ray, Jeanette Maus, Arnold Kim, and Hyonkyung Kate O’Leary.

“Ride or die” might be a colloquialism thrown around when talking about bike gangs, but it’s not often that the weight of that phrase is really examined. Charm City Kings, the new feature from Angel Manuel Soto, is a look into the precarity of such subcultures, and the multifaceted social issues that play into – and stem from – one’s involvement in them. 

Charm City Kings follows the 14-year-old ‘Mouse’ (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) and his friends Lamont (Donielle Tremaine Hansley) and ‘Sweartagawd’ (Kezii Curtis) during their summer vacation within inner-city Baltimore, as they cruise around on their bikes and four-wheelers and try to break into the city’s dirt-bike culture. Mouse, whose older brother Stro used to be a celebrity within the dirt-bike community before a tragic accident, looks up to the bikers with awe and envy – all to the chagrin of both his mother (Teyonah Parris), who doesn’t want to lose another son to the streets, and Detective Rivers (Will Catlett), who’d rather Mouse spend his time following his veterinary interests.

After an encounter with the Midnight Clique bike gang, Mouse meets their former leader Blax (Meek Mill), an ex-con now working in a local garage. Blax takes Mouse under his wing, recognizing him as Stro’s younger brother, and offering him a bike of his own in exchange for a summer’s worth of work (which will also keep him out of the snares of those like the Midnight Clique). But the more time Mouse spends working for Blax the less time he can spend working at his paid veterinary gig, which means less money for his family who’s struggling to keep the lights on. It also means more time with Blax himself, and learning that his true intentions may be less altruistic than he’s letting on. It sends Mouse down an emotional spiral where he’s forced to choose between following his own dreams and preventing his own destitution … and even his very life.

People will be tempted to make connections between Charm City Kings and The Wire due to the Baltimore setting and crime drama narrative, but it also makes sense due to the film’s narrative density. Mouse is the primary protagonist, sure, but at times he feels like nothing but a supporting character within a compact mini-epic. Screenwriter Sherman Payne, who adapted the film from the 2013 documentary 12 O’Clock Boys (and the biker group from whence the name came), allots every secondary arc so much delicate detail that it feels like an ensemble story from the get-go. No doubt that those with story credit, including the Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, helped contribute to this resolutely robust peek into modern urban life.

Though that’s not to suggest the film is flawless, as it shows a reluctance to offer much beyond deferential rationalization in the face of a broken social system. It acknowledges the problems but doesn’t offer solutions for them beyond working within the system’s biased confines and hoping for the best – with bits of paternalistic platitudes sprinkled throughout.

However, Soto and the writers use Kings less as an opportunity to moralize and more so as a chance to exhibit an endless stream of anxiety. When Mouse gets a chance to build his own bike, he loses out on actual income; when he earns responsibility from Blax, it’s immediately blown through a foolish misstep; when he starts trapping for the Midnight Clique to earn money for his struggling family, his mother kicks him out onto the street out of frustration and shame. And that’s on top of all of his other struggles: from basic teenage problems of teasing friends and a desire to belong, to greater issues of microaggressions, overt racism, and economic strife.

Charm City Kings showcases the relentless amount of pressure being pushed onto the marginalized of modern American society – particularly onto young Black teenagers and men – to give those who wouldn’t otherwise experience it a momentary sense of that stress. While the details may not be entirely accurate, Soto presents the concepts in a clear-cut way that forces us to empathize with Mouse’s continuous emotional bombardment. At the very least it feels complex and authentic, especially via an ending that reminds us that not everyone earns a clean escape route. It’s in those moments that Charm City Kings ultimately earns its crown.

Winston, Hansley, and Curtis are stars in the making, and their chemistry bolsters so much of the film. Alex Somers score and Jojo Villanueva’s music supervision offers an ecstatic soundtrack, but the real technical highlight is Katelin Arizmendi’s cinematography. Her Steadicam and drone shots offers pristine shots of urban Baltimore that are very entrancing, and her camera’s precise immersion within the high-octane action sequences are utterly jaw-dropping.

Charm City Kings is a tale of dreams and responsibilities, and finding unity between the two. For its thematic simplicity, it more than makes up for it in emotional depth. It’s a long and winding ride rather than a straightforward sprint, but the exhilaration makes it all worthwhile.

Rating: 7/10

Leave your thoughts on this Charm City Kings 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 and our Movie Review Pinterest Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Flipboard.