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Shut Up and Plot Your Revenge

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Motor City

by George Wolf

Man, if you can hang with Motor City for about an hour and fifteen minutes, you’ll get one damn fine action sequence. Suddenly violent, increasingly bloody and eventually downright grisly, it’s an impressively choreographed and well shot set piece.

It’s also curious, considering the film surrounding it is a pretty tedious exercise in navigating a needless hurdle of its own making. And needle-dropping some sweet 70s hits.

The theme is simple enough: revenge. Ex-con John Miller (Alan Ritchson) is on probation and trying to toe the line in 1977 Detroit. He pops the question to his honey Sophia (Shailene Woodley) and things are looking up. But then Sophia’s gangster ex-boyfriend Reynolds (Ben Foster) frames John with a staged drug bust, and back to the slammer he goes.

So how does director Potsy Ponciroli (Old Henry) refresh the familiar idea from writer Chad St. John? By crafting Motor City as a nearly dialog-free thriller propelled by mood and music.

That “nearly” is the first curious bump in John’s long road to payback.

The few bits of dialog that are here just end up drawing attention to how hard the film is trying to get credit for telling most of this story without words. And it just isn’t necessary. Scenes that should naturally have organic conversation do not, and the strain of keeping the silent device intact is just too obvious.

I mean, do it or don’t. Since there is some dialog, Ponciroli’s commitment to visual storytelling ends up feeling more gimmicky and forced.

Foster and Woodley are customarily fine, Ritchson continues to show raw talent and real charisma, and Pablo Schreiber makes a perfectly menacing henchman. The soundtrack choices from Jack White (who also has a cameo) are on point, too, which helps keep the boredom at bay when the story just takes too long getting down to business.

And though revealing just what derails the finale would be too much of a spoiler, the result is anticlimactic and just plain silly.

But man, that one elevator scene shows just how much action potential is wasted in Motor City.

Outtakes

Countdown to Lazaretto

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Lazaretto, Jack White’s new album, drops today. We’re pretty excited. So excited, we thought we’d spend some quality silver screen time with the mad genius to fully prepare us for the oncoming awesomeness. In case you’d like to do the same, here are some highlights.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

White’s music has been used in dozens of films, often to great effect. Even the god-awful School for Scoundrels benefitted from a couple tunes. But White’s “Fell In Love with a Girl” added so much to this excellently played finale dance number that it needs to be noted.

Cold Mountain (2003)

Holding his own in an impressive (if globally confused) cast, White plays a young man avoiding Civil War conscription, living off the land with other runaways. He brings a recognizable, impish spark to some pretty heavy scenes.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story  (2007)

Jack White is Elvis. What the hell more do you want from a movie? His take on the King is indecipherable genius in an underrated spoof on rock’n’roll biopics.

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Jim Jarmusch, who is both awesome and Ohioan, strings together a series of vignettes with a handful of the world’s coolest people chatting over a beverage and a smoke. Like Bill Murray and Wu-Tang Clan. Who doesn’t want to sit in on these conversations?! Among the most fun is the bit where Jack shows Meg his Tesla coil.

It Might Get Loud (2008)

Somewhere between An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman, documentarian Davis Guggenheim ambled away from the path of the political into the backstage of the awesome, chronicling three generations of guitar players: Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. It is loud, and fun, and White, in particular, is fascinating.