911! These NYC paramedics have an emergency!
In “Asphalt City,” we get a sharp look at NYC paramedics, their routines, and troubles in life. We also have leads like Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn in the mix. And while the story doesn’t match the film’s true potential, it still has its moments of authentic and emotions to keep us involved.
We meet Ollie Cross (Sheridan), who is a young paramedic and medical student assigned on the night shift with the seasoned Gene Rutkovsky (Penn), and they both deal with crazy people, injured people, and dying people.
For example, the movie opens with the aftermath of a school shooting. I can assume it was at school, because it was at night, and people are rushing to help victims, and there’s a lot of red and blue flashes around.
Another is when an old woman falls asleep at a laundromat, wakes up by these two paramedics, and shouts out racist remarks against the Asian owner. How they can handle crazy people on the side is beyond me. But I doubt it’s as easy as the movie think it is.
The young man tries to save people, since he couldn’t save his suicidal mother as a child, but Gene tells him even with the right equipment, they can’t always save them. And not to get emotional with him. Those are basically his words, not mine.
On the side, we see Ollie studying for the MCATS, while sleeping with a single mother (Raquel Nave). And there are moments when he deals with the behaviors of the jerky paramedic Lafontaine (Michael Pitt). Like how the young man tries to take care of a dog that just bit a child, only for it to be murdered by a gunman, and stuffed in his locker by Lafontaine. And scolding often comes from their Chief Burroughs (Mike Tyson with his face tattoo covered by make-up), whose words seem too little to fit with his scenes.
Gene’s current ex-wife (Katherine Waterson) has met someone else and is planning to relocate out of the city with their little girl Sylvia. Even though it would mean he gets to see her less, the old man agrees it’s probably for the best for his girl to have a safer life. So, we can cut back on the custody cliches a bit.
Throughout their work on the night shift, things spin out of control for both Ollie and Gene. All enough for them to lose their senses. Now, this isn’t a war movie when a solder would suffer from PTSD, but these two paramedics sure need help, and some of their choices are unforgivable.
“Asphalt City” is an uneven, but gritty film that refuses to take the easy way out, and has two main characters who seem to connect on the job in their own wisecracking ways, but have troubles of their own. Sheridan and Penn both deliver such likable performances under the direction of Jean-Stephane Sauvaire (“Johnny Mad Dog,” “A Prayer Before Dawn”). But it’s mostly the Sheridan character, who struggles to grasp with his reality regarding life and death, and how such traumatic moments can threaten his wellbeing.
Based on Shannon Burke’s novel with the screenplay written by Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King, there are moments when you can acknowledge the turmoil, moments that meander, and overall reactions of interest and complexity. Like I said, this movie refuses to have a story that takes the easy way out, because there’s nothing easy about the lives of paramedics, especially if they’re rookies. That isn’t my occupation, so I can’t relate to them, but seeing how this movie handles them is actually provocative.
