In 1970s Detroit, John Miller falls for a local gangster's girl and lands in prison for a crime he didn't commit. With his life ruined, Miller plots revenge against the man who took his girl away.
Motor City is showing in 1 cinema in Los Angeles — next screening Tuesday 21 July at 22:00 at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles.
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pure cinema of gestures, mimic, movements, music. it's all cliche, it's all genre, it's all simplicity. not as smart, versatile and eclectic as Forzani/Cattet but goes equally hard. cinema macho masculino, picture perfect for sexy venezia and the sunny mostra.
MOTOR CITY is a stripped-down, pulse-pounding 70s-inspired pulp action film, masterfully directed by Potsy Ponciroli. Intentionally told with little to no dialogue, the rockin’ soundtrack, pummeling sound design, and slow-motion visuals keep the momentum up. Alan Ritchson is at his fiercest, bulkiest, and just totally unstoppable as he tears through waves of bad guys to exact revenge on a slimy Ben Foster. Brutal, stylish and plain ol’ awesome, it’s one of the year’s best action films.Check out Josh Parham’s review on NextBestPicture.com here
As with every other TIFF, you will always find me carving out time for the annual Ben Foster crime movie, and thankfully this year it was also the first hoot and holler event of the fest for me. Similarly to this guy's Old Henry, you could argue this is a throwback to an era he wished he was around to make movies in, but rather than paying somber fealty to the Eastwood western like he did there here he indulges in pure amusingly beefy bruiser bullshit. One that mostly consists of Jack Reacher doing the classic retro action star thing of being a blue collar “everyman” who for some reason has an Arnold physique, and basically brooding in the general direction of a bunch of broad genre archetypes around him: corrupt cops (Pablo Schreiber, insane facial hair), evil drug dealers (Ben Foster, incredible drip throughout), thankless sex objects (Shailene Woodley, [cartoon wolf howl]). What's unique and fun about this is that despite ostensibly being a very simple late-70s revenge movie the actual formal gimmick dressing up the derivative narrative is that it is essentially a wordless movie (think John Woo's recent Silent Night, only with even less of a reason/excuse) that is wall-to-wall 70s needle drops (because if there's one thing we know about the 70s it's that at all times there was a song from the 70s playing), actors doing big hammy gestures/mugging/walking and glaring in slow-motion while wearing cool clothes (Foster and Ritchson doing legit caveman physical performances in each other's direction to the occasional Mann knockoff score), and nonstop editing shorthand to convey every character and plot detail instead of dialogue or acting. It's like he set out to make every scene a Goodfellas montage whether it makes sense or not, which just contributes to how funny and unserious (positive) the whole affair is as it goes on. Honestly it goes out of its way to find elaborate excuses to avoid characters ever speaking to each other, and every time a needle drop wrapped up only to start another one right away it got so strained and exhausting after awhile it circled back around to being funny again. If I have a major drawback here it's that for a very visual storytelling minded movie it sure takes its sweet time getting to the good stuff (it's honestly about an hour before our long-haired jungle man beefcake breaks out of prison and starts doing any brawling) but man, once it does... The elevator sequence between Schreiber and Ritchson especially is a late contender for fight of the year. So loud and meaty and legible for close-quarters, loved the knife POV long shot, and the gory punchline the setpiece eventually builds to! Also has one of the funniest epilogues to an action movie in recent memory. You will absolutely believe this is a movie written by a guy named "Chad St. John", and it will enter your dad’s canon the day it drops on Prime or whatever. Sometimes this is the 9am wakeup call you need in a film festival setting.Further discussion on ep 399 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS, as part of our TIFF25 coverage.
The film follows a man in 1970s Detroit who plots a brutal revenge against the criminal who wrongfully imprisoned him and stole his life.
Potsy Ponciroli directed this 2026 action thriller, known for his previous work on the western film Old Henry.
No, the film is almost entirely silent, utilizing its soundtrack and visual storytelling instead of spoken words to drive the narrative.
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