Motor City
                                                                                                                       
Director: Potsy Ponciroli
Year: 2025
Rating: 5.5
For about the first 30-minutes of this, I thought something was wrong with the audio. The dialogue track seemed to be missing, but the sound effects and songs came through fine. I finally had to look this up on the Internet and what do you know - there is practically no dialogue. Five words apparently with "hi" and "hello" being two of them. Instead, director Potsy Ponciroli uses the extensive soundtrack as narrative, mood and moments of beauty as the action and music meld together like perfect lovers. Does it work? I am uncertain. A little gimmicky perhaps? Art and graphic violence making a statement? Do most of today's action films really need dialogue? Or does it just get in the way of the purity of filmmaking? I am trying to picture Alan Ritchson reading the script and asking "Where is my dialogue?". "There isn't any? Good. Sign me up".



It is a revenge film and how much dialogue is really needed. Miller (Alan Ritchson) is a factory working man in Detroit in 1977. Ritchson in long hair should never happen again. An awful look. He falls in love with a party girl Sophia (Shailene Woodley) who he rescued one night on the street from her abusive boyfriend (Ben Foster) who is a major drug dealer and owns most of the cops. Miller is set up to take a fall when he is framed for selling drugs and sent to prison. Sophia thinks he is guilty and since he isn't allowed any dialogue, he can't convince her otherwise. She goes back to the drug dealer. Survival is what matters on the mean streets of Detroit. Miller with the help of two friends breaks out of jail and goes on a lovely murderous rampage. Some extreme violence. The elevator fight is freaky graphic. The very ending should have been edited out. Really stupid.



Some twelve songs from Bowie,  Putting Out Fire to Ring Christmas Bells to Nights in White Satin. But no Motown! This was interesting, but not an idea that I hope catches on. I like dialogue. I like the human voice. But the lack of dialogue forces you to pick up on visual cues. For example, who are his two friends and why do they help him? Earlier, when he buys a newspaper in the convenience store, there is a photo on the wall of the three of them in military fatigues. They were in the war together and that bond is unbreakable.