If I ever wanted to be an EMT before, this film pretty much beat that nurturing instinct straight out of me. That statement by itself earns the film a “thumbs down,” doncha think? You can make any piece of art you want; you can sell it any way you want. I didn’t like Michael Bay’s Ambulance, but at least Michael Bay knew better than to trash EMTs. These are guys on the front lines of society; if Asphalt City is to be believed, paramedics do battle in circumstances nobody desires; calling the profession inherently corrupt is mind-bogglingly self-defeating.
Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) got assigned to thankless paramedic night duty in NYC. Every service call is not only a life-and-death situation for the subject of the call, the situation seems life-and-death for the EMTs as well, constantly entering hostile situations where the people “didn’t call for help” and “don’t want help.” About half-way through this intense running-nightmare scenario, I was relieved to see one subject was a mere wife-beating asshole. Oh, really? Well, the danger here is relatively minimal then. Phew.
To this point, we’ve seen our heroes answer calls on a gangland shooting, an isolated rotting corpse in an apartment straight out of a horror film, a druglord’s crib, and an ethnic laundromat. To be fair, where the first three definitely involved risk to life and limb, the laundromat just involved an abusive homeless person. She was little threat … weapon-wise, at least. Every time the EMT shows up, the message is “I/we don’t want you and we’re willing to be violent about it.” Fun.
The partner of Cross is wizened saddle-bag Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn), a partner so jaded that rules no longer apply to him. This puts Cross immediately in a tough spot as the rookie wants to escape this experience with a decent background for his future life as a surgeon (he’s studying for the MCATs while working nights as an EMT), yet Rutkovsky’s practical-based antics are probably going to land him on the other side of friendly. Just ask their boss, Mike Tyson. Yes, Mike Tyson is playing a character in this film. Repeat that as many times as you need to until it sinks in.
Just in case you were worried that nice people might show up, Michael Pitt takes the part of the co-worker who is a hazing bully. After Rutkovsky orders Cross to remove a potentially vicious dog from another hostile scene, Lafontaine (Pitt) taunts Cross as “dog-lover” and even goes so far as to put a dead dog in the rookie’s locker. All this and these folks all have a serious God complex, too. Lafontaine and Rutkovsky say and act as much with what they’re willing to do to save (or NOT save as the case may be) human lives. Cross
isn’t there quite yet; he just wears a jacket sporting angelic wings to tell the audience exactly where his head is at.
Asphalt City is an unpleasant, graphic, and angry film. It hates cities; it hates people. It sees infrequent bursts of humanity as miracles unto themselves. I appreciate the film’s “no holds barred” approach to reality, yet the tiresome anti-human theme made me absolutely believe that the profession of paramedic was one entirely comprised of cynicism and condescension. The big city chews up the unwilling and spits out gritty self-loathing, self-serving agents of life-giving power – only if they choose to use it.
This film makes Bringing Out the Dead look like a family film.
In the end, my thumbs down is not a function of the film philosophically berating EMTs, but rather a direct reflection of giving me a hero I had trouble rooting for and a omnipresent filthy milieu in need of a month-long scrub. This is not an easy film to watch and there isn’t much relief when it ends. It’s like a horror film where the monster gets away. It took skill to make Asphalt City, and I respect that, but -geez- after watching this film, you might never want to see a big city again.
There was once a paramedic named Cross
Who dreamed of spinning gold from floss
Was his profession a fraud?
Cause all his peers played God
Honestly? I’m at a bit of a loss
Rated R, 125 Minutes
Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
Writer: Ben Mac Brown, Shannon Burke, Ryan King
Genre: Jobs you don’t want to have
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: EMTs, I think
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: NYC denizens
