When it comes to watching theatrical films, my go-to movie theater chain is AMC Theaters. I’m part of the AMC Stubs A-List, which is a subscription that allows me to watch up to four movies a week. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite services that I have at the moment. Additionally, I get frequent notifications via the AMC movies app about special presentations on Monday nights called AMC Screen Unseen, where AMC will show a movie that is a total surprise. In a way, it’s almost like an advanced screening, except I don’t know the movie that I’m about to see. I’ve always wanted to do an AMC Screen Unseen showtime, but I was always either working or had bad timing when it came to those particular nights. Fortunately, I got off work earlier compared to other days and finally attended one of these events, and that mystery film was . . . Motor City. 

Full disclosure: this “surprise” film wasn’t much of a surprise in retrospect. I’m not saying got a scoop on what was about to play, but I put some clues together based on the little information I had. For example, when I submitted my ticket for the screening, I saw that the movie was rated R and had a runtime of an hour and forty something minutes. Then, I went to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to see which movies were premiering this week, and Motor City matched the clues. While it was a pretty predictable guess on what movie was going to be shown, I did have a big smile on my face when I saw on the distribution company on the screen, confirming my prediction of the surprise film.

Aside from finally watching an AMC Screen Unseen film, watching Motor City early benefited me by providing enough time to write a review for it as the founder of The Legionnaire, Albert, informed me that he was departing for Chicago and asked me to step in this weekend. While I did agree, I had forgotten that I, too, will be out of town for my grandmother’s 80th birthday weekend in south Miami. I was going to watch and write a review either way. In fact, I penned the review for Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) while I was taking a trip to New York City, so I knew I could have it done before my weekend getaway. So now for the golden question: was Motor City worth seeing early? As usual, let’s find out.

Set in 1970s Detroit, Motor City follows John Miller (Alan Ritchson), a Vietnam vet who had some trouble with the law that landed him in probation. While we don’t know what he did, he seems to be bettering himself with stable employment and a girlfriend named Sophia (Shailene Woodley) who loves and supports him. After one of his shifts, one of John’s Vietnam war buddies, Youngblood (Lionel Boyce), gets him an engagement ring with which John plans to propose to Sophia. Aside from getting his car stolen, albeit quickly recovered, John is on top of the world because, aside from his plan to propose, he will soon be officially discharged from probation. After the good news, John asks his girlfriend to marry him, and she immediately says yes. Yet, the celebration is short lived when local police bust into his home and find illegal drugs in the trunk of his car. It turns out that the people who temporarily stole John’s car planted narcotics in it, orchestrated by two people: Lieutenant Savick (Pablo Schreiber), a crooked cop who has ties to the local mob, and Reynolds (Ben Foster), a mob boss. Reynolds has beef with John as he thinks John stole Sophie from him because on the night John and Sophia met, Reynolds and Sophia were already together. From the look of that relationship, though, it clearly didn’t seem healthy. After an altercation with Reynold’s men and Reynolds himself, Sophia leaves that night with John, and Reynolds feeling defeated. At the police station, John’s unlucky streak continues as Sophia abandons him, taking off her engagement ring, and Reynolds reveals her actions to John in an interrogation room. After much time passes, John is in prison while Sophia gets back with Reynolds, and they eventually wed. John discovers this information from a guard, and he spends his days behind bars exercising to cope with what has happened to him. As the days pass, Reynolds true nature begins to become more transparent and he abuses Sophia, which catches the attention of  Youngblood. From there Youngblood informs John on what he saw, and the two, along with another Vietnam war buddy of theirs named Singh (Amar Chadha-Patel), devise a plan to get John out of prison. If successful, the scheme could not only save Sophia but also get revenge on Reynolds for sending John to prison.

Days before my guess was confirmed that the AMC Screen Unseen film was Motor City, I watched the trailer just to get an idea of what the movie was about. In general, if it’s not a blockbuster or a major film, and I haven’t seen a trailer for it on the big screen, I try and stay away from previews. Rather, I like to go into a movie cold. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, it feels like an extended teaser because there’s no dialogue, which at the time I thought was odd. In retrospect, I thought it was a brilliant move.

Something I picked up after five minutes into the film, is the lack of dialogue in Motor City. Other than a few words, this film lacks any talking whatsoever. In fact, the previous paragraph alone had more words than the entire film, and the review might have more words than the script. I really enjoyed this aspect because it allowed me to focus in on character’s actions and emotions, and decipher what was going on with each scene. This also supports my argument that films really benefit from showing, not telling, when it comes to storytelling. I often get annoyed when a movie over-explains a scene when we, the audience, already know what’s happening. Instead, the filmmaker trusts the intelligence of its audience by placing clues for us to figure out, such as a photograph or a tattoo. This is something I notice in Oscar caliber films, and while it would be a far cry to compare Motor City to something up for a major award, it’s nice to see it in a mainstream production, which is ironic considering the distribution company releasing it is Independent Film Company (IFC).

As I was watching Motor City, I was trying to think of a good Catholic takeaway that I could use. It’s yet other cautionary tale about revenge, and how much it takes away from you. Instead, my main Catholic message in this review ties to the novelty of this film, which is the lack of dialogue. As mentioned earlier, I was paying attention to certain character expressions and actions. Sometimes, we need lack of verbal communication to truly understand God’s word. There are two factors I love about a Catholic church compared to a nondenominational church. First is the fact that it is Catholic. Secondly, it feels sometimes that the priest or deacon can say little though the message itself is expressed greatly. Adoration is another form of Catholic worship that offers no sounds whatsoever, but a strong sense of God’s presence. Now, after writing these thoughts, I now want to look at the next available Adoration.

While it’s not uncommon for certain mainstream films in the twenty-first century to have little to no dialogue (A Quiet Place (2018) for example), it’s such a nice treat when we get those types of films. Motor City is the latest entry in that sub genre. I will confess, however, that’s it’s not a perfect movie as it does feel a bit too long. Also, given that’s it’s a revenge film, some readers of The Legionnaire might not be too eager to watch it immediately, though the only thing that I thought they could’ve cut was some unnecessary nudity. Other than that, it was a neat, action-packed movie with great fight sequences and a stellar 1970s soundtrack that made the film feel like a music video at certain points. Hopefully, this (for lack of a better word) “gimmick” continues in future productions and in different genres. I’m looking at you big budget animated films.