In a time when so many action movies have a sense of the recycled about them, you have to admire the approach taken with Motor City. It’s working off a gimmick, sure, and that in itself means Potsy Ponciroli‘s gritty, violent actioner won’t be for everyone, but if you want a genre feature that embraces a certain 1970s aesthetic and lets the action literally speak for itself, you could do a lot worse than this near-silent experiment that only furthers Alan Ritchson‘s stance as an imposing, capable figure in the genre.
Penned by Chad St. John (London Has Fallen, Peppermint), Motor City is a classic revenge-driven action piece that follows John Miller (Ritchson), who wants to leave his criminal past behind him and make an honest go of it with Sophia (Shailene Woodley). Life is not able to be blissful for the duo though, with Sophia’s jealous ex, crime boss Reynolds (Ben Foster), not taking kindly to John moving in on his girl. Doing what anyone in his position would, Reynolds frames John and sends the poor sod to rot in prison; we see in a flashback moment that John and Reynolds had an altercation that the latter didn’t take kindly to, planting the seeds that he isn’t someone who forgets easily.
There’s a real classicality to Motor City in its narrative structure, and the 1970s setting and Detroit backdrop only leans more so into that clarity, but in order for the film to sell us the familiar in a way that feels somewhat fresh, we have to buy into what it’s selling. And with such minimal dialogue (there’s really no more than 10-or-so lines delivered across its 100 minutes) it’s a testament to everyone involved that it’s executed as well as it is, with Ritchson absolutely dominating as he leads the charge. He’s a big, brawny slab of a man, but his physicality only takes him so far, and Motor City brings out his surprising depth as a performer, with his facial expressions suggesting a true sense of pain drives the violent beats he eventually adheres to; a showdown with one of Reynolds’s henchmen (Pablo Schreiber) in a confined elevator space truly speaking to the film’s violent nature.
On that note, it’s quite surprising that, for a film that is selling itself without much dialogue and emphasising its brutality, it’s the poignancy of its narrative that truly makes the lack of dialogue and violent beats all the more effective. And not only do we care about the plight of John, there’s a surprising sense of empathy afforded to Reynolds – which only speaks to how grand a performer Foster truly is. Still somewhat underrated after over two decades of performing, he’s able to transform the typical jealous archetype of a scorned lover into a genuine cry of affection. He loves Sophia as much as John does – he just goes about it in the wrong manner.
With the type of musical needle drops that are part and parcel for films of this ilk, Motor City indulges in its limitations. Even if you strip away the gimmick, there’s still a wildly entertaining and, at-times, bombastically violent genre film here, one that reminds us of the masculinity that was so often lathered across such. It may not always fire on the cylinders it suggests, but when it does, you’d be hard pressed to not be swept up its brutality.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Motor City is screening as part of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, running between September 4th and 14th, 2025. For more information on the festival, head to the official site here.
