Black Flies

Black Flies

Young paramedic Ollie Cross is partnered with experienced medic Rutkovsky, who thrusts him into the harsh realities of New York’s inner-city streets. Amidst high crime rates, homelessness, and widespread drug use, Ollie finds his perspective on life and death beginning to shift.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Thrillers
  • Stars: Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Kali Reis, Onie Maceo Watlington, Raquel Nave, Mike Tyson, Michael Pitt, Sean Penn, Alisa Mironova, Robert Oppel, Donna Glaesener, Decater James, Charrisse Matthews, Kareemeh Odeh
  • Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
 Comments
  • refinedsugar - 15 May 2024
    Grim. Bleak. Darkness. Sadness. Light.
    'Asphalt City' aka 'Black Flies' has a point to make and goes the extra mile to drive it home. Casual moviegoers who want light, something uplifting are in the wrong place. Though you're not wrong to question if it's too heavy or removed from reality at times. It seems appropriate they set the tale in NYC as it was once the haven for hard boiled action flicks, horror nasties that liked to play up it's once seamy nature. As one who never sat thru the Nic Cage pic 'Bringing Out the Dead', I thought the ride here thru the ups and downs of a paramedic was unique if not scattershot.

    Cross (Tye Sheridan) a newbie NYC paramedic gets a crash course in death, sadness and the futility of helping the public. Who sometimes distrust, loath, don't appreciate or abuse people in civil service frontline jobs. Mainly stuck to the nightshift, he lives in a rundown apartment with strangers and studies to become a doctor. Soon enough his world mentally starts to unravel and an incident with his veteran partner 'Rut' (Sean Penn) is either a really bad mistake or something much worse. A wakeup call to not go down the wrong path, circling the drain.

    The story is mainly a collection of emergency calls of various states of panic, distress and the learning curve that goes along with it. The film is purposely dark and you see the correlations between the mens journeys at certain points. Michael Pitt & Gbenga Akinnagbe play fellow paramedics and in a bit of stunt casting Mike Tyson their immediate supervisor. Really the strength here is two leads - Sheridan, Penn - willing to throw themselves into their roles and what is has to say about the toll paid on people doing this for a living.

    'Asphalt City' left me wondering a lot about paramedics. What they get paid, the worst of what they see and ultimately why they do it. Having it all go down in the city that never sleeps as opposed to small town USA wasn't lost on me. I knew the effect they were going for here at all times. Only in the last quarter of it's two hour runtime did I wish for a more fleshed out story, sanctuary from it's dark nature. It's not a home run, but it's also not bad like some people are making it out to be.
  • jsblack-23188 - 28 April 2024
    The worst movie EVER
    This has to be the worst movie I have ever watched. What's up with the fur burger scene? It was pointless with absolutely no storyline. I wanted to poke my eyes out. I am going to have PTSD for the rest of my life.....,,,,,,.

    If I could save anyone who thinks this looks good from the 2 hour nightmare you will have to force yourself to see, I would say PLEASE DONT WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS TIME on this flop of a movie. Unless of course you want to see two white adults running around naked and holding a baby. What in the actual heck does that have to do with the life of medical driver? If that's what goes on in their mind.. please let me die on scene.......
  • dubond - 21 April 2024
    More grating than impactful
    "We all work in the darkness, you don't got to let it inside you."

    Asphalt City is directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire and stars Tye Sheridan, Sean Penn, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson.

    Based on the book called Black Flies the long in development Asphalt City originally had Mel Gibson attached in the Sean Penn role back in 2019 before he dropped out or was replaced for unknown reasons. This movie tries to present the harsh reality of what it's like to be an EMT in a big city like New York and while watching I was reminded of three separate and better movies. This movie sort of has the same kind of stress and dread a Safdie Bros movie would have because every scene a character is pretty much involved in a stressful situation and there's this existential dread hanging over this movie. Then this obviously bares comparison to Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead and in the last half it turns into Training Day with the movie making us question the morals of Sean Penn's character and if he should have his job or not.

    Performance wise Penn and Sheridan both do a good job. However Mike Tyson whenever he does pop up was more distracting than effective in his role. Michael Pitt didn't really need to be in this movie either. Overall I'd say this is a somewhat effective movie that is worth watching once, it kind of loses itself because it gets overly consumed in dread and darkness like Tye Sheridan's character does here but in the final five minutes I'd say it kind of works it's way back and presents an overall positive message where you'll finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief.