Steel City (2006)

During a Midwestern winter, two working-class brothers must cope with their recently incarcerated father.

Director:

Brian Jun

Writer:

Brian Jun

Stars:

Jamie Anne Allman, Raymond J. Barry, Kristian Best

3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jamie Anne Allman	...	Maria Lee (as Jamie Anne Brown)
Raymond J. Barry	...	Vic Lee
Kristian Best	...	Michael Karns
Michael Cowan	...	Carpenter at Fire Job
Clayne Crawford	...	Ben Lee
James DeBello	...	Maria's Brother
America Ferrera	...	Amy Barnes
Celesta Gentelin	...	Baby Jenny at 1
Rusty Gray	...	Marcus
Tom Guiry	...	PJ Lee
Ricardo Gutierrez	...	Ralph
John Heard	...	Carl Lee
James R. Hentrich	...	Charlie Haskel
Richard Hoffman Jr.	...	Carl Lee's attorney
Amy Holland	...	Distrought Woman

Storyline

Steel City is a stirring family drama from the heartland of America about pride, remorse and forgiveness. When Carl Lee is involved in a fatal car accident he finds himself behind bars, cut off from his life and alienated by his family. His youngest son PJ, confused by life without his dad, is the only person to visit him. While PJ's girlfriend stays lovingly by his side and his Uncle Vic extends a helping hand, a belligerent older brother and the reality of being on his own force PJ to grow up faster than he'd like. It's not until a devastating secret is revealed that the family reunites and a regretful father learns that you can never take back the past, but you can let go of it.

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Plot Keywords:

jail | police | interracial relationship | place name in title | confession | 

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Taglines:

A father behind bars. A secret that would change everything.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Skliri poli

Filming Locations:

Granite City, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$350,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,213 (USA) (25 May 2007)

Gross:

$10,227 (USA) (22 June 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Steel City Productions LLC, Your Half Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Actors Tom Guiry and John Heard who play father and son in this movie previously played father and son in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the episode Disappearing Acts.

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Goofs

During the scene where PJ and Lucy are smoking a single blunt in the basement of the bar, one shot shows PJ about to take a hit as he asks Lucy a questions, and then the scene immediately cuts to Lucy answering as she finishes taking a rip from the joint.

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Quotes

Vic Lee: Things are fucked up! Pick one to fix, because you can't have it all, trust me...

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Soundtracks

"All In Good Time"
Written and Performed by Jeff Black
Published by Lotus Nile Music (BMI)
Under license from Lotus Nile Music (BMI)

User Reviews

Bleak Docudrama Where Everyone Gets Their Monologue

Well, the critics loved it, and yes, it's got that certain verisimilitude that the hundreds of gritty, bleak, docudramas have had before it. And yet, there's not a single thing about this film that makes you want to keep watching.

It's got the traditional aspects; the gray/blue washed out color palette, the going-nowhere, stuck in a dead end job lead character, the "I knew a guy just like that in my home town" older brother, that these films always seem to have. The film focuses on endlessly bleak subject matter that it just can't seem to rise above.

The cast of characters are fairly stock, and not particularly interesting, and are the usual denizens of working-class middle America. However, America Ferrera does stand out in a relatively small and somewhat thankless role. Screenwriters write monologues to attract name-talent to their projects, but after awhile the endless sloppy exposition just becomes too painful to listen to (Note: if your characters are launching into "Remember whens.." in every other scene, your in dangerous territory.)

The lead actor does a decent job, but isn't a particularly interesting to watch, and the setting created certainly isn't much more interesting to look at. In the end, you just feel as if the actors have nowhere to go with this script, but they will surely all have a few scenes for their personal reels. There's nothing here that couldn't have been handled just as well in a documentary. There isn't much of a story here, but the events are more or less predictable, with the exception of an especially improbable "plot" twist two-thirds through the film. No one really seems to want anything, except maybe to get through another day. And as the viewer, you find yourself just trying to get to the end of the film.