City of Hope

The city is a multi-racial cauldron of backroom deals, petty criminals, unavoidable corruption, sincere endeavor, and most of all, people trying to make it to the next day with a piece of the pie. There is the black city counsellor trying to do right against the tide. There are the two black kids in trouble with the law and they make an accusation. There is the young Italian man with loads of baggage doing unnecessary petty crime. There is a whole system that is geared to deal-making and might makes right.

John Sayles has painted a portrait of an American city broiling with all the urban issues. He created an interconnected world where people do what they have to do to survive. It can be a little messy and it does feel a little constructed. These characters are bound together in what is almost a fairy tale for the city. My mind immediately goes to Crash (2004). This is what that movie wants to be. This movie says the things that Crash clunkily spouts. Ultimately, this movie has some critical praise, but not much from the public.

This is a lengthy film with multiple short stories and vignettes along with an all star cast. It works surprisingly well. This well done piece of work is certainly a curiosity piece and may someday be destined to become a "new classic."

A fantastic movie. Superb. Excellent. A keeper. I am definitely going to rent and re-view Brother from Another Planet. Ensemble type of movie. Low-key score. Dead on performances--everybody tight and sticking to the story, no histrionics or dopey movie-star closeups. If there's a continuum of corruption movies with On the Waterfront on one extreme (intrusive score, ridiculous script, pandering to gorgeous movie stars) and Hands Over the City on the other (realistic portrayal of life with Rod Steiger and lots of extras), then this movie was closer to Hands Over the City. It's not neo-realism, but the way in which everyone's history haunts and thwarts them was excellent. And of course, the last scene is something to rewind and watch over and over again.

No, not the Patrick Swayze movie about India . . . that was *City of Joy*. This film, however, is also about one of the urban nightmares of our time-namely, New Jersey. A John Sayles tour-de-force (he wrote, directed, edited, and plays the most venal character), in which five story lines involving more than thirty characters seamlessly intertwine in a horrifying portrait of corruption, deceit, and cynicism in modern America. The ensemble cast is outstanding, and the screenplay rarely hits a false note.

I've seen several John Sayles films and have been more or less impressed with all of them. This finely wrought and under appreciated little treasure though is probably his most complex and evocative. It's a formidable task tying together the loose ends of lives Sayles starts with into a coherent drama. All this done in the milieu of a corrupt city, tangled relationships and madness. Even the humour is bleak. There's nothing here that employs maudlin sentiment or melodrama, though. Somehow the tragedy is alleviated by a pervasive and dramatically ironic atmosphere of hope. It's in the pours and veins of this movie.. there's a human quality to it that's difficult to pin down but once detected transforms it into something special.