Motor City (2026) IFC/Action-Thriller RT: 103 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, some grisly images, drug content, sexuality/nudity, language) Director: Potsy Ponciroli Screenplay: Chad St. John Music: Steve Jablonsky Cinematography: John Matysiak Release date: July 24, 2026 (US) Cast: Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, Shailene Woodley, Ben McKenzie, Amar Chadha-Patel, Dominic Bogart, Mister Fitzgerald, Rafael Cebrian, Jack White.
Rating: ***
Does anybody mind if I start my review of Motor City at the end? I promise not to drop any spoilers. Great, thanks.
What’s the difference between a good movie and a great movie? Sometimes it’s just one scene. In this particular case, it’s a completely unnecessary final scene, an epilogue set a few decades after the main action of the film. It’s an unfortunate one step too far for director Potsy Ponciroli (Greedy People). He had the perfect ending right in front of him. Please don’t misunderstand. Motor City is a good movie. It would be a better movie if he cut that one scene. He could always include it as a Special Feature on the physical media release.
Here’s the main thing you need to know about Motor City, a gritty crime thriller set in 1970s Detroit. There is practically NO dialogue except for a few words scattered throughout. The story is driven by the characters’ actions rather than their words. Sitting in the passenger seat is a banger of a soundtrack of 70s hits by Fleetwood Mac (“The Chain”), Bill Withers (“Lovely Day”), Foxy (“Get Off”), Donna Summer (“I Feel Love”) and Starbuck (“Moonlight Feels Right”). For whatever reason, the 1982 David Bowie song “Putting Out Fire” opens the film. It’s a musical anachronism that’s nonetheless used to great effect.
Alan Ritchson of TV’s Reacher plays John Miller, an ex-con who makes the mistake of taking up with Sophia (Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars), the girlfriend of psychotic crime boss Reynolds (Foster, Hell or High Water). With help from corrupt detective Savick (Schreiber, Den of Thieves), he frames Miller and gets him sent to prison for 25 years. Sophia dumps him and is soon back with Reynolds. With no chance of having his name cleared, Miller escapes with just one thing on his mind, revenge.
The concept of a movie without dialogue isn’t new. Remember the John Woo actioner Silent Night from a few years back? It similarly dealt with a protagonist looking for revenge against violent criminals who wronged him. When I first heard Motor City would be dialogue-free (about an hour before show time), I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I thought Silent Night was good, but a one-and-done concept. It didn’t exactly set the box office on fire ($8M domestic/$11M global). Most people just didn’t get it. I couldn’t believe another filmmaker was rolling the dice on a narrative device that’s likely to alienate mainstream audiences the same way it did in 2023. It’s a bold creative move that ends up working better than it should.
Motor City has a cool cast. What’s better, all of them turn in solid performances. It’s especially challenging here because they have to employ a different acting style. Without the support of spoken dialogue, they have to convey their emotions with gestures and facial expression. You can see the hurt and anger written all over Ritchson’s character, an innocent man wronged by a powerful adversary supported by a corrupt system. I haven’t watched him in Reacher yet, but it seems to me he could be the next big action movie star. He has the size and the skills to pull it off. Foster is at his best playing unhinged characters (e.g. Jake in Alpha Dog). He does it again in Motor City. To be blunt, Reynolds is a creep in polyester. You really want to see the SOB get his comeuppance. Woodley is pretty good as the girlfriend who elicits zero sympathy. To be blunt again, she’s a whore. It doesn’t take her all that long to get back with Reynolds and enjoy the spoils of his drug empire. I lost all respect for her character after that.
There is plenty of action and bloody violence in Motor City. Miller’s escape from prison, with outside help from a couple of friends, is thrilling. The climax just rocks! Miller and his two associates show up at Reynolds’ base of operations and wage war. The most memorable bit has one of the bad guys dealing with his severed leg. The audience was laughing at that one. It’s all tied together by a gritty 70s grindhouse aesthetic. It looks just like a movie that would play at a grimy theater on 42nd Street back in the day.
Motor City occasionally falls back on hokey bits like Mitchell screaming into a sink filled with water, but it doesn’t hurt the overall movie in any way. The only thing that does is the aforementioned epilogue. It’s not needed; it’s that simple. Aside from that, Motor City is solid B-movie entertainment. It’s one of those rare films that’s all action and (almost) no talk.
