Motor City

Nineteen-seventies Detroit gives this revenge story its grain. John Miller falls for a local gangster's girl, takes the fall for a crime he did not commit, and comes out the other side with nothing left but a target. The promise is pure hard-boiled machinery: a wronged man, a stolen life, and a city of steel and neon with no interest whatsoever in fairness. The setup is lean enough to suggest a film built on momentum and mood rather than plot mechanics.

Crime-film devotees who like their period pieces mean and stripped-down will feel immediately at home. Expect an hour and forty-three of simmering grudge and sudden violence, with atmosphere doing much of the storytelling: muscle cars, bad rooms, worse men. Anyone hoping for an intricate criminal puzzle should adjust expectations, because this is about a man walking a straight line toward the person who ruined him. A strong choice when you want revenge served cold and loud.