City of Dreams (2024)
Directed by: Mohit Ramchandani
Premise: Based on true events. A Mexican boy (Ari Lopez) is recruited to attend a soccer camp but instead he is sold to a sweatshop in Los Angeles. He labors under abusive conditions while a police officer (Jason Patric) tries to break the case.
What Works: City of Dreams is a social issue drama but the filmmakers avoid some of the pitfalls typical of those kinds of movies. A lot of social issue dramas are very self-serious and sometimes that’s appropriate depending on the subject matter but that self-importance can come across didactic or pretentious. City of Dreams never feels that way in large part because the story and characters are prioritized with the politics growing organically out of the drama. The movie is the tale Jesus, a teenage boy who has been tricked into enslavement, and City of Dreams is Jesus’ struggle to escape horrific conditions. The filmmakers take us on a tour of the human trafficking system, starting in Jesus’ Mexican village where he is groomed by a trafficker and later through the manufacturing supply chain where the underground exploitation meets the above ground market. This is conveyed visually; the filmmakers don’t stop to explain it but attentive viewers will absorb the point. City of Dreams is extremely well shot by Alejandro Chávez and Trevor Roach. The film has a grimy look and the dramatic lighting of a dungeon but Jesus’ soccer dreams are shot like a sports commercial which makes an interesting connection given the role of exploited labor in producing sportswear. The performances are exceptional. Ari Lopez plays Jesus and he has almost no dialogue but Lopez conveys his character’s thoughts through his posture and facial expression. One of the extraordinary qualities of City of Dreams is the way it finds the humanity in these horrible conditions. Alfredo Castro plays the sweatshop supervisor and he’s evil but the filmmakers acknowledge how he is the product of an abusive system without diminishing his culpability or monstrosity. Social issue dramas seek to provoke righteous indignation in the viewer and the characterization and the filmmaking craft do that effectively.
What Doesn’t: City of Dreams is difficult to watch. The story deals unsparingly with child abuse and human tracking and most of the film has an unpleasant, dirty feel. That approach is appropriate to the subject matter. However, City of Dreams stops at a relatively easy point. Objecting to child abuse is not particularly challenging. The story has some larger implications that it doesn’t quite address. Local government and law enforcement are implicated in the trafficking scheme but this is never substantiated. The end of the film also feels incomplete. It ends on an implied question as to what will happen to the trafficking victims. There is some hint of an answer but the filmmakers don’t take that final step. City of Dreams ends prematurely before it can make its most potentially provocative statement.
Bottom Line: City of Dreams is a bold portrait of exploitation and abuse. It’s an unpleasant film to watch and City of Dreams stops short of making a more politically challenging point but as it is the picture tells a compelling story while inciting outrage against this system.
Episode: #1012 (September 8, 2024)