City of Dreams

City of Dreams is not perfect, but it is extremely well crafted, and as such, I highly recommend it.

Ramchandani delivers a dazzling third act chase, on foot, through L.A.’s sweatshop district, a nervy, hand-held sprint that finally gets this static story up on its feet.

Ramchandani’s baffling screenplay contains the most obvious, stock archetypes of people recurrent in Hollywood’s uninteresting depictions of Latino communities. Yet, its dialogue, which ranges from the laughably stereotypical to the downright absurd in the context of a sweatshop, stands out as the most unforgivable affront.

The film resembles less a realistic peek into the modern slavery of immigrants in America as it does grist for the torture porn mill.

It is another advocacy film without answers, pretending that the mere act of bringing awareness to a problem solves it.