“HARROWING TALE OF SLAVE LABOR”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
CITY OF DREAMS features a terrific performance by Ari Lopez as the teenage boy, Jesús. There’s an exciting chase sequence, but another climactic, dramatic moment is diluted by some chaotic, artsy flourishes. CITY OF DREAMS makes an urgent plea for people to rise up against human trafficking and slave labor in America and elsewhere. However, the movie has too many gratuitous “f” words, and the beatings are disturbing. CITY OF DREAMS also has brief references to sex trafficking. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
CONTENT:
Strong moral worldview in harrowing, dark drama about a large house in Los Angeles being used as a slave labor clothes manufacturing place for the garment industry, with some Christian references, including a prayer petitioning God, but there’s a Mexican shaman character who’s may be imaginary, and an effeminate man says he likes both boys and girls;
About 31 obscenities (including 15 or so “f” words and some “s” words), one Jesus profanity, one GD profanity, two light profanities, and a few Spanish obscenities;
Some extreme and strong violence includes teenage boy held captive in a slave labor sweat shop is whipped (camera shows a young thug using a whip on the boy, but the whip hitting his back is not shown, just the bloody scars left on boy’s back), boy is beaten two other times and must lie in his own blood, boy is placed into solitary confinement, the young thug beats up and punches an older adult man repeatedly, and the man lays unconscious in his bloody, older adult man slaps boy, lengthy chase scene shows boy running and being chased by men running the slave labor sweatshop, man holds knife at boy’s throat while being surrounded by armed police, boy wears a bloody soccer shirt;
Teenage girl hides her naked body in a blurry video clip while she’s being auctioned, another blurry video shows a naked couple on a bed;
Upper male nudity in many scenes and implied explicit nudity in two scenes;
Some beer drinking;
Brief smoking but no drugs; and,
Higher ups in the LAPD seem to be corrupt and the Department of Homeland Security seems corrupt when it comes to human trafficking and slave labor, deceit, and illegal immigrant criminal rants against the promises he was given about life in the United States (he feels betrayed, but he’s not a nice man himself).
MORE DETAIL:
CITY OF DREAMS is a harrowing drama about a mute teenage Mexican boy tricked into coming to Los Angeles illegally to take part in a camp for the local professional soccer team, only to find that he’s been sold to an illegal sweat shop hidden in a large house. CITY OF DREAMS features a terrific performance by Ari Lopez as the mute teenage boy and makes an urgent plea for people to rise up against slave labor in America and elsewhere, but it has too many gratuitous “f” words, the boy and a man are beaten terribly in the movie, and two teenage girls are taken away to be sex trafficked.
The movie opens with a man in rural Mexico saying goodbye to his teenage son, Jesús. He’s picked up by Rodrigo, an effeminate man who speaks both Spanish and English. In Los Angeles, Rodrigo lies to a police officer and shows him a passport for Jesús under a different name. He drops Jesús off at a sweat shop hidden in a large three story house.
The house is crowded with illegal immigrants forced to sew and make clothes, especially dresses, for boutique shops. The place is run by an unkempt older man called El Jefe. Discipline is enforced by a young thug named Cesar. El Jefe falsely offers freedom for the workers if they complete their quotas.
Jesús knows nothing about sewing and has trouble learning. So, El Jefe hits him, and Cesar whips him.
Despite the harsh conditions, Jesús finds solace in a teenage girl, Elena, who also sews dresses. Elena nurses him back to health after being whipped. In one scene, they kiss, but shortly thereafter, a woman arrives and takes Elena away, to turn her into a prostitute.
When another co-worker, an older adult man, is severely beaten, Jesús decides he needs to get out of there. However, where can he run to?
Meanwhile, the police officer who was deceived in the beginning of the movie, starts investigating local slave labor and fixates on Cesar, who’s been seen outside the house where Jesús works. However, the officer has a bad record with his bosses, who don’t seem to care about the slave labor taking place under their noses.
CITY OF DREAMS features a terrific performance by Ari Lopez as the teenage boy, Jesús. To escape his dire circumstances, Jesús imagines himself receiving accolades on the field as a professional soccer player. Director Mo Ramchandani inserts an exciting, intense chase scene in the movie’s second half, but an extremely climactic moment toward the end is diluted by some artsy flourishes that get in the way of the drama.
CITY OF DREAMS makes an urgent plea for people to rise up against human trafficking and slave labor in America and elsewhere. Many celebrities have gotten behind this movie because of its timely message.
CITY OF DREAMS has some overt Christian references, including a prayer to God that’s repeated twice and includes a reference to Heaven. However, a Mexican shaman is depicted during the repeat of the prayer. The shaman is a scary figure who the boy, Jesús, sometime imagines chasing him. The movie doesn’t really explain this, but indigenous people in Mexico sometimes mix the Christianity they’ve learned from the Catholic Church with their previous pagan beliefs. Other characters in the movie refer to God or have Christian symbols. The sudden appearances of the shaman don’t really work in the story. Also, in the end, Jesús releases a primal scream against his captors.
CITY OF DREAMS tells a pretty harrowing story. The real stories of human trafficking and slave labor are probably even more harrowing than this movie. However, CITY OF DREAMS has too many unnecessary “f” words in the script. Also, the boy is beaten three times in the movie. The movie usually cuts away from showing the beatings and the whipping. However, it does show the bloody aftermath. In addition, an older adult worker is beaten and punched repeatedly in another violent scene. In two other scenes, an older woman takes away two teenage girls working in the sweat shop to be sex trafficked. While trying to find a way out, Jesús comes across a blurry video of one of the girls hiding her naked body while being auctioned. In a second scene, a police officer comes across a memory card with a blurry video of a girl with a client in a bedroom. Finally, the man who drives Jesús to Los Angeles later admits he’s bisexual.
MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for CITY OF DREAMS.