Charm City Kings (2020)

January 27, 2020 (US) • Drama • 125m

Overview

Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

Director

Ángel Manuel Soto

Writers

Sherman Payne, Barry Jenkins, Chris Boyd, Kirk Sullivan

Top Billed

Jahi Di'Allo Winston

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Top Billed Cast

Jahi Di'Allo Winston

Mouse

Meek Mill

Blax

Teyonah Parris

Mouse’s Mom

William Catlett

Detective Rivers

Kezii Curtis

Sweartagawd

Donielle T. Hansley Jr.

Lamont

Milan Ray

Shay

Chandler DuPont

Nicki

Hero Hunter

Young Mouse

Robert Dobson

Street Crowd (uncredited)

Pacino Braxton

Jamal

Lakeyria Doughty

Queen

Pug

Stro

Jeanette Maus

Dr. Parish

Cecelia Ann Birt

Grandma

Arnold Y. Kim

Convenience Store Owner (as Arnold Kim)

Kate Pak

Convenience Store Owner's Wife (as Hyonkyung Kate O'Leary)

Marvin Raheem

Derrick

David Andrew MacDonald

Uniform Cop (as David MacDonald)

Darren Alford

Kid

Nathan Corbett

Cop

Talia Williams

Pretty Girl

LaTonya Blue

Friend

Timeka Brown

Friend

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Reporter

Gina Jun

Dog Owner at Vet's Office

Obada Adnan

Tre'a Bertrille

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Wenston Black

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Rick Kelvin Branch

Passer-by / Car Driver (uncredited)

Damien R. Campbell

Dame (uncredited)

Stephanie Cookie Carson

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Charles D. Clark

Trap House King Pin (uncredited)

Keith Crosby

Ride Crowd / Bus Passenger (uncredited)

Eileen Davis

Crowd Spectator (uncredited)

C'yana Denby

Pretty Girl (uncredited)

LaDana Drigo

Bike Crowd (uncredited)

Victor Ellis

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Richard Ricky D Evans

Bus Rider / Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Melanie Howard

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Adam Huff

Ride Spectator (uncredited)

Dominic Jackson

Rider

Wain Jenkins

Passerby / Ridecrowd (uncredited)

Makayla Jones

Student (uncredited)

Eric Lamont

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Angela R. Liles

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Tiana Melvina Woods

Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Antoinette Montgomery

Core Ride Crowd (uncredited)

Stephanie Parker

Police Officer (uncredited)

Ramona Rideout

Young woman in crowd (uncredited)

Rxchie

Rider

Mashawn Robertson

Gas Station Customer (uncredited)

Marcellus ''Bassman'' Shepard

Trap House Leader (uncredited)

Memo Sanchez

Crew

Lotfy Nathan

Co-Producer

Lotfy Nathan

Idea

Christine Foley

Art Direction

Tiffany Zappulla

Set Decoration

Sandra Linn Koepper

Makeup Department Head

Joseph Fraioli

Sound Effects Editor

Frédéric Dubois

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Frédéric Dubois

Supervising Sound Editor

Joel Dougherty

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Ángel Manuel Soto

Director

Clarence Hammond

Producer

Caleeb Pinkett

Producer

Sherman Payne

Screenplay

Barry Jenkins

Story

Jada Pinkett Smith

Executive Producer

Marc Bienstock

Producer

Will Smith

Executive Producer

James Lassiter

Executive Producer

Katelin Arizmendi

Director of Photography

Scott Dougan

Production Design

Luis Carballar

Editor

Mary Vernieu

Casting

Alex Somers

Original Music Composer

Kairo Courts

Costume Designer

Lindsay Graham Ahanonu

Casting

Chris Boyd

Story

Kirk Sullivan

Story

Peter Bucossi

Stunt Driver

Reviews

tmdb28039023

⭐ 6/10

August 30, 2022

Charm City Kings evokes such films as Boyz n’ the Hood, A Bronx Tale, and Torque. I know; one of those things isn’t like the others. The filmmakers, however, put the motorcycle fetish to good use, infusing it with imagery that’s almost religious in order to reveal its real-world impracticality.

Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) is a bright 14-year-old boy with a natural affinity for and encyclopedic knowledge of animals that make him a natural-born veterinarian — if he lives long enough to become one.

His late older brother Stro (Tyquan Ford), whom Mouse idolized, has become the patron saint of Mouse's adoration of bikes; whenever he speaks about them, Mouse is overwhelmed with a kind of ecstatic, frantic fervor.

Meanwhile, gangbanger Blax (Meek Mill) and detective Rivers (Will Catlett) butt heads over Mouse’s future. It’s worth noting that this conflict is not distilled into a black-and-white morality, and the two men strike an unexpected deal to ensure Mouse gets a second chance.

The film has been skillfully staged, photographed and edited (Katelin Arizmendi’s cinematography in particular provides us with a vivid experience of the Baltimore summer streets) — perhaps a little too much so; there’s a high speed chase that ironically seems to glorify exactly the sort of behavior that the movie as a whole condemns. Cutting this sequence would have solved another pressing issue: that of the excessive running time.

I’m splitting hairs, though; unlike most movies about motorized criminals (like Fast and Furious, to mention one other than Torque), Charm City Kings knows that actions have consequences; can't live life in the fast lane very long without crashing sooner or later.

The film is also aware that cycles must be broken for things to change. Mouse goes down the same path as his brother, never stopping to think that he could end up the same way; on the contrary, he is convinced that for some reason he is different, special — and he is, or rather, he could be, if he really wanted to.

I'm always complaining about kids acting like adults in movies for no other reason than that it's 'cute.' Here, though, Winston acts not like an adult but like a child doing his best to appear older than his age to fit in with the group he wants to be a part of.

Fittingly, his performance isn't resolute and steady but tentative and uncertain, and that's the perfect note for the character (Blax even warns him that a real man doesn't stutter or look down, failing to realize at the time that Mouse remains, despite his bravado, a kid who has no idea what he's getting himself into). This is a great performance from Winston as a kid who, on streets where children must often grow too fast for their own good, wants to be the first to cross the finish line.

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Status

Released

Original Language

Budget

—

Revenue

—

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Charm City Kings (2020)

Sherman Payne, Barry Jenkins, Chris Boyd, Kirk Sullivan

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

tmdb28039023

Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

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