Restless City

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  • Opened April 27, 2012 
  • 1 hr 20 min
  • R | Some drug use and brief sexuality
  • Restless City offers the daily life-world of new york’s African diaspora. This glimpse of a world unto itself, whose daily machinations are usually hidden from view, highlights its teeming energy of aspiration and its harsh constriction by financial and social limitations. The film highlights the simultaneous precariousness and spiritedness of life in such a milieu. All of the characters are caught in a narrow web of patronage, obligation, and refuge that puts their morality to the test. Without full or easy access to the “promised land” of New York City, those just embarking on adulthood face concrete, difficult decisions in a necessarily ambiguous moral arena: one is always walking a tightrope, at risk of falling into a vortex of danger and ethical compromise. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Sy Alassane, Sky Grey, Anthony Okungbowa, Femi Olagok, Ishmael Omolade
  • Director: Andrew Dosunmu
  • Genres: Drama

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Fans say Go
4 fans
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Critics say So-So
59 out of 100
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Fan Reviews

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Top 10 Movies of the Year

by fred.soffa

Entertaining. Sophisticated. Gorgeous to watch. New York City as you've never seen it before. Andrew Dosunmu shows his ability for pacing, emotional connection, and how to put a film together....

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The essence of love and boldness of color: BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART!

by moore.tamira

I thoroughly enjoyed this work of art... It was beautiful! The colors, the character exchanges, and camera angles! Loved how Djibril looked beyond Trini's surface and job to try to love and...

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Restless City

by GroovyBecca

The cinematography was awesome! The leading lady is absolutely beautiful ? no homo! Unfortunately, I was late and missed the beginning. ….. I?m thinking that is why I did not connect all the dots….....

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Critic Reviews

80
The Hollywood Reporter
|

In this intense twist on the American Dream, director Andrew Dosunmu vividly captures the pulsating dynamic of New York city's pan-African community, a robust aggregation that subsists amid an often hostile foreign environment. Read full review

75
Boston Globe
| Wesley Morris

With Dosunmu, African culture thrives in a demographically shifting but historically African-American part of town. If the idea is that Nollywood could work in Manhattan, this is the director who can show us how. Read full review

70
Village Voice
| Ernest Hardy

Told in an elliptical style with a pacing and jagged rhythms that take some getting used to, the thrust and power of the film lies in its poetic imagery. Read full review

70
Variety
|

Picture's visual elegance makes a limited arthouse life possible, although Nigerian-born fashion photog-turned-helmer Andrew Dosunmu is far more interested in aesthetics than narrative in erecting his visually poetic "City." Read full review

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