Asphalt City (2022)

Upstart paramedic Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) courses through adrenaline-fueled nights in an ambulance for the New York City Fire Department in Brownsville, Brooklyn while spending days studying for med-school exams in a Chinatown hovel. Working alongside seasoned first responder Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn), Cross discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, and occasionally stretches into ethical ambiguity. Furthering his examination of violence inside institutions and among close-knit groups, French filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire (A Prayer Before Dawn) turns his unflinching and inquisitive eye on his adopted hometown of New York City in all its ragged glory. Sauvaire concocts a visceral and immersive thriller out of the complex and grueling lives of emergency medical technicians and the everyday people they live to save.