NateWatchesCoolMovies Brian Jun's Steel City is a fantastic, little heard of indie rust belt drama that deals in choices, consequences, regrets and what it takes to heal, if possible. In the heartlands, a young working class man (Tom Guiry) struggles with pretty much every aspect of his life. His father (an understated John Heard) has been recently incarcerated, and it's tearing him apart, as well as his family. His older brother (Clayne Crawford) is a hotheaded mess. He finds solace when his uncle Vic (Raymond J. Barry, superb) offers him work and sobering life advice in equal doses. He meets a wonderful girl played by America Ferrera, and gradually, bit by bit, his story hits an upswing. This is a small story, revolving around a minuscule faction of the big picture, but that's all it is anyways, thousands of lives unfolding on personal scale, adding up to this mosaic we call humanity. Life goes on for him, and the film is but a small window into one transitionary chapter of his life. Guiry is great, but Ferrera is magic as the kind of girl anyone could only hope to end up with. Barry gives one of the most soulful turns of his storied career as the kind of no nonsense mentor who cares a lot more than is visible behind all that gruff. The kind of life affirming story that finds hope in the oddest of places.

rddj05 Well, the critics loved it, and yes, it's got that certain verisimilitude that the hundreds of gritty, bleak, docudramas have had before it. And yet, there's not a single thing about this film that makes you want to keep watching. It's got the traditional aspects; the gray/blue washed out color palette, the going-nowhere, stuck in a dead end job lead character, the "I knew a guy just like that in my home town" older brother, that these films always seem to have. The film focuses on endlessly bleak subject matter that it just can't seem to rise above. The cast of characters are fairly stock, and not particularly interesting, and are the usual denizens of working-class middle America. However, America Ferrera does stand out in a relatively small and somewhat thankless role. Screenwriters write monologues to attract name-talent to their projects, but after awhile the endless sloppy exposition just becomes too painful to listen to (Note: if your characters are launching into "Remember whens.." in every other scene, your in dangerous territory.) The lead actor does a decent job, but isn't a particularly interesting to watch, and the setting created certainly isn't much more interesting to look at. In the end, you just feel as if the actors have nowhere to go with this script, but they will surely all have a few scenes for their personal reels. There's nothing here that couldn't have been handled just as well in a documentary. There isn't much of a story here, but the events are more or less predictable, with the exception of an especially improbable "plot" twist two-thirds through the film. No one really seems to want anything, except maybe to get through another day. And as the viewer, you find yourself just trying to get to the end of the film.

slake09 Steel City is the story of a dysfunctional family working through the crisis of the father being jailed. The mother isn't present, although members of the extended family (uncles, etc.) play prominent roles.In my humble opinion, the only reason this movie doesn't have a higher rating is that none of the characters are particularly sympathetic; there isn't a single one of them that you would invite over to your house. In fact, you might be best advised to call 911 the instant any of these characters showed up in your neighborhood.That aside, the movie is enjoyable for the storyline, good acting, and good production values. The secret mentioned in the plot outline isn't such a big secret, don't look for a twist ending or suspense.Watch it when you can't find what you were looking for and have to settle for what's left in the rental store. It makes a pleasant evening of movie watching without being great.

Lee Eisenberg I thought that Brian Jun's "Steel City" ran a little long, but still came out worth seeing. Focusing on a young man (Tom Guiry) and his brother having to deal with their father's (John Heard) imprisonment, the movie probably could have developed America Ferrera's character further. Raymond J. Barry's character was, in my opinion, the best character in the movie; I interpreted him as a sort of glue binding the rest of the characters - and the story - together.As I said earlier, the movie runs a little long. Not too long, but they probably could have trimmed at least a few minutes (or maybe I wouldn't think this had they developed America Ferrera's character further). But overall, I think that the movie is worth seeing, if only once.