Asphalt City (originally titled and released in some countries as Black Flies) is a 2023 American thriller drama film directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and written by Ryan King and Ben Mac Brown, based on the 2008 novel Black Flies by Shannon Burke. It stars Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Raquel Nave, Kali Reis, Michael Pitt, Katherine Waterston, and Mike Tyson.

The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023. It was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions and Vertical on March 29, 2024.

This article needs an improved plot summary. (April 2024)

Rookie paramedic Ollie Cross hopes to pass the Medical College Admission Test and become a doctor. The film follows his partnership with veteran paramedic Gene Rutkovsky as they serve the people of New York City.

In December 2018, Ryan King's screenplay Black Flies, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Shannon Burke, was featured on the Black List, an annual survey of the most-liked yet unproduced scripts of the year.^[10] By February 2019, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire came on board to direct, with Mel Gibson and Tye Sheridan in final negotiations to star.^[3] In February 2021, Sean Penn replaced Gibson in one of the lead roles and was reported that Open Road Films had acquired the U.S. distribution rights.^[5] Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt, Mike Tyson, and Raquel Nave were announced to star in the following months. Filming began in May 2022 in New York City with cinematographer David Ungaro.^[8][4] It was produced by Sculptor Media, FilmNation Entertainment and Projected Picture Works.^[7][4][11]

The film had its world premiere as Black Flies at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.^[12] The film was originally set to be released in the United States by Open Road Films.^[13]

In January 2024, Vertical and Roadside Attractions acquired North American rights to the film, which was renamed Asphalt City, and released it exclusively in theaters on March 29.^[14]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of 45 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Asphalt City can be commended for trying to highlight the unforgiving nature of EMT work, but the unrelentingly grim end results prove a punishing watch."^[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[16]

Eric Ortiz Garcia of Screen Anarchy wrote that the film "finds its power reflecting the brutal level of stress inherent in this profession ... Sauvaire makes his mission explicit: to raise awareness about those paramedics who are completely overwhelmed. That's something the filmmaker achieves."^[17] Tori Brazier of Metro wrote, "Black Flies is a grim tale, and not a recommended watch for the more delicate cinema fan, but its message and lack of subtlety certainly hit home."^[18]

Pete Hammond of Deadline wrote that the film had a "game cast and nice mostly handheld camera work by David Ungaro" but that it failed to offer anything new, and repeated plot points already covered in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999).^[19] David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote, "Black Flies is such an unrelentingly bleak look inside the busted gut of the American healthcare system that its posturing honesty soon curdles into something that's hard to believe."^[20]