NR | 1h 39m | Adventure, Comedy, Drama | 2020
New York City runs like a pressure cooker. Sidewalk traffic, subway cars, and rideshares push people together. People catch fragments of conversations, see arguments flare up over nothing, and watch strangers build entire personas in the span of a few blocks.
That kind of environment sits at the center of indie adventure flick, “Alberto and the Concrete Jungle,” and director Chris Shimojima clearly knows it from the inside out. Unlike many indie movies where New York just sits in the background, this one treats New York more like a running machine.
The city keeps affording its main character, Alberto Buenaventura (Alejandro Santoni), into increasingly ridiculous encounters. One minute, he’s dealing with something that almost passes for normal, and the next, he’s surrounded by people who seem pulled from some off-kilter stage play.
At first, the film plays out like a slice of life. It then turns into a slice of compressed life, the kind that only works in a place where everyone is on top of each other and no one has the patience to smooth things out. A lot of the humor comes from that kind of close proximity, and anyone who has spent time in the city will recognize that rhythm almost immediately.
A City That Won’t Let Go
The film follows Alberto, a roaming photojournalist who runs on impulse and instinct. New York is just one stop in his life journey. He keeps his baggage light, with just a camera, laptop, and a few other belongings. He then disappears into whatever country calls next.
He’s wrapping up in New York, trying to catch a flight to Romania and move on like he always does. But his plan is derailed when a ruthless social media boss forces him into a deal that keeps him in the city for a full year. For someone wired to keep moving, it feels like a trap snapping shut.
Buenaventura starts looking for a way out, and that search turns into a city-wide gauntlet. Soon, he’s running all over the boroughs chasing connections, permissions, and half-promises that barely hold together. Every person he meets has his or her own angle, and each stop shifts the situation again. He’s on a scavenger hunt where the prize keeps moving just out of reach.
In the middle of his search, he runs into Marina Gabrielle Caron (Julie Voshell), who keeps colliding with him at the worst moments. She pushes back, talks fast, and refuses to make anything easy. Buenaventura keeps trying to stay one step ahead, bouncing from one part of the city to another, chasing the idea that he can still break free before everything crashes down on him.
Rough Edges, Real Moments
While living in Manhattan, I remember stepping out just to grab something simple and running into someone I knew (or someone I’d never met). Suddenly the whole day changed. My carefully laid plans would get pushed aside, and before I knew it, I was pulled into something I hadn’t planned. That kind of drift, where the day takes over, and you just follow it, is the feeling this film nails.
There’s a reason this feels so dialed into New York’s particular brand of human behavior. Shimojima comes out of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and works out of the city. That shows up in the way people talk, interrupt, push, and circle back around.
Nothing feels polished and conversations overlap, with scenes that stretch past where you’d expect them. The camera often feels like it’s chasing the moment instead of staging it.
Scenes tend to pile up, with some being more effective than others. The film can feel like a string of episodes stitched together rather than a movie with one clean arc. There’s also a scrappy appeal like it’s figuring itself out in real time rather than locking into a fixed cinematic structure.
What keeps it watchable is how actor Santoni holds the center. He carries the film with a constant forward push that keeps viewers focused on where he’s headed, even when the path gets a little disjointed.
When the journey starts to wear thin, there’s still something appealing in how “Alberto and the Concrete Jungle” captures that restless, go-anywhere way of living. It keeps the film from feeling like a wasted trip.
“Alberto and the Concrete Jungle” is available on GanJingWorld.
‘Alberto and the Concrete Jungle’
Director: Chris Shimojima
Starring: Alejandro Santoni, Julie Voshell, Rami Margron
Not Rated
Running Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2020
Rated: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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