CITY OF DREAMS
A harrowing cry against slave labor — powerful, and hard to watch.
Should You Watch It?
Here is the decision. This is a serious, well-acted film with a moral spine — a harrowing plea to rise up against human trafficking and slave labor in America and elsewhere. Ari Lopez gives a terrific performance as Jesús, and the story never lets you forget that the real horrors are likely worse than anything on screen. Many celebrities have lined up behind its timely message, and you can see why.
But the film earns its R rating hard. The beatings of a captive boy and an older man are disturbing, even when the camera looks away and shows only the bloody aftermath. Two teenage girls are taken to be sex trafficked. And the script drops far too many gratuitous "f" words for the gravity it's reaching for.
So: if you are an adult drawn to justice stories and can bear the brutality, this is worth your time — but watch it at home, where you control the room and can pause when it's heavy. It was never for young eyes.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESA man in rural Mexico says goodbye to his teenage son, Jesús — a mute boy who believes he's bound for a camp with a professional soccer team in Los Angeles.
Instead, once across the border, he's dropped at a rundown three-story house: a hidden sweatshop where illegal immigrants, some of them children, are forced to sew clothes for boutique shops. Jesús knows nothing about sewing. The men who run the place don't care. To survive, he'll have to decide how far he's willing to go — and that's where we'll stop.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars, and here is what they mean. The film's engine is Ari Lopez, whose performance as Jesús carries the whole harrowing story. To escape his circumstances in his mind, Jesús imagines himself receiving accolades as a professional soccer player, and those flights of hope give the darkness somewhere to go.
Director Mo Ramchandani stages an exciting, intense chase in the second half that genuinely grips. Where the film stumbles is at its climax: an extremely dramatic moment near the end gets diluted by artsy flourishes that get in the way of the drama rather than sharpening it. The film is strongest when it trusts its own urgency and weakest when it reaches for style. What remains is a powerful, imperfect drama that says something worth saying.
The Worldview
At its core this is a moral film with a clear conscience. It looks squarely at the evil of slave labor and refuses to shrug. It carries some overt Christian references, including a prayer petitioning God that's repeated twice and mentions Heaven; other characters refer to God or bear Christian symbols. The film's central conviction — that human beings are not property to be bought, beaten, and discarded — is one Scripture holds without qualification.
The picture is muddied, though, by a Mexican shaman figure who appears during the repeated prayer and whom Jesús sometimes imagines chasing him. The movie doesn't explain him, and the sudden appearances don't really work dramatically. The reviewer notes that indigenous people in Mexico sometimes blend the Christianity they learned from the Catholic Church with older pagan beliefs; here that blend surfaces as a scary, unresolved presence rather than as anything the story understands. In the end, Jesús releases a primal scream against his captors — closer to human defiance than to hope in God.
The film also depicts corruption casually — higher-ups in the LAPD and the Department of Homeland Security seem indifferent to the trafficking under their noses — and the man who brings Jesús across the border later admits he's bisexual.
Underneath the horror runs a longing the film feels but cannot fully name: rescue for the captive. Scripture puts words to it — the Lord came "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral worldview in harrowing, dark drama about a large house in Los Angeles being used as a slave labor clothes manufacturing place for the garment industry, with some Christian references, including a prayer petitioning God, but there’s a Mexican shaman character who’s may be imaginary, and an effeminate man says he likes both boys and girls
Foul Language
About 31 obscenities (including 15 or so “f” words and some “s” words), one Jesus profanity, one GD profanity, two light profanities, and a few Spanish obscenities
Violence
Some extreme and strong violence includes teenage boy held captive in a slave labor sweat shop is whipped (camera shows a young thug using a whip on the boy, but the whip hitting his back is not shown, just the bloody scars left on boy’s back), boy is beaten two other times and must lie in his own blood, boy is placed into solitary confinement, the young thug beats up and punches an older adult man repeatedly, and the man lays unconscious in his bloody, older adult man slaps boy, lengthy chase scene shows boy running and being chased by men running the slave labor sweatshop, man holds knife at boy’s throat while being surrounded by armed police, boy wears a bloody soccer shirt
Sex
Teenage girl hides her naked body in a blurry video clip while she’s being auctioned, another blurry video shows a naked couple on a bed
Nudity
Upper male nudity in many scenes and implied explicit nudity in two scenes
Alcohol Use
Some beer drinking
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Brief smoking but no drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Higher ups in the LAPD seem to be corrupt and the Department of Homeland Security seems corrupt when it comes to human trafficking and slave labor, deceit, and illegal immigrant criminal rants against the promises he was given about life in the United States (he feels betrayed, but he’s not a nice man himself).
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film shows human beings bought, sold, and beaten as if they were property. What does Scripture say about the worth of every person, and about God's heart for the oppressed?
Genesis 1:27 · Proverbs 31:8–9Jesús finds a moment of solace with Elena before she's taken away. How do people keep hope and tenderness alive even in the darkest places — and where does lasting hope actually come from?
Psalm 34:18 · Romans 5:3–5The police and Homeland Security officials in the story seem indifferent to the evil happening under their noses. When those in authority look away, what responsibility falls to the rest of us?
Isaiah 1:17 · James 4:17The film ends with Jesús letting out a primal scream against his captors. When we're wronged, what's the difference between raw defiance and the kind of justice and deliverance God promises?
Psalm 10:17–18 · Romans 12:19The Final Word
This is a hard, honest film with a message worth hearing — and a brutality that puts it out of reach for young viewers. If you're an adult drawn to stories that confront real evil, it's wait for home — adults only, where you set the room and control the volume. Looking for something the whole family can share instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.
