Sundance review: 'Charm City Kings' is a fast-moving, high-octane throwback to classic gangster dramas

‘Charm City Kings’

★★★1/2

Playing in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 129 minutes.

Screens again: Tuesday, Jan. 28, 9:30 p.m., Rose Wagner (Salt Lake City); Wednesday, Jan. 29, 9:45 p.m., Eccles (Park City); Thursday, Jan. 30, 12:15 p.m., The Ray (Park City); Saturday, Feb. 1, 8:15 a.m., The MARC (Park City).

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Deftly combining the elements of a crime thriller, a coming-of-age drama and a morality tale, director Angel Manuel Soto’s “Charm City Kings” is a riveting ride through the subculture of Baltimore’s motorbike scene.

That scene, featured in Lofty Nathan’s 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys” (which this movie credits), involves dirtbike riders popping wheelies until the bike is practically at a perpendicular axis to the street — in the 12 o’clock position. It’s popular in some segments of Baltimore, and ridiculously illegal, which is why this movie has something most Sundance movies don’t: A high-speed chase.

Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) is a 14-year-old who’s obsessed with the dirt bike scene, in particular the Midnight Clique, the most bad-ass riders in Baltimore. They’re led by the charismatic Blax (played by the rapper Meek Mill), who is recently out on parole and trying to stay away from the criminal element — i.e., his old crew, who use their bikes as a courier service for drug deals.

Mouse, whose older brother was killed in a dirtbike crash some years back, idolizes Blax and wants to get a vehicle of his own. Blax, who’s trying to go legit as a mechanic, lets Mouse work in his garage, and tells him that if he can rebuild a dirtbike from available parts, he can keep the bike.

Mouse’s obsession with the street bike scene fascinates Nicki (Chandler DuPont), a girl who’s recently moved into the neighborhood. But that obsession also worries the two adult role models in Mouse’s life: His overworked mom (Teyonah Parris), and Det. Rivers (William Catlett), a cop who has been Mouse’s mentor for the last four years.

Soto and screenwriter Sherman Payne — with story credit shared by three writers, including “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins — neatly balance the movie’s action elements, which focus on the bikes, with the hard dramatic beats, as a battle for Mouse’s soul breaks out between Rivers and Blax.

In a solid ensemble cast, Meek Mill stands out in a role reminiscent of bad guys trying to be a good influence for kids in old Warner Bros. gangster dramas. But young Winston gives a strong central performance as a kid trying to figure out which path, and which person of influence, he should follow toward adulthood.