St. Michael of the City is a film directed by Jeff Stewart following the return of a criminal to his hometown after being gone for 6 years.

The film stars Adam Ratcliffe as Michael and takes place in … and managed to hold my attention. There was good enough acting by Ratcliffe and even by side characters like Cuz, played by Kevin Interdonato. Michael received different responses from his return like Paulie, played by Brian Anthony Wilson, who was happy about Michael’s return versus an aunt who was just pissed about his silence over the years.

For a film produced by a small company, it is well crafted with a focused storyline that doesn’t confuse the audience. St. Michael returns to old friends, old love, and family while trying to give overdue apologies and trying not to return to the old life he left.

I’d rather not give too much away as I’m not one to enjoy spoilers, but the film’s plot is well thought out and even made my jaw fall at least once.

Stewart did an interesting job with scene cuts, bringing the audience’s attention to one scene to make the crowd wonder what it means only to switch to the next day. Some may not enjoy that, but it kept me on the edge of my seat waiting until we find out what the character saw.

The dialogue was carried out so well it practically seemed like it came out on the spot. The atmosphere didn’t feel forced and while the film has lots of cliches, it still manages to be yet another entertaining gang related film.

My only two turn offs from the film was its interesting light work. The film was constantly set in a studio lighting manner. Brightly lit like a hallmark movie in contrast to how dark the plot attempted to be. It’s nothing too terrible to deter you from the movie but it is something that might get annoying.

A second annoyance is the overuse of curse words. Some films curse and do it casually, smoothly, just sounding like adults in regular conversation. However, whether it was Stewart’s doing or not, the film had multiple times where the use of the f-word was taken but unnecessarily. I don’t shy away from swear words and it’s not something I get offended over but when they sound forced, it quickly becomes corny. Maybe they thought the gang member’s usage of bitter language would make him seem tougher. But for me it did the opposite.