City of Hope

In a fictional New Jersey city, the son of a construction magnate, the only Black member of the council, laid off workers, police and small-time hustlers are all narrated at once. John Sayles moves by handing the camera from one character to the next, so scenes are linked by a walk and the city reads as a single organism. The subject is not corruption but the fact that everyone is slightly right and slightly complicit: nobody builds the system alone and everybody takes something from it. Racial tension, development money and electoral arithmetic are inseparable. It is among the best demonstrations of Sayles's ability to handle a large cast and one of the standouts of nineties American independent film. Who it is for: viewers who like ensemble storytelling and political cinema. Who it is not for: anyone wanting one protagonist, since the film keeps changing people.