Synopsis
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
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Cast
- Jahi Di'Allo WinstonMouse
- Meek MillBlax
- Teyonah ParrisMouse’s Mom
- William CatlettDetective Rivers
- Kezii CurtisSweartagawd
- Donielle T. Hansley Jr.Lamont
- Milan RayShay
- Chandler DuPontNicki
- Hero HunterYoung Mouse
- Robert DobsonStreet Crowd (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 100
The Playlist
Charm City Kings is beautiful and important, unabashedly Black, yet rarely traumatic, and almost always determined statement. Soto has crafted an incredible empathetic narrative, one mile of road at a time. - 91
The A.V. Club
Charm City Kings distinguishes itself from similar fare not just through its location and eye-popping bikes but also with the believably imperfect people that populate it. - 75
IndieWire
Guided by Angel Manuel Soto’s slick direction and a breakthrough performance from Jahi Di’Allo Winston, the movie works overtime to energize real-world struggles with the thrill of street life. - 75
RogerEbert.com
Its abundance of plot contrivances in the final act and overly scripted dialogue hold it back from greatness, but two excellent performers overcome all of this familiarity. I can't want to see them again. - 70
Time
Charm City Kings lands on an elegiac, bittersweet note rather than a happy one, and doesn’t feature as many crazy, exhilarating bike stunts as you might hope. But in its view of a world where kids make their own fun and also, sometimes, their own bad choices, it rings true. Sometimes becoming a man is the hardest stunt to pull off. - 60
Screen Daily
Sure, the motorcycle wheelies are cool, but there’s nothing more intense than the raw emotion that comes from a mother trying to protect her child. - 60
Los Angeles Times
Charm City Kings clearly knows what it’s doing; unfortunately, what it’s doing is often just as obvious to us. - 50
Variety
The film’s truly ridiculous plot choices — the phony twists that make you leave the theater feeling like you’ve inhaled a tank of carbon monoxide — are its own invention, bolted onto a likable, if formulaic, charmer.
