Once upon a time, we had films that told complete and compelling stories without a spoken word. The silent film era created some of our most memorable stars, allowing these performers to tell the breadth of their story without their words. With the new action film Motor City, it’s clear the filmmakers are hoping to build on that style of the past.

Motor City isn’t completely dialogue free, but it’s mostly free of the characters speaking in their own words. That isn’t to say it’s silent. The film has a rich and robust sound design and sound mix. And it relies heavily on a soundtrack of the time to help emphasize the feelings of what we’re being shown.

The film is set in the 1970s in Detroit. We follow John Miller (Alan Ritchison) as he meets Sophia (Shailene Woodley) and they fall in love. But she was connected to another man, Reynolds (Ben Foster), whom John takes down and embarrasses in wooing Sophia. But he and Sophia fall in love.

We see their love story play out to the point where he’s ready to propose. But as he does, his world comes undone. He’s the subject of a police raid, where they discover drugs in his car; a car that was previously stolen. He’s being framed, but it’s enough to torpedo his relationship with Sophia and land him in prison.

It’s all thanks to Reynolds, who among other things has the police on the payroll. After letting John know he’s behind his misfortune, and further that he’s won Sophia back, John is left to rot in prison. But when he learns Reynolds is, again, abusing Sophia, he hatches a plan to gain his freedom and get his revenge.

This is a fascinating concept for telling a story that has a somewhat standard plot. This is completely about the visuals, with the actors doing a lot of heavy lifting in telling the story with facial expressions, actions, and precious little in the way of dialogue. In fact, I’m not sure we hear John utter a single line until the closing of the film. That’s a novel achievement, and one that actually works in a somewhat compelling way.

Ritchison, Foster, Woodley, Ben McKenzie, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, and Amar Chadha-Patel serve as the primary cast. All of them do a great job of being able to tell this story in a unique manner. It lends itself to some rich performances that bring you into the story and hold your attention.

I liked the style here. There is a great use of slow motion and visual storytelling, mixed with some strong scores, a great sound design, and a kicking soundtrack. That’s a credit to the whole team, but specifically director Potsy Ponciroli. He’s delivered some interesting films before, like Old Henry and Greedy People, but nothing quite as visually dynamic as this. It takes a bit to get used to being free of dialogue, but once you slip into the story it’s fascinating to follow the choices made and get drawn into a different kind of storytelling.

There are a lot of cliches in the story, but it still works. It’s quite violent at times, particularly in a wild third act. I didn’t totally love the ending, but it works well enough. This is an interesting approach to the material, and a fascinating movie-going experience to round out July.

Motor City is now playing nationwide.

Matthew Fox is a graduate of the Radio, Television and Film program at Biola University, and a giant nerd. He spends his free time watching movies, TV, and obsessing about football. He is a member of the FSWA. You can find him @knighthawk7734 on Twitter and as co-host of the Fantasy Football Roundtable Podcast.