Just perfect...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Brian Jun's Steel City is a fantastic, little heard of indie rust belt drama that deals in choices, consequences, regrets and what it takes to heal, if possible. In the heartlands, a young working class man (Tom Guiry) struggles with pretty much every aspect of his life. His father (an understated John Heard) has been recently incarcerated, and it's tearing him apart, as well as his family. His older brother (Clayne Crawford) is a hotheaded mess. He finds solace when his uncle Vic (Raymond J. Barry, superb) offers him work and sobering life advice in equal doses. He meets a wonderful girl played by America Ferrera, and gradually, bit by bit, his story hits an upswing. This is a small story, revolving around a minuscule faction of the big picture, but that's all it is anyways, thousands of lives unfolding on personal scale, adding up to this mosaic we call humanity. Life goes on for him, and the film is but a small window into one transitionary chapter of his life. Guiry is great, but Ferrera is magic as the kind of girl anyone could only hope to end up with. Barry gives one of the most soulful turns of his storied career as the kind of no nonsense mentor who cares a lot more than is visible behind all that gruff. The kind of life affirming story that finds hope in the oddest of places.

. . . as STEEL CITY's main character Paul Joseph "P.J." Lee (played by Thomas Guiry) informs his ex-Marine Uncle Vic (Raymond J. Barry) early on. This movie boils down to an eternally-ungrateful P.J. getting countless breaks from nearly everyone in his life, wrapping up with the most implausible outcome imaginable--an ironic close which will be troubling to any viewer who has given this film the slightest attention, unless they are a total cynic already. Salvaging a better-than-average 7-out-of-10 rating, however, are plausible acting performances from Guiry, Barry, John Heard as P.J.'s self-sacrificing dad Carl, America Ferrera as his ambitious girlfriend Amy, Laurie Metcalf as P.J.'s nurse mom Marianne, James McDaniel as P.J.'s cop step-dad Randall, and so on through the supporting cast. It's too bad the whole flick is set up for the "other shoe" to drop on P.J.--and it never does! P.S.--To "From Granite City, IL" who starts off saying "I live in 'Steel City' . . ." It seems only fair that a "city" (that term seems to be used here somewhat loosely) should have just ONE natural resource or manufacturing nickname (and I somehow thought PITTSBURGH was "Steel City" already--what, with the Steelers and all). The "steel mill" shown in this movie looks like a steel mini-warehouse to anyone who has seen FLASHDANCE! To illustrate what I mean, I suppose someone once had an actual "rosebush" here where I live (maybe someone still does!). I know the Van Goghs down the street have a tulip bed . . . hmmmm--that must make as "Tulip City," as well. But wait--at the edge of "town" the Greens' farm has that pumpkin patch; come October people come from as far away as Oil City to buy one. So we're "Pumpkin City," too. Furthermore, most near every home here has trees in the front AND backyards: we could be "Tree City." To sum up: If Granite City is in the top three towns nationwide for either granite or steel, better take that nickname. If not, "Podunk's" still available.

After a tragic accident caused by the truck of the middle-aged Carl Lee (John Heard) where a woman dies with a crushed stern, he is arrested and sent to the county jail. His son PJ (Thomas Guiry), who works washing dishes and cleaning tables in a restaurant, feels lost, without financial support to keep his father's house, and is fired from his job and evicted from his house. His older brother Ben (Clayne Crawford) is a harder worker in a mill with a little daughter and cheats his wife with a bartender. Ben has open wounds in his relationship with his father and does not visit him in the jail. Carl's brother Vic Lee (Raymond J. Barry) helps PJ bringing him home but demanding discipline and respect. PJ's mother has just left her husband and is living with a policeman. On Christmas, the remorseful Carl forces PJ to keep an overwhelming secret that bonds them."Steel City" is a low-budget movie that seems to be a very personal family drama, supported by magnificent performances and solid, simple and credible screenplay about people not well succeeded – losers indeed. A father with remorse for leaving his family has a second chance to redeem himself in behalf of his young son and he sacrifices his freedom to compensate his absence in his childhood and adolescence. Therefore this is a beautiful tale of redemption but never being corny or commercial. On the contrary, most of the characters are not nice, and I dare to say that they are unpleasant with their rude behaviors. Nevertheless "Steel City" is a worthy movie. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Atrás das Grades" ("Behind Bars")

Steel City is one of those low-budget movies that makes for satisfying Sundance fare despite lacking the necessary ingredients for broader box-office success. It's the story of a dysfunctional family in a small town in Illinois, centering around 20-year-old PJ (Tom Guiry), who is trying to hold his life together as his father goes to prison for his role in a fatal car accident. PJ is angry, bitter and confused. He can't hold a job or his temper. He resents his older brother Ben (Clayne Clawford), whose life is also unraveling from alcohol, selfishness and philandering. He's feeling alienated from his mother, who has moved in with a black cop and his son. And he tries desperately to be supportive to his father (John Heard), for reasons that gradually emerge in the movie. Finally he is connected to his Uncle Vic (Raymond J. Barry), who helps him get a job and attempts to mentor him.All this may sound vaguely familiar, but director Brian Jun manages to develop the characters with honesty and compassion. By the end of the movie each character has worked out his redemption, and in the process created bonds of love and concern within the family.These Steel City characters feel like real people. The writing is crisp, hard and direct. The casting is terrific and each performance believable. This family will grow on you, and you will find yourself rooting for them to do well, to make good decisions, and to find happiness.