Cut Throat City wants to be both a heist film and a portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans, and while it’s not quite there as either one, it remains watchable thanks largely to its stacked cast and RZA’s competent direction.

| Feb 3, 2023

Musician-turned-filmmaker RZA and screenwriter Paul Cuschieri team up for a blistering takedown on post-Katrina FEMA relief work in New Orleans.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 23, 2022

As we struggle to come to terms with the sins of our country's past and present, Cut Throat City helps us to better see the sickness within our society.

| Mar 7, 2021

Rza 3rd offering as a director, Cut Throat City, is a take on the 90's coming of age films such as Boyz in the Hood and Juice.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 19, 2021

It tries to do a lot, but ultimately doesn't do enough.

| Jan 22, 2021

While shaggy in its wide-eyed ambition, this heist-drama packs a potent thematic punch alongside its pulpy elements.

| Nov 12, 2020

Although the plot has too many elements spinning off in all sorts of directions to be truly coherent, and the backdrop deserves a bigger role than it's given, the big-time cast is worth the audience's focus.

| Oct 23, 2020

... this tale of four friends trying to survive in a broken system has enough meat from the thematic elements to make the slightly complex narrative worth sticking it out for.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 19, 2020

For once dialogue is written to reflect the way Back people really talk masked in an male urban version of Set It Off in the big Easy. Ethan Hawke slays along with Wesley Snipes, T.I. and Terrance Howard.

| Oct 11, 2020

The good bits are worth pondering after the film has ended, and the bad bits will make the viewer wonder where everything went so far off the rails.

| Original Score: 4.5/10 | Oct 8, 2020

Cut Throat City, despite its talented cast and an effort to be a somewhat stylish-looking film, still serves up [a] recycled and uninspired concept in a movie that doesn't really do anything for the genre of gangster films.

| Sep 23, 2020

What lifts Cut Throat City far above the expected, is the political fury that propels it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 17, 2020

Maybe RZA could have done more with a bigger budget, as this local story feels too unmoored from its surroundings, failing to capture the essence or vibe of New Orleans.

| Original Score: 2.3/5.0 | Sep 5, 2020

This has a rich sense of place and an incredible cast of supporting actors.

| Sep 1, 2020

I do think that Shameik Moore does a lot to ground the emotions of this film... It's fun moment-to-moment and it has a strong sense of character, but the overall piece is a little bit messy.

| Sep 1, 2020

"Cut Throat City" is a very dark, gritty and violent gangster thriller.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 28, 2020

Sometimes the machinery of the plot gets a little hard to believe, but our investment in the characters is always there to keep us going despite the somewhat excessive run time.

| Aug 27, 2020

Director RZA's epic crime drama is ungainly, overly long, and overly familiar, but its particular time and setting give it an ambitious scope and a righteous passion that energize it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 27, 2020

A film which feels overbaked and in desperate need of editing.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 24, 2020

RZA and writer P.G. Cuschieri do something that is sorely lacking in most genre movies.

| Aug 24, 2020