The film poster
An Israeli Hip Hop musical originally written by The Victor Jackson Show - Amit Ulman (who plays the lead role), Jimbo J (Omer Habron, who plays Jack) and Omer Mor - for the Jerusalem-based Incubator Theater. It ran as a stage show from 2012 to 2022, becoming a cult sensation in local terms. It was made into a feature film in 2023.
Joe is a jaded PI working in a nameless seedy metropolis, along with his best friend and partner Jack. One evening, a mysterious woman from his past walks into his office and asks for help finding her missing sister. Joe acquiesces and inevitably gets sucked into a conspiracy of murder, corruption and out-of-control puns.
This City provides examples of the following tropes:
- Aerith and Bob: The characters display a bizarre mix of Israeli and American names, often for the same character (e.g. Joe Halfon). The most egregious example may be Barnaby Jarbon, who works for the arch-criminal… Menashe. note
- Arc Words:
- "I guessed. Sometimes it works."
- "I knew nothing good will come out of this."
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Sarah first walks into Joe’s office on the night of his birthday, after a surprise party he apparently didn’t enjoy much.
- Bittersweet Ending: Menashe and Jack's killer are exposed and Joe’s name is cleared. However, Joe is left all alone with his partner and only friend dead and his lover standing trial for his murder, while Menashe is possibly still at large.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Joe's detecting methods are… unorthodox, to say the least, employing puns, free associations or "following the money" (literally throwing banknotes in the air and searching where they landed). Somehow, he still usually gets to the solution faster than anyone else, much to the bafflement and annoyance of Jack, who prefers a more traditional route.
- The Cameo: The movie features cameos from about half the rappers in the country, notably Ravid Plotnik in what is described as "the role of a lifetime" (i.e. exactly two seconds of screentime with no dialog).
- The Chanteuse: Subverted. Sarah appears to be working as one, but was actually just performing in an open mic night.
- Conspiracy Theorist: One of the people Joe interrogates about Sarah’s whereabouts launches into a rant which begins with a murder and ends with an elaborate conspiracy involving the Church of Scientology and the Pope. When eventually asked what any of this has to do with Sarah Bennett, he reacts with “Sarah who?”
- Corrupt the Cutie: Sarah’s song implies this is what happened to her when she came to This City, after being abandoned by her lover and forced to do anything it takes to survive. She may be a somewhat unreliable narrator, though.
- Dirty Cop: Every single cop in This City, except McMurphy. Only he is really the dirtiest of them all.
- Dumb Muscle: McMurphy's assistant Chuckie.
- The Dreaded: Stories about Menashe, a sort of local Keyser Söze, start with outlandishly terrifying and go downhill from there. Slightly parodied when the singers describing his over-the-top murderous exploits keep mentioning his difficult childhood and apparent softer side.
- Femme Fatale: Sarah Bennett is the classic, Lady in Red type.
- Foreshadowing: In his first scene in the film, the book on Jack's bedside table is "100 Things to Do Before You Die".
- Gaslighting: McMurphy almost manages to convince Joe that Sarah is just a figment of his guilt-ridden imagination, having killed the girl that is supposed to be her sister and Jack himself and suppressed it. Joe snaps out of it after realizing who McMurphy really is.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: McMurphy and Chuckie use the technique on Joe.
- Graceful Loser: When McMurphy realizes Joe bested him, he just smiles, tips his hat and lets the cops take him away. He probably knew he could break out of prison in a few days, though.
- Hardboiled Detective: Joe.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Most of the characters (including Jack himself) view Jack as this, being the grounded Straight Man in contrast to Joe’s antics. However, Joe may actually be the better detective after all, just a weird one.
- Perpetual Frowner: Joe admittedly doesn't get a lot of reasons to smile during the play, but his permanently sour disposition didn't make him very popular even before that.
- Police Brutality: Joe is at the receiving end of some, courtesy of Chuckie.
- Posthumous Character: Sarah's younger sister is never seen at all in the stage musical, and only as a corpse in the movie.
- Private Eye Monologue: Inevitably. And it rhymes!
- The Scottish Trope: Played with. The singers in Menashe's expository song warn the audience not to say his name to avoid drawing his attention (the same name that was said in approximately every line of the song so far), but then repeat it a few more time "to clarify what you're not supposed to be saying".
- Soiled City on a Hill: According to the title song, This City used to be awesome, but is now hopelessly seedy and corrupt.This city had known better days, brighter days/days when every criminal desisted or was seizeddays when the average GPA was really high/and people always said "bless you" when you sneezed.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: In Joe's final confrontation with the Big Bad.McMurphy: But how did you know? Was it the salt shaker? The wallet? the key in the switch?Joe: Actually, I guessed. Sometimes it works… bitch.
- Troperiffic: Almost every trope and cliché of the hardboiled/noir genre comes into use, and they’re all in verse too.
