Sometimes you fall in love with a film from one of the very first scenes.
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Sometimes you fall in love with a film from one of the very first scenes. Twelve year-old Alejandro (called Ale, and played by Alejandro Polanco) and his friend step onto a train with boxes of candy for sale. Ale addresses the passengers: "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the interruption. We are not gonna lie to you. We are not here selling no candy for no school basketball team. In fact, I don´t even go to school, and if you want me back in school today, I got candy for you." And there you have the entire film (and its protagonist) in a nutshell: no nonsense and a whole lot of courage.
This is no shortage of films and filmmakers that "Chop Shop" (2007) bears a resemblance to. Influences that readily spring to mind are Vittorio de Sica, Abbas Kiarostami, the Dardenne Brothers, and early Martin Scorsese (think "Mean Streets") among others. That list places "Chop Shop" firmly in the social-realist camp but Ramin Bahrani´s brilliant film carves out a niche all its own.
For one, the film does not rely in even the tiniest bit on pathos. There are no big "moments" and, for that matter, there aren´t really even any major turning points. This doesn´t mean there isn´t plenty of drama or tension; it´s just that none of the events that occur come pre-packaged for instant consumption or easy analysis. This might lead you to think the film is somewhat opaque or, heaven forbid, "artsy" but that´s also not the case. "Chop Shop" is a film readily accessible to any audience and I mean that: I think kids could easily understand the movie if the world it describes it alien to them. "Chop Shop" is, quite simply, a film about life being lived, always in the moment, hurtling forward but with no sense of where or sometimes even why.
"Chop Shop" takes place in the Willet´s Point neighborhood of Queens, right in the shadow of Shea Stadium; chants of "Let´s go Mets!" can be heard in the background but they might as well be voices from halfway around the world. Alejandro busts his ass to make a living in a world of auto parts dealers and street hustlers. He flags down cars that drive down the road looking for cheap repairs, guiding them to his boss Rob´s shop. On his off-time, he sells bootlegged DVDs or anything else he can find. Soon after the film opens his 16 year-old sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzalez) arrives from a safe house (we never know why, though we can guess) to live with him in a tiny apartment above Rob´s garage.
I´m not going to waste my time telling you anything else that happens in "Chop Shop" because it might spoil the experience for you, and it´s also not necessary to discuss the film. Suffice to say that, in more typical dramatic fashion, Ale and his sister encounter their share of setbacks along the way, and overcome as best they can. The remarkable part of it is Ale´s unflagging optimism and determination. No matter how desperate his situation might seem to the viewer, he never once exhibits any sign of self-pity. He is an entirely pragmatic young man: see problem, find solution. That´s how his life works, and how else could it be? He has grown mature before his time, but he´s also still a boy. He can enjoy hanging out with his friends, riding his bike, and chucking shopping carts over the side of a bridge.
Bahrani´s film, with its roving hand-held camera, can be described as "documentary-like" but that gives a false impression. He doesn´t approach the film or this sub-culture with the eye of an anthropologist; the camera lives in the moment along with the characters. There is no sense of the filmmakers rising above the material to assume a god´s eye perspective of this world, though no doubt this is a matter of deft sleight of hand on the part of Bahrani and his crew. The film emphasizes naturalism to the point where the auto shop owner (Rob Sowulski) plays himself as do several other characters. And according to Bahrani, Ale actually worked in Willet´s Point for several months prior to the shooting of this film so he would know exactly how to handle the job.
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[release]24278[/release]