Chop Shop

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Buy This Item Chop Shop by KOCH Lorber Films  Available from Amazon  $23.99  on 8-10-2008     Set in Willet's Point an industrial sprawl of auto repair shops and junkyards in outer New York City CHOP SHOP tells the story of 12-year-old Alejandro (Alejandro Polanco) an orphan living a hardscrabble existence in the "Iron Triangle." The boy earns a meager living hustling customers into body shops hawking candy on the subway and helping to chop up the parts of stolen cars. But he dreams of a better life. When his older sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales) comes to live with him Alejandro devises a plan to escape their desperate situation: they'll buy a lunch truck that they can run together. Alejandro begins stashing money and even indulges in criminal activity to achieve his goal. When he learns a devastating secret about his sister it makes him more determined than ever to change things. But reality proves a difficult opponent in his struggle for the American dream. Full of naturalistic performances and exquisite handheld photography CHOP SHOP shows a side of New York that is rarely seen in films about the Big Apple. Its characters mostly immigrants inhabit a landscape of rubbish-strewn alleys deafening expressways and rusted steel. Manhattan's skyscrapers and the stands of Shea Stadium loom forever on the horizon. Though some may find the film's unsparing depiction of poverty difficult to watch the film is never hopeless and the humanity of its characters always shines through. Altogether it achieves an air of documentary-like authenticity that convinces the viewer that long after the screen goes black the lives of its characters will continue.System Requirements:Running Time: 84 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE Rating: NR UPC: 741952315797 Manufacturer No: KLF-DV3157 Reader Reviews Writer/director Ramin Bahrani turns his attention to Willets Point, or the "Iron Triangle" area, on the outskirts of Queens in "Chop Shop", a cinema verite-style drama of youthful hope and frustration in this industrial desert. Ale (Alejandro Polanco) is an orphaned but industrious pubescent Latino boy who makes a living helping out at an auto body shop, whose owner Rob (Rob Sowulski) lets him live in the room above the shop. Determined to accumulate some savings, he earns extra cash as a day laborer and peddling odds and ends. When his older sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales) returns to the neighborhood, Ale proudly shows off his little apartment and tries everything he can think of to make her happy and hopeful. "Chop Shop" was cast with non-professional actors who are certainly convincing in their roles, though I didn't find them natural in every scene. This is a loose narrative, and the miles of concrete, junk, and auto shops a stone's throw from Shea Stadium is a strong character in itself. I don't think that anyone actually lives in Willet's Point, and Ale and Isamar seem to be the only people who do in the movie. "Chop Shop" is an ambiguous sort of coming of age story, a slice of life of two capable young people on their own and without any means of support beyond their own hard work. Though Ale's plight is gut-wrenching at times, the optimism and dreams of this 12-year-old suffuse the film with hopefulness. The DVD (Koch Lorber 2008): Bonus features include a theatrical trailer (3 min), 8 segments of rehearsals, training, and actors interacting, and a feature commentary by writer/director Ramin Bahrani, cinematographer Michael Simmonds, and actor Alejandro Polanco. The commentary is constant and eclectic. Bahrani and Simmonds talk about locations, characters, cast, technical issues, and emphasize how deliberate things really are in an independent, documentary-style film of this type. And they, along with Polanco, recall their experiences filming. Subtitles are available for the film in English.

Chop Shop Available from Amazon Price: $23.99 Updated on 8-10-2008.

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