Chop Shop

Chop Shop, a film by Ramin Bahrani, appeared on Roger Ebert's best of the decade list. Bahrani also made the very fine Goodbye Solo, which is one of the best films from this year. Like Goodbye Solo, Chop Shop is a small, intimate look at a few sharply drawn characters who are living quiet lives in the margins of society.

The film centers around Alejandro (Alejandro Polanco), a boy of about twelve who lives on the streets in Queens, New York. We know little about his situation--presumably he is orphaned or abandoned, but he does his best, hustling for work whenever he can. He lands a job and a living space with an auto body shop in Willets Point, a section of Queens just past Shea Stadium that is full of body shops and junkyards, a kind of auto repair bazaar. Alejandro apprentices on basics of auto repair, but his primary function is to act something of the role of a carnival barker, luring prospective customers into his shop rather than the competitors.

Alejandro is industrious and also family-driven, as he is keen on having his older sister, Isamar (Isamar Gonzalez) join him. He persuades to leave a safe home and join him at the shop, where he has gotten her a job with a lunch cart. Though he is younger, he plays the role of older brother, keeping her eyes on the prize--a lunch cart of their own, which they will buy with their savings.

Not a lot happens in this film, but what does happen is momentous for the characters, who have little. Alejandro spies on his sister turning tricks, he is forced to resort to stealing hubcaps and purse snatch, and he gets in a fight with his best friend Carlos. Through it all he manages to keep a Horatio Alger-ish sense of entrepreneurship that is engaging--you really root for this kid.

Another character is the neighborhood, known as the "Iron Triangle." It was featured in the remake of Kiss of Death about ten years or so ago, but not nearly with the observing eye that Bahrani brings. About ninety-percent of the film was shot there, and one really gets a sense of place. There are plenty of nefarious things going on there--these places seem to regularly traffic in stolen cars, hence the title, but there are also the routine activities, whether they involve business or pleasure.

I've enjoyed these films of Bahrani so much that I'll make sure and see his first film, Man Push Cart, and eagerly await his next feature.