With his documentary background, writer/director Ramin Bahrani gets all the details right on this ground up look at life on the streets for a toughened tween, hustling out a living in Willets Point, Queens, a sort of open air warren of competing car repair & body workshops. (The neighborhood long eyed for a tear-down/redevelopment plan currently projected to start . . . soon?) The lead kid in the story, non-pro Alejandro Polanco, may look like an Oliver Twist type, but he’s 100% Artful Dodger, a barker for his garage to motorists looking for the best deal on car parts or repair, living illegally in a shack inside the garage where he works; learning the tools of the trade, learning the biz, and picking up whatever temp gigs he can, tagging along with immigrants on the hunt for day-work, selling counterfeit DVDs, grabbing the occasional purse at nearby Mets Stadium or at the U.S. Tennis Open. But his real goal is to open a food catering truck with his older sister. Living with him in his little hut, she works at another food truck and also hustles blow jobs on the side. Superbly observed and paced by Bahrani, immediately a real filmmaker, check out his careful control of palette and mood as the story darkens and opportunities close down around the siblings. What he can’t do is freshen up tropes in a story so familiar they feel telegraphed even when they’re not. (He does triumphantly setup a stash of cash to be stolen only to leave it alone.) A tough life even for a kid who’s easily hurt, but quickly assuaged. And, as he’s never gone to school and is functionally illiterate, getting into trouble since he can’t read the fine print details that come with his dream of independence. Great use of the limits of trust and casual friendship in this closed community, it’s one of those films where you’d love to know how everything played out over the years. Especially as they’re supposed to be shutting the whole place down. Simply from a documentary viewpoint, what wouldn’t we give to have this sort of living record of something comparable like historic Les Halles, the Belly of Paris.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Similar city street urchins found in Mira Nair’s SALAAM BOMBAY!/’88. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/02/salaam-bombay-1988.html
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