I'm glad you liked it! One of my favorites on the last few years.
For me, the ending's the real pay-off. It seems so strange while you're watching it but thinking about it afterwards it really feels like it honors the bizarre logic of the film, or reshuffles that logic to take things to the next level. Definitely reminds me of Antonioni's Eclipse in that way -- and the presence of an eclipse in the film makes me wonder if that's an intentional reference, something I haven't seen any writing on the film consider yet.
Kubrick definitely comes to mind as well, with that ending. And it also felt to me like a chiding of western audiences for wanting all their Asian films to be of the Wong Kar-Wai variety... like he showed us he can give us a gentle, playful heterosexual romance with the best of them but then felt the need to flex his experimental muscles and pull the rug out from under us.
For interested Toronto people - I saw this film during the Festival and it was great. It's playing at Cinematheque March 4 for the Human Rights Watch programme - well-worth checking out:
Miraculous. . . . stunning performances. . . . Now we have an American film with the raw power of CITY OF GOD or PIXOTE, a film that does something unexpected, and inspired, and brave??? (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). Far from a hyperbolic assessment, Ebert's appraisal of the brilliant CHOP SHOP is spot-on. Set in the ???Iron Triangle,??? a section of Queens in which stolen cars are stripped for their parts, the film offers a wonderful addition to cinema's pantheon of child heroes: intrepid Alejandro, who is determined to become his own boss and overcome his dead-end circumstances - he lives above an auto-repair shop and ekes out a living scamming, stealing, and hustling. Mature beyond his years, Alejandro looks out for both himself and his older sister, struggling to side-step the pitfalls of a precarious existence on the fringe. Working in the neorealist tradition, director Ramin Bahrani constructs an eminently believable drama that fully captures both the hardships encountered and the little victories won on a day-to-day basis. ???Following the model of Ken Loach and the Dardennes . . . Bahrani digs deep into Alejandro's world to create something raw and affecting??? (Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly).
Comments
For me, the ending's the real pay-off. It seems so strange while you're watching it but thinking about it afterwards it really feels like it honors the bizarre logic of the film, or reshuffles that logic to take things to the next level. Definitely reminds me of Antonioni's Eclipse in that way -- and the presence of an eclipse in the film makes me wonder if that's an intentional reference, something I haven't seen any writing on the film consider yet.
Kubrick definitely comes to mind as well, with that ending. And it also felt to me like a chiding of western audiences for wanting all their Asian films to be of the Wong Kar-Wai variety... like he showed us he can give us a gentle, playful heterosexual romance with the best of them but then felt the need to flex his experimental muscles and pull the rug out from under us.
Miraculous. . . . stunning performances. . . . Now we have an American film with the raw power of CITY OF GOD or PIXOTE, a film that does something unexpected, and inspired, and brave??? (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). Far from a hyperbolic assessment, Ebert's appraisal of the brilliant CHOP SHOP is spot-on. Set in the ???Iron Triangle,??? a section of Queens in which stolen cars are stripped for their parts, the film offers a wonderful addition to cinema's pantheon of child heroes: intrepid Alejandro, who is determined to become his own boss and overcome his dead-end circumstances - he lives above an auto-repair shop and ekes out a living scamming, stealing, and hustling. Mature beyond his years, Alejandro looks out for both himself and his older sister, struggling to side-step the pitfalls of a precarious existence on the fringe. Working in the neorealist tradition, director Ramin Bahrani constructs an eminently believable drama that fully captures both the hardships encountered and the little victories won on a day-to-day basis. ???Following the model of Ken Loach and the Dardennes . . . Bahrani digs deep into Alejandro's world to create something raw and affecting??? (Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly).