Iranian-American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) blurs the line between reality and fiction so effectively that his scripted films feel vibrantly authentic---even though the filmmaker's documentary-like scenes are often the result of 30 or more takes. Chop Shop chronicles the day-to-day lives of 12-year-old orphan Alejandro (Alejandro Polanco) and his 16-year-old sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales) with a matter-of-fact clarity that eschews conventional plot and character development (we learn very little about these siblings' past or the fate of their parents, because Bahrani--clearly influenced by Italian neorealism and recent Iranian cinema--doesn't feel obligated to artificially force those details into a story that doesn't require them). Alejandro works in the scrappy “Iron Triangle” (nicknamed for its cluster of semi-legitimate auto body shops) in Willets Point, part of New York's borough of Queens. While steering clear of Dickensian clichés, Bahrani brings his story of industriously struggling but imperiled child characters to a brilliant, metaphorical finale as hopeful as it is splendidly oblique. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a commentary track (with director Bahrani, actor Polanco, and cinematographer Michael Simmonds), eight rehearsal scenes, and a trailer. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine film.] (J. Shannon)
[Blu-ray/DVD Review—February 17, 2021—Criterion, 84 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2007’s Chop Shop is presented with an excellent transfer. Extras include a 2006 audio commentary with director Ramin Bahrani, director of photography Michael Simmonds, and actor Alejandro Polanco; a new program featuring a conversation with Bahrani, Polanco, actor Ahmad Razvi, and assistant director Nicholas Elliott about the making of the film; a new conversation between Bahrani and writer and scholar Suketu Mehta on the immigrant experience in New York City and on film; rehearsal footage from 2006 featuring Polanco and actors Isamar Gonzales and Carlos Zapata, and a booklet with an essay by novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen. Bottom line: Together with Bahrani's 2005 film Man Push Cart—also newly available from Criterion—Chop Shop remains a powerfully intimate look at life on the margins in New York City.]