A Kid Finds Opportunity Amid the Blight of the Iron Triangle
Chop Shop (2007) tells a fictional story, but the film paints an unforgettable portrait of a real part of New York City: the unsightly Queens neighborhood of Willets Point, which is between Shea Stadium and LaGuardia Airport. Consisting of acres of auto repair garages, body shops, scrap yards, parts suppliers and the like, Willets Point has been dubbed the Iron Triangle.
The central character in Chop Shop is an enterprising 12-year-old boy named Alejandro (Alejandro Polanco). He and his sister Isamar (Isamar Gonzales), who's about 16, live in a tiny room inside an Iron Triangle body shop. Alejandro and Isamar work hard at menial jobs and struggle to come up with enough cash to buy a beat-up old roach coach. But soon both kids turn to getting money by means that are not only illegal, but morally repugnant.
Naturalistic acting, an unobtrusive visual style and location shooting give Chop Shop a feeling of authenticity. The film is low-keyed, and the camera sometimes lingers on Alejandro learning to do auto bodywork or trying to get people to have their damaged cars fixed at the shop where he lives. There's not much sentimentality, and you aren't likely to think of the protagonist as a cute kid. Although the movie is gritty, it is fundamentally upbeat.
Chop Shop documents everyday life in a strange place that provides a case study of certain aspects of American society. It's left to the viewer to think what might happen if Willets Point becomes the site of an urban renewal project. But it's clear that the Iron Triangle is not altogether bad for young Alejandro.
A Good Audio Commentary Track Plus Some Rehearsal Footage
The Chop Shop DVD contains a worthwhile feature-length audio commentary where most of the talking is done by director and co-writer Ramin Bahrani, an American filmmaker of Iranian descent. But he is joined by cinematographer Michael Simmonds and lead actor Alejandro Polanco.
Bahrani says that Rob Sowulski, who plays the proprietor of the body shop where the protagonist lives in the movie, owns the shop in real life. Alejandro Polanco actually did bring real-life customers to Sowulski's shop, and the proprietor paid the boy five dollars for each one. Ringo, the dog in the film, lives at the body shop in real life, and he regularly kills huge rats there.
Aside from the commentary, the only other extra on the DVD consists of eight video segments of rehearsal footage with a total runtime of 10 1/2 minutes. These are of only mild interest, but a couple of them do give you a chance to observe Bahrani working with actors, and the bespectacled director appears briefly on camera.
DVD Details
Both picture and sound quality are very good for the feature film on the Chop Shop DVD. Listed below are all the DVD details.
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 24 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Widescreen (16x9), Color
English Dolby Digital
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Audio Commentary by Writer-Director, Cinematographer and Lead Actor
Rehearsal Footage (8 segments with total runtime = 10 1/2 minutes)
Theatrical Trailer
