“Love in a sea of sorrow, is not sorrowful.” The Persian poet Rumi’s quote was something of a mantra for director Ramzi Bahrani and co-writer Bahereh Azimi. And the spirit of that melancholy yet hopeful line infuses “Chop Shop,” their subtle and astonishing film about 12-year-old Alejandro and his 16-year-old sister Isamar.
Ale lives in an upstairs room in Rob’s auto body shop in Willet’s Point, Queens.
The blocks and blocks of salvage shops, junkyards and auto body repair establishments comprise an incongruous world that exists cheek to jowl with Shea Stadium and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
*** 1/2 RATING | Coming of Age
When we first see Ale, he is trying to get a day-labor gig. The foreman tells him “not today,” then has to put him out of the truck after he sneaks on.
Because Ale (Alejandro Polanco), along with best friend Carlos, hawks candy in the subway, we might dismiss him as a hustler. But this pint-size protagonist is pragmatic, enterprising.
He’s doing more than making do. He’s constantly figuring out ways to make a home for himself and his sister.
Ale augments his job cleaning up the auto shop of the daunting but decent Rob (Rob Solwulski) with other endeavors. Some are legal, some are infuriatingly not. He is also learning to do body work.
In the beautifully measured unfolding of “Chop Shop,” the home Ale has made is alternately cell, nest, even a kid’s fort. Showing his beloved sister around their digs for the first time, he proudly opens the mini-bar of sodas he’s stocked.
The film moves from intimate moments between the siblings to the vast hustle and bustle of the “Iron Triangle,” as this section of New York is known.
Fights break out. Stolen cars become row upon row of parts. But barbecues and music happen too. Stray dogs lope and rain makes for muddy rivers and off days. (Cinematographer Michael Simmonds captures the day-and-night rhythms of this world. )
We never learn the circumstances that led Ale to living in Rob’s shop. Nor the reason Isamar (Isamar Gonzales) comes back into Ale’s life after an absence. Though we can surmise a few things from a mention of a safe-house and the time the young beauty spends in the cabs of the trucks that pull into the seeming wasteland at night.
That she’s back is what matters most to her brother. In an effort to keep her happy, he even saves up for a lunch van for her to cook and work out of.
Bahrani found non-actors Polanco and Gonzales at the same Lower East Side school in Manhattan. That Polanco knew and liked the older girl (who was his real sister’s protector) comes across time and again.
In front of our eyes, Ale hardens. A day of playfulness slips into too knowing a dissertation between Ale and Carlos about the cost of certain sex-trade services outside a truck.
When he sees who the woman is in the cab, his face becomes a scowl of hurt. He’s far from turning into the man he will become. Bursts of his dimpled smile will happen yet. But the concrete visage tempers our hopes.
There’s no happily ever after. Instead there’s something truer — an earned beauty.
Bahrani deftly walks a tightrope toward insight, never falling into safety nets of judgment or unearned sentiment.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com
“Chop Shop”
Not rated 1 hour, 24 minutes. Directed by Ramin Bahrani. Written by Bahareh Azimi and Bahrani. Photography by Michael Simmonds. Starring Alejandro Polanco, Isamar Gonzales, Carlos Zapata, Ahmad Razvi, Rob Solwulski. Opens today at area theaters.
