Rent Chop Shop (2007)
3.7 of 5 from 64 ratings
1h 24min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- On the outskirts of Queens, and just steps from some of New York's most iconic landmarks, Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in a 'Chop Shop' - an illegal workshop breaking stolen cars for the purpose of selling them as parts. In this ramshackle world of mud, rust, graffiti, and twisted scrap metal populated by illegal immigrants and low-level adult criminals, young Alejandro struggles to pursue his goal of making a better life for himself and his spirited 16-year-old sister, Isamar.
- Actors:
- Alejandro Polanco, Isamar Gonzales, Rob Sowulski, Carlos Zapata, Ahmad Razvi, Anthony Felton, Evelisse 'Lilah' Ortiz, Michael 'Gringo' Nieto, Carlos Ayala, Laura Patalano, Nick Jasprizza, Bedford T. Bentley, Edwin Rojas, Roy Francisco Green, Billy Klatzis, Jesus Manuel Gutierrez, Cesar Di Parra, Pedro Altamirano, Raoul Chucaralao, Farooq 'Duke' Muhammad
- Directors:
- Ramin Bahrani
- Producers:
- Jeb Brody, Lisa Muskat, Marc Turtletaub
- Writers:
- Bahareh Azimi, Ramin Bahrani
- Studio:
- Axiom
- Genres:
- Children & Family, Drama
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Reviews (1) of Chop Shop
Spare Parts - Chop Shop review by griggs
My second Bahrani, and he’s done it again. Where Man Push Cart found its world on the pavements of midtown Manhattan, Chop Shop burrows into Willets Point — the former auto-repair sprawl jammed up against Shea Stadium. I’ve been to its successor, Citi Field, to watch the Mets. I had no idea this place had once existed.
That’s Bahrani’s gift: he finds the New York that New York pretends isn’t there. Like Sean Baker’s Prince of Broadway, this earns its intimacy by watching closely, not pushing hard, and by trusting a twelve-year-old non-actor who has no right to be this good.
It drags its feet occasionally, but the moments that land, land. Not quite the gut-punch of Man Push Cart, perhaps, but still humane, observant, and quietly bruising.
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