Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Chop Shop


Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
2007
Country:
United States…
Predominant Genre:
Drama
Director:
Ramin BAHRAN…
Outstanding Performances:
None
Premiss:
A resourceful street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard. In this chaotic world of adults, he struggles to make a better life for himself and his sixteen-year-old sister.
Themes:
Compassion
Courage
Destiny
Empathy
Ethnicity
Family
Friendship
Humanity
Identity
Loyalty
Mankind
Materialism
Personal change
Redemption
Self-expression
Social class
White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Ladri di Biciclette
Review Format:
DVD

Chop-Chop

Not quite up to the Ladri di Biciclette standard of brilliance, but impressive nonetheless.

An engaging melodrama, shot in a documentary style, about the essential nature of a capitalist country like the United States which, despite its claims to be a haven for migrant workers, is only the most effective haven for White migrants.

A warm and emotionally spontaneous Latino street culture is reflected in the ramshackle, almost-barrio world of Queens, with its collection of low-level criminals and undocumented migrants.

This intimate work is told from a young boy’s point-of-view as he navigates through the chaotic adult world in search of a better life for himself and his older, sometime prostitute sister.

Life affirming and heartbreaking in equal measure, but somewhat lacking in adult perspective.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.