Those who enjoyed Ramin Bahrani’s Man Push Cart, about a struggling immigrant street vendor in Manhattan, will likely consider this another worthy chapter detailing unseen lives in New York City. Alejandro’s world is the dodgy auto-repair yards in Willet’s Point, Queens, where the parentless pre-teen hustles odd jobs, sleeps in a garage and dreams of owning his own food van. Bahrani’s spare but beautifully shot film is heartbreaking but largely unsentimental. As is little Alejandro, who confronts his tough reality head-on, but with a certain hard-won, fiercely maintained pluck. Now, he has the innate optimism of youth, but like the once-shiny vehicles that pull into his street worn down into beaters, this hopefulness seems likely to fall away. Mon., Jan. 19, through Thu., Jan. 22. Harris
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2009.
