this week in film and television

THE LOT LIC: CHOP SHOP

Ale (Alejandro Polanco) does what he needs to do to get by in Queens-set CHOP SHOP

CHOP SHOP (Ramin Bahrani, 2007)
The Lot LIC
43-29 Crescent St., Long Island City
Thursday, August 7,
Series continues through September 20
www.thelotlic.com

Set amid the junkyards and auto-body shops in the shadow of Shea Stadium, Ramin Bahrani’s follow-up to his indie hit Man Push Cart is a gritty, realistic drama of family and community. Filmed in thirty days in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Willets Point, Queens, Chop Shop stars Alejandro Polanco as Ale, a street-smart twelve-year-old boy who works for Rob (Rob Sowulski), calling cars into the repair shop, stealing spare parts, and learning virtually every aspect of the trade, legal and not. Ale lives in a small upstairs room in the garage with his sister, sixteen-year-old Isamar (Isamar Gonzalez), who by day works in a food van and at night makes extra cash by getting into cars and trucks with strange men. Neither Ale nor Izzy goes to school; instead, they’re working hard, saving up money to buy a food van and start their own business, but their life is fraught with danger and difficulty nearly every step of the way. Written by Bahrani (Goodbye Solo, At Any PriceChop Shop is an honest, frightening, yet sweet slice of life that takes place not far from a sign at Shea that announces, “Where Dreams Happen.”

Director Ramin Bahrani frames a shot on the Willets Point set of CHOP SHOP

Polanco gives a remarkable performance as Ale, a rough yet vulnerable kid who has been dealt a tough hand but just forges ahead, attempting to make the most out of his meager life, trying to find his own piece of the American dream. Whether hanging out with his best friend, Carlos (Carlos Zapata), looking after his sister, doing a special job for Ahmad (Man Push Cart’s Ahmad Razvi), or counting his pay in front of his boss – Sowulski really does own the garage where most of the movie is filmed – Ale is an extraordinary character, played by an extraordinary young boy in his very first film. Chop Shop is a subtle, unforgettable experience. Chop Shop is screening August 7 in Long Island City as part of the free LOT LIC Music & Film Series, which consists of concerts (Taylor McFerrin, Widowspeak, Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens) on Saturdays from 3:00 to 9:00 and movie screenings (Polyester, Strictly Ballroom, The Triplets of Belleville) and DJs on Thursday nights beginning at 6:00. (For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings throughout New York City, go here.)

RIVERFLICKS — BIG HIT WEDNESDAYS: LONE SURVIVOR

Four Navy SEALs head into the mountains of Afghanistan on a secret mission in LONE SURVIVOR

LONE SURVIVOR (Peter Berg, 2013)
Hudson River Park, Pier 63 lawn at 23rd St.
Wednesday, August 6, free, dusk
www.riverflicks.com
www.lonesurvivorfilm.com

In the summer of 2005, four navy SEALs went deep into the mountains of Afghanistan to assassinate a Taliban leader responsible for the recent death of twenty marines. Writer-director Peter Berg tells the story of Operation Red Wings and the remarkably brave quartet in Lone Survivor, an ultraviolent action thriller that very well could be used as a training and propaganda film for the next generation of super-soldiers. Close-knit navy SEALs Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), Michael P. Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matthew Axelson (Ben Foster) are lying in wait for Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami) when they are discovered by a trio of goatherders. Forced to decide between letting the possibly innocent men go or killing them so the mission can continue, they choose the former and start to leave the area, but they soon find themselves in the midst of a bloody firefight, one of the most brutal ever depicted on film. Ultimately, only one of them is left, and Lt. Commander Erik S. Kristensen (Eric Bana) and the rest of the team are ready to go in and try to bring him home alive. Berg, who made the exciting Saudi Arabia-set al-Qaeda thriller The Kingdom and the ridiculous Battleship, shows little trust in the story by employing an opening scene that takes away much of the film’s suspense. Instead, it becomes a jingoistic portrait of a mission that has gone terribly wrong and keeps getting worse as the military attempts to rescue the heroic lone survivor. Berg, who based the film on a book by Luttrell that has had some of its details questioned, also adds an overly emotional and manipulative coda that pulls at the heartstrings in a way the narrative itself was unable to. The men of Operation Red Wings are all heroes — their loyalty and dedication is awe-inspiring, especially as bullets rain down on them — but this film does not do them proper justice, which is a shame. Lone Survivor is screening August 6 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks: Big Hit Wednesdays series, which continues August 13 with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and concludes August 20 with Captain Phillips. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings throughout New York City, go here.

AN AUTEURIST HISTORY OF FILM: DAYS OF HEAVEN

Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) try to get by in tough times in Terrence Malick’s DAYS OF HEAVEN

DAYS OF HEAVEN (Terrence Malick, 1978)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
August 6-8, 1:30
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Justifiably recognized as one of the most beautiful films ever made, writer-director Terrence Malick’s sophomore effort, Days of Heaven, is a visually breathtaking tale of love, desperation, and survival in WWI-era America. After accidentally killing his boss (Stuart Margolin) in a Chicago steel mill, Bill (Richard Gere) immediately flees to the Texas Panhandle with his girlfriend, Abby (Brooke Adams), and his much younger sister, Linda (Linda Manz). Because they are unmarried, Bill and Abby pretend to be brother and sister — evoking the biblical story of Abraham introducing his wife Sarah as his sibling — and get a job working in the wheat fields owned by a reserved, possibly ill farmer (Sam Shepard) who is instantly smitten with Abby. Soon a complex love triangle develops in which money, class, and power play a key role. As beautiful as the main characters are — Gere and Shepard particularly are shot in ways that emphasize their tender but rugged good looks — they are outshone by the gorgeous landscapes and sunsets photographed by Nestor Almendros (who won an Oscar for Best Cinematography) and Haskell Wexler, as well as Jack Fisk’s stunning art direction, all of which were directly inspired by Edward Hopper’s “House by the Railroad” and Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World,” among other paintings. Like Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, freezing nearly any frame will produce an image that could hang in a museum.

The award-winning DAYS OF HEAVEN is one of the most beautiful-looking movies ever made

The soundtrack is epic as well, composed by Ennio Morricone along with songs by Leo Kottke and Doug Kershaw (who plays the fiddler). It took two years for Malick and editor Bill Weber to assemble the vast amount of footage they shot into a comprehensible story, helped by the late addition of Manz’s character’s voice-over narration, but the results were well worth all of the time and effort. Days of Heaven came five years after Malick’s breakthrough debut, Badlands, and it would be another twenty years before his next film, The Big Red One, then seven more until 2005’s The New World. Finally, this master auteur is on a roll, already in the midst of his fifth feature project this decade. Days of Heaven is screening August 6-8 at 1:30 as part of MoMA’s ongoing series “An Auteurist History of Film,” which continues August 13-15 with Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux and August 20-22 with Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull.

THE ALMOST MAN

Henrik (Henrik Rafaelsen) and Tone (Janne Heltberg Haarseth) goof around in a supermarket in THE ALMOST MAN

THE ALMOST MAN (MER ELLER MINDRE MANN) (Martin Lund, 2012)
Village East Cinemas
181-189 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Opens Friday, August 1
212-529-6799
www.bigworldpictures.org
www.villageeastcinema.com

So this is thirty-five. Norwegian filmmaker Martin Lund’s feature debut as writer and director, The Almost Man, is a mature, insightful, and very funny look at immaturity. Henrik Rafaelsen, a kind of cross between Liam Neeson and Jason Segel, stars as Henrik, a thirty-five-year-old man who isn’t quite ready to grow up yet. He has a new office job, a new house, and a loving girlfriend, Tone (Janne Heltberg Haarseth, a kind of cross between Julianne Moore and Diane Lane), but he’d rather goof around with his crazy high school buddies than take life seriously. In the opening scene, the happy couple, decorating their new place, lightheartedly imagine what their neighbors might be thinking of them. Next Henrik and Tone are grooving to Lionel Richie. “Let me see you dance without irony,” Tone says. During a group lunch on his first day at work, his fellow employees debate what his name should be. “But my name is Henrik,” he says, appearing unsure of his own identity. (Perhaps it is no coincidence that it is also the first name of the actor himself.) He is awkward and uncomfortable in his own skin, instead choosing to remain a kid who refuses to acknowledge the real world and the responsibilities he is facing. After an argument with Tone, he visits with his mother (Anne Ma Usterud), who still treats him like a child. But soon he is faced with important decisions that could have very serious repercussions on his and Tone’s future.

Henrik takes a long look at himself in offbeat coming-of-age film from Norwegian writer-director Martin Lund

Winner of Best Film and Best Actor at the forty-seventh Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, The Almost Man is an unusual coming-of-age film, a genre generally about teens. Rafaelsen (Limbo; Happy, Happy) and Haarseth, in her film debut, are both appealing actors who are terrific together, playing off each other in charming, believable ways. Cinematographer Morten Halfstad Forsberg’s camera is almost always in motion, purposely unsteady as Henrik wanders through a life he is scared of committing to; he’d rather read a Peter Pan picture book than hang out at a party with Tone’s publishing colleagues. (And just wait till you see what he does with the book.) Lund’s script is sharp and incisive, often going to surprising, uneasy places that don’t always paint Henrik in the best light. The score, by Alf Lund Godbolt and Simen Solli Schøien, appears sparingly, with Lund favoring natural sound in most scenes, adding to the realistic feel. At only seventy minutes, The Almost Man is almost shockingly short, but it covers some major territory that most everyone should be able to relate to. The Almost Man opens August 1 at the Village East; Lund and producer Ruben Thorkildsen will participate in a Q&A following the 8:05 screening on August 2.

CHILD OF GOD

Scott Haze plays a deeply disturbed man trying to get what he believes is his in CHILD OF GOD

CHILD OF GOD (James Franco, 2013)
Village East Cinemas
181-189 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Opens Friday, August 1
212-529-6799
www.villageeastcinema.com
www.wellgousa.com

In James Franco’s faithful, brutally compelling adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s third novel, 1973’s Child of God, Scott Haze gives a courageous, unforgettable performance as Lester Ballard, a deeply disturbed man wreaking havoc on his small rural community in Sevier County in the Tennessee mountains. “His name was Lester Ballard, child of God, much like yourself, perhaps,” a narrator intones as the film opens. But Lester is not like everyone else. He is almost more animal than man, his speech hard to understand, his face hairy and rough, his gait hurried and uneven, a reclusive soul with no ability to differentiate between right and wrong, more at home in the woods and in caves than living among other people. When he lowers his head slightly and stares right into the camera, he evokes Charles Manson filtered through Charles Bukowski, with more than a touch of Jack Nicholson in The Shining; there doesn’t seem to be an ounce of humanity in him. (McCarthy has noted that Ballard was inspired at least in part by real-life serial killer Ed Gein, who also inspired Old Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Norman Bates in Psycho.) Having been kicked off his family’s land, an angered Lester sleeps in a ramshackle cabin, venturing out primarily to kill an animal for food or to seek other carnal pleasures in his own, primal way. When he sees a young couple having sex in a car, his instinct is to get rid of the boy and take the girl for himself, with no thought of the consequences.

Director and cowriter James Franco discuss a scene in adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s CHILD OF GOD

Lester is being watched closely by the aptly named Sheriff Fate (Tim Blake Nelson) and Deputy Cotton (Jim Parrack), but there’s no predicting what he will do next, and to whom. He’s a danger to everyone he meets, yet Franco, who cowrote the script with his friend and producer Vince Jolivette, manages to make Lester a somewhat sympathetic figure, despite his horrific existence, which soon includes necrophilia. No matter how despicable his actions are, it is hard not to want him to get away with it all, as Franco builds a shocking compassion for Lester from the very first scene, when John Greer (Brian Lally), a neighbor who is determined to buy the Ballard property at auction, viciously bashes in Lester’s skull. The highly literate, ubiquitous Franco, who has also adapted William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury, stays true to both the spirit and the intricacies of McCarthy’s story; every scene but one was taken directly from the book, which Franco fell in love with when he read it in graduate school. Child of God is by no means an easy film to watch, and it is sure to elicit a multitude of extreme reactions, both positive and negative, reminiscent of the response to Lars von Trier’s controversial 2009 New York Film Festival selection, Antichrist. But no matter where you stand on the film itself, it’s impossible not to be blown away by Haze’s remarkably intense performance, his every word and movement absolutely thrilling to behold. (Haze, Lally, and Franco are also collaborating on the world premiere of Robert Boswell’s play The Long Shrift, running through August 23 at the Rattlestick Theater.)

FIRST SATURDAYS: CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, August 2, free, 5:00 – 11:00 ($10 discounted admission to “Ai Weiwei: According to What?”)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum starts getting ready for the annual West Indian American Day Carnival on Labor Day with a Caribbean-themed First Saturdays program on August 2. There will be live music from the Crossfire Street Orchestra, Heritage O.P., Melanie Charles, and Request Band (RQB), a movement workshop with Candace Thompson, screenings of Hannah Roodman’s Crown Heights-set documentary 2×1 and Dalton Narine’s Mas Man, a woven-fish arts workshop, a Caribbean-inspired fashion show, and Uraga storytelling with James Lovell. In addition, you can check out a quartet of exhibitions about art and activism: “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” (which closes August 10), “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” (which closes August 24), “Chicago in L.A.: Judy Chicago’s Early Works, 1963–74,” and “Revolution! Works from the Black Arts Movement.”

LATE-NIGHT FAVORITES: EL TOPO

Alejandro Jodorowsky takes viewers on quite an acid trip in surreal Western EL TOPO

WAVERLY MIDNIGHTS: EL TOPO (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, August 1, and Saturday, August 2, 12 midnight
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Chilean-born Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo is a psychedelic head trip, an acid Western that will blow your mind. Jodorowsky stars as the title character, a gunslinger traveling through a deserted landscape accompanied by his naked young son, who already knows his way around a firearm. After coming upon a town that has been decimated by a nasty group of marauders working for the Colonel, El Topo seeks violent revenge, eventually taking off with a woman and leaving his boy behind as he meets four masters on his path to proving he is the best there is. But soon El Topo is praying for redemption with a community of inbred cripples trapped in a cave. El Topo is a wild and bizarre journey through religious imagery, romance, and vengeance, a surreal spaghetti Western strained through the mad mind of Jodorowsky, widely hailed as the creator of the midnight movie. The film melds Bergman with Leone, Tod Browning’s Freaks with Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, filtered through Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before and, despite your better instincts, will lure you into the cult of Jodorowsky, which expanded this year with the release of his wonderfully surreal autobiographical work The Dance of Reality. El Topo is screening August 1 & 2 at midnight in a high-definition digital restoration as part of the IFC Center series “Waverly Midnights: Late-Night Favorites.”