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Man Push Cart



A modest miracle of twenty-first-century neorealism, the acclaimed debut feature by Ramin Bahrani speaks quietly but profoundly to the experiences of those living on the margins of the American dream. Back in his home country of Pakistan, Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi, elements of whose own life story were woven into the script) was a famous rock star. Now a widower separated from his son and adrift in New York, he works long hours selling coffee and bagels from a midtown Manhattan food cart, engaged in a Sisyphean search for human connection and a sense of purpose that seems perpetually just out of reach. A rare immigrant’s-eye view of a post-9/11 city suffused with subtle paranoia and xenophobia, Man Push Cart gives at once empathetic and clear-eyed expression to the everyday drama of human endurance.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• High-definition digital master, supervised and approved by director Ramin Bahrani, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2005 featuring Bahrani, director of photography Michael Simmonds, assistant director Nicholas Elliott, and actor Ahmad Razvi
• New conversation among Bahrani, Elliott, and Razvi on the making of the film
• New conversation between Bahrani and scholar Hamid Dabashi on the origins of the film and Bahrani’s cinematic influences
• Backgammon, a 1998 short film by Bahrani
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  PLUS: An essay by critic Bilge Ebiri

New cover by La Moutique

Chop Shop



For his acclaimed follow-up to Man Push Cart, Ramin Bahrani once again turned his camera on a slice of New York City rarely seen on-screen: Willets Point, Queens, an industrial sliver of automotive-repair shops that remains perpetually at risk of being redeveloped off the map. It’s within this precarious ecosystem that twelve-year-old Ale (Alejandro Polanco) must grow up fast, hustling in the neighborhood chop shops to build a more stable life for himself and his sister (Isamar Gonzales) even as their tenuous circumstances force each to compete with other struggling people and make desperate decisions. A deeply human story of a fierce but fragile sibling bond being tested by hardscrabble reality, Chop Shop tempers its sobering authenticity with flights of lyricism and hope.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• High-definition digital master, supervised and approved by director Ramin Bahrani, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2006 featuring Bahrani, director of photography Michael Simmonds, and actor Alejandro Polanco
• New program featuring a conversation among Bahrani, Polanco, actor Ahmad Razvi, and assistant director Nicholas Elliott about the making of the film
• New conversation between Bahrani and writer and scholar Suketu Mehta on the immigrant experience in New York City and on film
• Rehearsal footage from 2006 featuring Polanco and actors Isamar Gonzales and Carlos Zapata
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  PLUS: An essay by novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen

New cover by La Moutique

I love these "director double features" Criterion has. As someone who really liked Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, I'll be purchasing these on day one!

Nice to see films this low-key get Criterion's attention, though I think Bahrami's next film, Goodbye Solo, is his best to date.

That’s good to know. I remember that movie most for a comment my sister said after watching it that she was left uncomfortable because it was shot like a horror movie. I’ve been trying to see that ever since.

I'm partial to 99 Homes, even with the on-the-nose mise en scene. It's a very startling look at the appeal blending with necessity of a conservative mentality under systemically-oppressive conditions, wrestling with morality in a cold capitalist America that has no need for that trait or skill.

kind of unfortuante he ended up making that awful Fahrenheit 451 adaptation