Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [58]
The Man From Elysian Fields maintains an eerie, almost other-worldly mood as it spins its sinuous tale. The cinematography by Kramer Morgenthau and production design by Franckie Diago help to create this intriguing atmosphere. I could nitpick about details in the story, but I forgive the movie its faults because it won me over so completely.
79. MAN PUSH CART
(2006)
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
Screenplay by Ramin Bahrani
Actors:
AHMAD RAZVI
LETICIA DOLERA
CHARLES DANIEL SANDOVAL
ALI REZA
FAROOQ “DUKE” MUHAMMAD
There is a somewhat cynical theory that there are only seven stories in all the world and every novel, play, or movie is a variation on one of them. If that’s true then I have all the more respect for authors, playwrights, and screenwriters who manage to create stories that seem fresh and new. Man Push Cart is a perfect example: the daily struggle for survival is as old as mankind itself, but this film reveals the particulars of one man’s existence in a way that makes it both unique and memorable.
Has anyone ever stopped to wonder about the lives of the people who sell them coffee and doughnuts from those stainless-steel carts that dot the streets of Manhattan? Probably not…but then, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani says he’s interested in telling stories about people we don’t usually see on-screen. In this case, he blurs the line between reality and fiction by casting a nonprofessional actor (Ahmad Razvi), shooting in natural locations, and lightly imposing a story line on the proceedings. He also shows us just how hard a man like Ahmad works, rising long before the sun to clean and stock his cart, then laboriously pushing his heavy vehicle into place as New Yorkers make their way to work in the morning.
We learn the details of Ahmad’s life in bits and pieces. He comes from Pakistan, where he had a wife and child, and enjoyed some measure of success as a rock star with a hit CD. Now he battles his in-laws for glimpses of his son, and clutches at straws for some relief from his onerous routine. An attractive Spanish woman who mans her uncle’s newsstand nearby makes friendly overtures to the shy street vendor, while a go-getter who recognizes him from the old country holds out the promise of reigniting his musical career.
The movie’s greatest strength is its verisimilitude as it details Ahmad’s day-to-day existence. No wonder: Razvi was a real-life pushcart vendor whom Bahrani befriended while he was researching the film, and some of the movie was shot with hidden cameras. Even lifelong New Yorkers may marvel at the view this movie offers of their city, unlike any ever captured before. And nowhere does Man Push Cart more closely resemble classic neorealist films like The Bicycle Thieves than in a heart-stopping moment when Razvi discovers that someone has taken his cart.
Man Push Cart may have been made quickly and cheaply, but it wears its micro budget as a badge of honor. The sum of its parts is greater than the whole, because writer-director-editor Bahrani and his cinematographer, Michael Simmonds, achieve something that many multimillion-dollar studio films don’t: you can’t take your eyes off the screen.
80. MARVIN’S ROOM
(1996)
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Screenplay by Scott McPherson
Based on the play by Scott McPherson
Actors:
MERYL STREEP
ROBERT DE NIRO
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
DIANE KEATON
HUME CRONYN
GWEN VERDON
DAN HEDAYA
HAL SCARDINO
CYNTHIA NIXON
KELLY RIPA
VICTOR GARBER
Mention illness in relation to a film and people assume one of two things: you’re talking about a cheesy TV movie or an absolute downer they’d just as soon avoid. Smart folks can see through the euphemistic description of such movies as a “celebration of life.”
Yet that well-worn phrase perfectly describes Marvin’s Room, a moving, unsentimental, and funny adaptation of Scott McPherson’s play featuring a powerhouse cast: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De