Elusive and underpowered.
Man Push Cart (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:46
Fresh:40
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: This compassionate portrait of a New York City street vendor is as beautiful as it is melancholy.
Theatrical Release:Sep 8, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: It's 3:00 a.m. in Manhattan, the hour of rumbling garbage trucks, glaring headlights, and the bluish florescent glow of the all-night delis. Trudging alongside the honking traffic, Ahmad drags a... It's 3:00 a.m. in Manhattan, the hour of rumbling garbage trucks, glaring headlights, and the bluish florescent glow of the all-night delis. Trudging alongside the honking traffic, Ahmad drags a coffee and bagel cart to a busy midtown corner. Hours later, he is swiftly and efficiently selling steaming cups of "coffee regular" to rushing New Yorkers. In the afternoons, he battles traffic to return the cart to a warehouse, occasionally peddling bootleg DVDs for extra cash along the way. A solitary, quiet loner, Ahmad strikes up slightly awkward friendships with Noemi, a young Spanish woman who works at a newsstand, and wealthy, jovial Mohammad, who is shocked when he realizes Ahmad was a famous singer in Pakistan. Through Ahmad's relationships with both his new friends, and his estranged family, we come to understand that he is haunted by a tragedy in his past. A beautifully crafted character study that captures the textures of a very specific New York experience, Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart is a subtle, insightful portrait of a man struggling with issues of identity, self-worth, and the harsh realities of finding a place to belong in a vast, often-unfriendly American metropolis. -- © Sundance Film Festival [More]
Starring: Leticia Dolera, Charles Daniel Sandoval, Ahmad Razvi, Ali Reza
Starring: Leticia Dolera, Charles Daniel Sandoval, Ahmad Razvi, Ali Reza
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Studio: Films Philos
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Reviews for Man Push Cart
A lame attempt at neorealism, hampered by an implausible plotline and warmed over existential motifs.
Man Push Cart is that unique, frustrating film that gains brownie points for its immediate, here-and-now ambiance, while losing momentum by prioritizing realism before dramatic force.
This is a painstakingly rendered film about perserverance in the face of emptiness and seemingly insurmountable odds, and yet it isn't a cliched, all's well that ends well film.
It's by no means an exaggeration to describe this quietly powerful film as Bressonian.
Man Push Cart is often striking, but Bahrani never quite figures out how to drag this small character study out to feature length.
The slower and minimalist pacing, like many of Man Push Cart’s formal conventions, adds another dimension to the sorrow at the true heart of the film.
... the events of Bahrani's film unfold with the same, inexorable predictability -- nothing happens that you didn't anticipate from the outset -- but it's beautifully played by Bahrani's largely inexperienced cast.
... a film that is at once a delicate, moving drama and a vibrant city symphony, offering a predawn view of New York seldom captured on film.
... a fascinating, sad, sometimes quite poetic window into a grueling way of life most of us know little about.
The writer-director, Ramin Bahrani, is a natural-born filmmaker who captures how the banal physical details of manning a pushcart could come to define a life.
If you've forgotten -- or never known -- the rhythm and grace that cinema can sing with, then please, for your own sanity, see Man Push Cart, and rediscover how achingly lovely a film can be.
Synthesizes aspiration, resignation, anonymity, celebrity, opportunity and denial into a portrait of something far beyond the immigrant experience.
Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi), the Pakistani immigrant who is the protagonist of Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart, goes through a Sisyphean daily grind.
The melancholy story is told with empathy and restraint; Ahmad's unmoving face is a mask of loss, but he never lets go of his dignity.
Ramin Bahrani’s striking debut tracks a Pakistani street-cart vendor with a mysterious past as he pushes his steel box through Manhattan.
Latest News for Man Push Cart
October 27, 2007:
Uphill battle for immigrant worker dignity. ![]()
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November 28, 2006:
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