Review: 'Man Push Cart' Essential for Fans of French New Wave and Italian Neorealism

Ramin Bahrani's debut feature, "Man Push Cart," was first introduced to me through Roger Ebert's glowing 4-star review upon the film's release in 2005. Ebert was often great about opening my budding cinephile eyes toward new styles of filmmaking as he championed lesser-known films such as this one.

Now, 16 years later, "Man Push Cart" has been rightfully added to The Criterion Collection in a high-definition digital master, supervised and approved by Bahrani.

The film exhibits the best attributes of Italian neo-realism or, as Ebert put it, it "embodies the very soul" of it. Nothing feels forced or fake, and Bahrani cemented himself as an artist to watch with this magnificently muted work that speaks volumes. The film follows Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi, playing a fictionalized persona that mirrors his own life story), a former famous rock star from Pakistan who now works long hours selling bagels and coffee from a Manhattan food cart. His search for purpose and human connection drives much of the film, as does the Sisyphean metaphor of the cart he continuously pushes in hopes of finding something better.

Bonus features on this Criterion Blu-ray release include a fantastic audio commentary from 2005 featuring Bahrani, director of photography Michael Simmonds, assistant director Nicholas Elliot, and actor Ahmad Razvi. In addition to that, there's a new conversation about the making of the film with Bahrani, Elliot, and Razvi. It's great to hear these artists discuss such a clearly compassionate work, and it's great to see these types of discussions featured on this worthy Criterion release. Aside from the aforementioned and an additional conversation, there isn't much else on the Blu-ray aside from the 1998 short film by Bahrani, "Backgammon."

These conversations are great to listen to, however, and the film itself is a commendable purchase for anyone who's a fan of the French New Wave and Italian neorealist filmmaking. Bahrani struck gold with this picture, as well as his sophomore film, "Chop Shop," also being added to the collection this month.

"Man Push Cart" is currently available on The Criterion Collection Blu-ray for the suggested retail price of $31.96