Critic Reviews

• Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

  The makers of Man Push Cart seem so dedicated to making a film that defies Hollywood conventions that the finished product lacks enough entertainment value to justify price of admission.

• Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

  Michael Simmond's cinematography, especially in scenes of Ahmad muscling his way amid evening traffic and early-morning delivery trucks, is wonderfully true to the moods of a city that never sleeps and seldom nods at the hard work going on before it.

• Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

  Shot in three weeks, Man Push Cart does a fine job of capturing the bitter flavor of Ahmad's life.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  Free of contrived melodrama and phony suspense, it ennobles the hard work by which its hero earns his daily bread.

• Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

  Ahmad's concerns -- his sadness and his striving -- become universal. Though his early-morning riser's world is gray and threaded with melancholy, it becomes, in the end, a place we recognize.

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  It's by no means an exaggeration to describe this quietly powerful film as Bressonian.

• Jeffrey Chen, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

  A noble attempt to give us a look at one of the regular people who populate our civilization, one of the guys we may see everyday but would be otherwise totally unfamiliar with.

• Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

  Although the acting isn't so hot from the non-professional bit part players, Ahmad Ravzi - also a non-professional actor and former push cart seller himself - puts in a stoic and solid performance.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  Delivers the grind without sugar and clichés.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  Fiction, but always with one foot firmly planted in a grim post-9/11 reality, the cast and crew got called terrorists by people passing by the set, and with a visit from the FBI to see if the film set was a coverup to conceal a terrorist plot in progress.

• Prairie Miller, Kid Surfer

  Fiction, but always with one foot firmly planted in a grim post-9/11 reality, the cast and crew got called terrorists by people passing by the set, and with a visit from the FBI to see if the film set was a coverup to conceal a terrorist plot in progress.

• Bruce Dancis, Sacramento Bee

  The darkly realistic cinematography of Michael Simmonds gives the film a near-documentary style in its depiction of the endless, physically draining work.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Recalling Italian neorealist movies such as The Bicycle Thief, Man Push Cart is a slice of a very sad life.

• Les Wright, culturevulture.net

  A sad, powerful, austere experience of a movie, this is the story of a man who has known profound, compound loss.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  A sad, honest movie about the day-to-day courage and stoicism of decent people who cling to the lowest rung of the social ladder.

• Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews

  Man Push Cart, written and directed by Ramin Bahrani, attempts to put a human face on the men (and it is generally men) who work inside these tin boxes.

• Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

  A slow-burn stunner, where nothing much of consequence happens, except life itself.

• Mary F. Pols, Contra Costa Times

  Man Push Cart is likely too slow to pull in much of an audience, but that's a shame, because it has so much empathy for the plight of the lonely.

Read all 18 critic reviews