Urban Warriors

EN EL SEPTIMO DIA (A-minus) - Jose is a hard-working bike delivery man for a chi-chi Brooklyn restaurant and is the star of his local soccer team. The team has a big game coming up next Sunday, but the boss tells Jose on Monday morning that he'll need Jose for a big event on Sunday. Jose is struggling to establish himself in America, hoping to bring his pregnant girlfriend over someday. Does he endanger his job or will he let his close friends and teammates down by skipping the big match?

This sharply observed film never overreaches and quietly oozes charm, thanks mostly to the earnest performance by Fernando Cardona and the attention to detail by writer/director Jim McKay, a TV veteran. The Anglos here can be a bit clueless about the struggles of immigrants, but they are never rendered as cartoonish. Jose and his compadres have a natural bond (they all seem to be non-actors who might actually play soccer together in real life), and Jose never tips over into a trope of the nobel worker.

This is just a keen slice of life and a thoroughly entertaining and heartfelt film, gracing us with the tale of life among the under-class. And just when you think you're in for a sappy ending, McKay offers a slight twist that swerves past yet another potential cliche.

THE RAT FILM (B) - This documentary about the rat population in Baltimore is pretty bizarre, and not in a good way. There is a point made here about rat infestations being viewed as a metaphor for the treatment of blacks in Baltimore for the past century. "There's never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it's always been a people problem," we are told by Harold, the grizzled ratcatcher who is undeniably the magnetic star of the film. Newcomer Theo Anthony throws a lot of info and images at us, but his experimentalism undermines his attempt to tell a story and drive home his thesis, given the 82 minutes that he squeezes this into.

Anthony uses robotic narration and antiseptic lab images to try to create a clinical approach to his subject. It's a distraction. He might have wanted to stand out as avant-garde, but too often he seems to be getting in his own way. Images of a pair of Baltimore residents fly-fishing for rats in an alley speak for themselves. But such moments don't get enough of a chance to breathe. Still, this is, at times, fascinating.