Dark Days

Rating:
Summary: Dark Days
Review: "Dark Days" should be required viewing for every American. The film captures brilliantly a segment of New York's homeless population living in an abandoned train tunnel under the city, some for as long as 25 years.

Besides the obvious social commentary this film seeks to inspire, "Dark Days" central theme illuminates the resilience, strength, and perserverance of humankind. Marc Singer puts a face on the otherwise collectively-regarded "homeless", and the face looks familiar.

Stylistically, this film is art in motion. It's beautiful and moving to watch, even aside from the sensative content. The movie also contains "special features" that are actually worth watching, including updates of the subjects of the film, the history of the New York tunnels, and commentary on the film's making. DJ Shadow provides a soundtrack that instantly pulls you in, and compliments perfectly.

Amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Documentary
Review: "Dark Days" is a wonderful documentary and is mandatory viewing for anyone interested in those who make their homes beneath the streets of NYC. "Dark Days" offers up a visual tour of this subterranean landscape. As someone who lives in NYC, and has been interested in this phenomenon for sometime, "Dark Days" is a fascinating work. Although I must admit that I have a definite attraction to the perverse and mysterious nature of the underground, Singer reminds us that there is much humanity to be found within the sooty vermin-infested underbelly that lies just beyond the subway tracks.
Singer is enamored with the people who live underground and portrays them as complete human beings. He conducts a sort of Anthropological approach in dealing with them. He is their friend, he's lived among them and has established their trust, he speaks their language, and he understands their needs and concerns. The most important element of those who live underground that Singer brings to the forefront are that they are part of a large subculture that thrives on relationships and human compassion. Yes, a lot of these people are living underground because of choices that they made, many are hiding from addiction, family, the law, and life ON the streets. Living underground in the vast tunnel network of the NYC subway system, many of these individuals have found their home. Many of them have even built their homes underground. There is electricity to be found down there, as well as water. It is not uncommon for those living underground to have TVs, cooking stoves, makeshift toilets, and multi-room dwellings. "Dark Days" shows all of this, as well as showcasing the relationships cultivated between those living underground. Through Singer, we become attached to these individuals. After watching this, I found myself wanting to know where these people are now.
The DVD offers a selection as part of its special features that contains small write-ups of everyone featured in the film and where they were shortly after the film was completed. If also offers a great glimpse into how the film was made and the immense efforts on both the part of Singer and of those living underground to complete this effort. The soundtrack by DJ Shadow is great and well worth noting.
Living in NYC, one of the most informative segments of this documentary were those that addressed how the city attempts to deal with this "problem of homelessness." One has to wonder why, if someone is content living underground and simply cannot make it "upstairs," it is such a problem to let them stay. Offering help is wonderful, forcefully extracting people from their homes is a horrible act of cruelty. Much along the same lines as forcing someone into a shelter where they will be robbed, raped, and beaten. The only way to "help" those who live underground is to respect them. "Dark Days" is an excellent example of giving this respect and of extending care and friendship to a group of people most of us refuse to acknowledge. It is because of people like Marc Singer that in the days since Times Square has been sanitized, and while the Bowery is shrinking more and more every day, those who live in NYC without a "proper" home will not be overlooked completely.

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly uplifting movie
Review: 'Dark Days' is a documentary about homeless people living in the subway system in New York City. I got bored with is fast and didn't like that it was filmed in black and white. I didn't finish watching it.

Rating:
Summary: Not that good.
Review: 'Dark Days' is a documentary about homeless people living in the subway system in New York City. I got bored with is fast and didn't like that it was filmed in black and white. I didn't finish watching it.

Rating:
Summary: excellent film on an almost-unknown community that thrives
Review: Director Marc Singer lived for 2 years in the train tunnels beneath Penn Station. He was far from alone --- there is a veritable community down there, they have built little huts and do everything we do on the surface: cook meals, keep pets and discuss life.

It is far better to be homeless under the ground than on the surface, the various interviewees agree. No one messes with you down in the tunnels (although one woman's hut is burnt down by a vengeful boyfriend.) They show the kennel they built for their beagles after one got hurt.

Perhaps the hardest scene is when one man discusses his daughter who was raped, burned and dismembered when she was 5 years old. Another woman talks of her two kids who perished in a fire. Just because they don't live in traditional houses does not mean they don't have people they care about or who cared about them.

Marc Singer does a good job of keeping his documentary free of judgement, nor does he give them false nobility nor does he degrade them. He just films them and lets them speak for themselves. All they want, as one man says is "three little words -- and they ain't I Love You, they're Leave Us Alone."

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly uplifting movie
Review: Director Mark Singer spent about three years working and living in the tunnels of NYC, where a group of homeless people squatted, sometimes for years. These people have set up makeshift shacks, complete with electricity, occasional "running water," decorations (one man paints "NO CRACK") on his doorway, and pets. For a group living in squalor and rats, they talk endlessly about keeping clean, eating properly (kosher restaurants are the cleanest!) and being safe. Theyre overall a smart, resilient bunch, and the movie has some very funny moments as well as more serious ones. Dark Days is fascinating, both for the stereotypes it confirms (drug use and mental illness are major players in the sad descent of the homeless) and refutes. Some of the characters become very memorable. One is Ralph, a middle-aged Puerto Rican, a former crack addict, with a soft-spoken, articulate demeanor. Ronnie, despite the obvious ravages of homelessness and drug addiction, still retains a kind of boyish, hustling charm as he describes all the money he makes from selling knickknacks on the side. Then there's Tommy, a runaway from an abusive family who if he cleaned up could be an Abercrombie and Fitch model. Dee is the only woman in the group, and one of the most memorable moments in the documentary is when Ralph tells Dee to quit smoking crack, and Dee points out that Ralph constantly smokes pot. "But all dope makes me do is like eat eat eat" says Ralph.
The DVD extras are almost better than the documentary itself, with 15 extra scenes that don't add much to the narrative of the story but are extremely entertaining and fun to watch. There's a happy ending that feels a bit tacked on, but also reflects Mark Singer's determination to save these people and get them above ground.

Rating:
Summary: Subterranean homeless blues
Review: Disturbing, engrossing, extraordinary. See this documentary.

Rating:
Summary: Aesthetically Pleasing
Review: Great to look at -- in the tradition of Eraserhead or Freaks.
But that's the troublesome aspect. It's mostly aesthetics, with a great backup score.
Very little information, almost no social consciousness -- one would think it had been made decades ago. Singer objectifies the people in front of the lens shamelessly. Or perhaps he is just woefully behind the times and didn't know what he was doing. I would hope that was the case. But if you just want to see a good looking black and white film, it's got some great shots.

Rating:
Summary: A unique documentary.
Review: I hadn't known what this film was about before I went in. A close friend said we were going, and we did. This documentary amazed me beyond belief. I am usually opposed to these types of documentaries. It is about homeless people living in New York and their hardships. Most times, this would have repelled me completely. But I am glad that I didn't know about it, or what it was about, before I went in. It tells the story of about 5 people and how the city changed their lives. At one time all of them were house-owning and had jobs. Some type of situation occured and now they are homeless. It's a sad story, to see how they live in poverty. Their personalities are very likeable and many times the film is humorous because of their attitudes. This film is about survival and acceptance. These people have gone through a lot. The ending is a happier one than I expected. Also, the soundtrack is fantastic. I was already a fan of DJ Shadow before I saw this, and so it was good to recognize his works during the movie. I do recommend the soundtrack as well as this movie. You're in for some reason life, but the film is very smooth, emotional, easy to follow, and heart touching. Plus the black and white settings of abandoned subway systems and makeshift houses are very impressionable. This film opened my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Patch
Review: I was initially interested in this movie very much but my expectations were totally wrong. I expected a weird, dark, twisted journey into the minds of people who could live underground in a subway tunnel. It wasn't like that at all. This is one of the most uplifting movies I've ever seen and a (cue cheesy reviewer soundbyte) remarkable meditation on the triumph of the human spirit. I swear to god, I mean that. It even has a happy ending. I don't want to tell you too much, but this movie was interesting, but it also made me feel really good. The human mind/spirit/being has an amazing ability to adapt and go on and infact (to a degree) flourish despite the everyday (...) of existance.