WHAT’S IT ABOUT
WORKING MAN is a classic American story designed for a contemporary world. When the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors, an unlikely hero emerges in dutiful, quiet, Allery Parkes (Peter Gerety). A career employee of the factory, the aging Allery can’t reconcile how to live a life simply sitting at home doing nothing, and against the advice and pleas of his loving wife, Iola (Talia Shire), he forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor, Walter Brewer (Billy Brown), in order to revive the defunct factory. As their community rallies around them – and as their former corporate bosses strategize how to implode this unexpected movement – Allery learns that he might be something he never thought possible: a leader.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
There are very few films that can move as slowly as this one does and still make an impact more significant than most movies with a $100 million budget. Working Man is simply about what America has gone through for years. This film paints a picture of what can happen and for a lot of people, what does happen when a factory closes. Besides the undeniable facts regarding tons of factory workers suddenly unemployed, Working Man creates its story by focusing on one employee – Allery Parkes. He is an older worker that decided to continue working instead of retiring. Even his fellow co-workers wonder why he’s still there. But none of that matters when they close the factory. Once that happens, Allery becomes a lost soul. He doesn’t know what to do with his free time and decides to sneak back in the factory so he can work. As sad as that sounds, there are a lot of people that would be just as lost if the job they had for years was suddenly gone. As the movie continues, Allery befriends his neighbor and former co-worker, Walter. Together they clean, repair, and continue to work at their closed factory. This creates a chain reaction that involves other workers, the new owners, law enforcement, and the media. The narrative that made Allery want to work is just as strong and moving as the one that helped drive Walter and the other ex-employees to be a part of occupying the factory unlawfully. Overall, it’s a great movie that almost sabotaged itself with a few mellow-dramatic occurrences near the end.
OUR RATING – A BELIEVABLE 8
MEDIA
- Genre – Drama
- Street date
- Digital – May 5th 2020
- DVD – August 13th, 2020
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 1.78:1
- Sound – English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles – English SDH
Extras
- none