Sean Baker has made some really stunning micro budget films in recent years. Both his much lauded "Tangerine" and less known but equally excellent "Starlet" were wonderful comedy- dramas, artfully telling takes of those normally overlooked by mainstream cinema.

"Take Out" is not quite as strong as those later works, but is still well worth seeing.

This verite style study of a Chinese food deliveryman's desperate rush to earn $800 to pay off the loan sharks that helped pay his way to the US has a nifty sense of almost documentary realism. The acting is very real and understated (by a mixed cast of actors and non-pros), and the tension level is high.

I didn't have quite as strong a positive reaction as most of the critics for a few reasons. First, while avoiding movie clichés for the most part, a couple of key 'twists' are broadcast a mile off, dampening their impact. Also, by making his lead character such a cipher (he not only doesn't speak English, but seems inward and withdrawn even among his fellow Chinese), that it's hard to build up a connection with him as a character. Yes, we can pity his plight, but I wanted to understand what was going on in his head. Also, the shaky-cam shooting style occasionally called more attention to itself then I think it was intended to.

It reminded me a bit in tone of Ramin Bahrani's terrific "Man Push Cart", but for me that early work had a little more poetry and richness.

None-the-less, an intelligent, well-meaning micro budget film (it looks like it was shot on regular definition video), and - given my fondness for Baker's more recent films - I'll certainly go back for another look.

A day in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant (Charles Jang) delivering food on his bike in Manhattan, which is as deeply realistic as it is compassionate. It starts with him being startled out of bed in the apartment he shares with many others by a couple of heavies who come collecting for a loan shark, and he then tries for the rest of the day to scrabble up the $800 he owes them. He has a wife and baby son back in China that he's hoping to bring over someday (and he's never even met his son), but as a part of getting smuggled into the country, owes people money at a high rate of interest, something that will take several years to pay off.

Most of the film is either in the kitchen of the small Chinese restaurant he works at or in the deliveries the man makes on a dreadfully rainy day, all of which felt incredibly authentic. The backstory to this film is amazing, shot as it was for less than $3,000, and in how it used real people in the customer interactions, some of which were loosely scripted on the fly, others of which seemed simply captured. As Sean Baker explained it, the take-out customers were cast by posting an ad on Craig's list offering $5 to those willing to be filmed at their own apartment receiving food, the resulting footage "hybrid filmmaking, blurring that line between what is real and what is fiction." I was blown away by how immersive it was.

Because a lot of the action is in deliveries, the tension in the film is quiet, but it's definitely there, and I was fully invested. Any setback for this guy can have severe consequences, like a flat tire, an ugly customer interaction, his bike getting stolen, or a car in all that traffic hitting him - and then of course there's the matter of needing to have $800 by the end of the day lest he get beaten some more. How will he make it through a day, much less years of working this way?

In this character there is the timeless struggle of an immigrant hoping for a better life, but Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou were wisely restrained in not making any big political statements or creating cliché interactions. A lot of what gets said is through the immigrant's mannerisms, and in us seeing the world through his eyes, with people from all walks of life and with varying levels of empathy taking food from him. I loved that about the film, and how it showed the power in the community, with people looking out for one another because they had been there, and knew what it was like. I saw great characters and performances in his co-workers, including his fellow delivery man and friend (Jeng-Hua Yu), "big sister," the cashier and manager (Wang-Thye Lee, who was essentially in her real job), and the prickly cook (Justin Wan). It's just a great little film, a hidden gem, and one to check out.