Review: Spare Parts

City Paper grade: B-

While the profile of Selma has been boosted by the “divine timing” of its release (Oprah’s words), a much smaller movie has also found its vein along the sociopolitical zeitgeist. It won’t win any awards, inspire any lofty op-eds or birth any red-carpet stars, but Spare Parts tells a story bigger than the creative sacrifices required to spread it. A 2005 Wired article by Joshua Davis uncovered events too improbable to be fake: Four Arizona teenagers, all of them undocumented immigrants, rode a tiny amount of cash and a ton of ingenuity into a victory over top-tier universities in an underwater robotics competition. While it serves as the head and the heart, the earnest dynamic of the group — the born leader (Carlos PenaVega), the gear head (José Julián), the genius (David Del Rio), the muscle (J.R. Villarreal) — comes off war-movie predictable. And director Sean McNamara, who’s made his bones on the Disney Channel circuit, kiddifies his moves, pumping air into proceedings that are too often desperate. But whatever compromises were required to get these kids on the big screen — lumping the club’s two advisors into one character, played by a marketable Latino star like George Lopez; painful product placement, shoveling praise on a certain fast-food chain known for targeting minorities — were worth it overall. As we sprint toward an election year, everyone will be talking about immigration, and stories like this help us remember that when we’re arguing about the issue, we’re arguing about real people.