Alone in the crowd - a lost boy on the NYC subway

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (2013) is a largely realistic tightly focused sociodrama with the look and feel of a documentary and with a small cast of unknown (to most), possibly amateur actors - tells the story of a preteen w/ severe autism, Hispanic family, living w/ mother who works as a house-cleaner and older sister fully Americanized, in a small house near Rockaway Beach - director Sam Fleischner does a great job establishing the look and feel of the remote NYC neighborhood and establishing quickly the dynamics of the family: children speak English to mother who speaks Spanish to them; brief scenes of her at work tell all we need to know of her working life as a servant to the slightly better off. Sister who chaffs a little at her responsibilities for brother one day neglects to bring him home from school and he wanders off and spends next several days lost in the subway system - and at least half of the footage of the film follows him on the cars and platforms. Meanwhile, his family - later joined by somewhat neglectful father, search for the boy with only minimal help from school, police, neighbors, church members. Whether that's because the family is too timid and afraid of authority - there's some issue about the father's papers and immigration status - or because the social services are incompetent is left open - perhaps a little of both - but to me the only significant flaw in the movie is that I would think with a good description - and the kid is very unusual looking - transit police would have picked him up fairly quickly. (Movie also cops out a little at the end, teasing us into thinking we're heading in one direction and then surprising us - for a movie so devoted to realistic footage that's a big slip.) Hardly a cheerful movie in any aspect, difficult to watch, but a worthwhile social statement - a contemporary take on the class Little Fugitives.