Dark Days (NR) No Rating

Documentary filmmaker Marc Singer II spends two years among the rats and the homeless in a literal lower Manhattan: New York City’s underground train tunnels.

Story

Ask any of the homeless living in the tunnels and they’ll say that living underground isn’t so bad. They don’t have to pay rent, they don’t have to pay for electricity and they can smoke their crack without anyone bothering them. The homeless featured here explain how they survive underground -- usually in graphic detail -- and it isn’t always pretty.

Acting

The subjects here are as real as they come: family men and women who reveal in detail how they ended up as drug addicts living in New York’s least prestigious borough.

Direction

Singer’s fascinating black-and-white exposé captures the pride these people have in their dilapidated homes and shows how they’ve adjusted to life underground. Firing off questions from behind the camera, Singer manages to dig deep, bringing one particular homeless woman to tears.

Bottom Line

As ugly as it is, it’s worth seeing what’s at the core of the Big Apple.

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Starring various homeless residents of New York City.

Directed and produced by Marc Singer. Released by Palm Pictures.