Maya: Pilar Padilla	Sam: Adrien Brody
Rosa: Elpidia Carrillo	Bert: Jack McGee
Perez: George Lopez	Ruben: Alonso Chavez
Ella: Uncredited	Bertha: Uncredited
Ron Perlman: Himself	Tim Roth: Himself
Ernest: Uncredited	Terry Anzur: Herself
Director: Ken Loach

30 Second Bottom Line: Latino immigrants try to make a life in Southern California, working as janitors in high rise office buildings, where they are paid a minimum, rather than a living wage. When they try to unionize to earn better pay and benefits, the threat of deportation becomes a bargaining tool for management. Is this slavery in the 21st century?

Story Line: Maya (Pilar Padilla) is smuggled into the US illegally, by scumbags so nasty that they make fat rednecks looks like angels. Her trip is paid for by her sister Rosa (Elpidia Carillo), whose husband is a diabetic, without benefit of health insurance from her janitorial job. There's no overtime, no sick pay and no paid holidays either.

Rosa arranges for Maya to start work with the Angel Janitorial Service, under the supervision of Perez, who is like an overseer from the TV series, Roots. The crew consists of Latinos, blacks and poor whites, who obviously have no voice. He fires people without cause, threatens their jobs and talks to them with no thought of fairness, or if he is condescending. He's such an Uncle Tom pig that when he brings on a new person, his commission is two months wages...and sometimes much more than that.

Along comes Sam (Adrien Brody), a white, idealistic union organizer, who tells this reluctant group of workers to demand their rights from the large powerful companies. They are considering doing this because there is a difference in the quality of life they have as compared to other janitors, in nearby buildings, who belong to a union.

Both Sam and Ruben (Alonso Chavez), a janitor, who is close to having the money and scholarship he needs to get into law school, are attracted to Maya. If things go wrong, Ruben could lose his job and never get into law school; Maya could be deported and Sam…well, as Maya points out to him during a crisis, he'd go on to another job and get over his hurt feelings.

What evolves is a love story, involving three people, amidst a war for human rights and dignity. It's far more meaningful than the triangle played out in Pearl Harbor. We are in the midst of an economic bombing of humans, who provide services we often want to utilize, indeed, take for granted, but we do not recognize the people doing the work. As one janitor says, as he's stepped around by office workers, "I think the uniform makes us invisible."

Tell Me More About It: Bread and Roses is a dramatization of a real fight for rights in Southern California, the actual Justice for Janitors movement. The civil rights struggle of 50 years ago has been replaced by the economics struggle of today. People are mistreated with feigned dignity, so those of us not directly affected are not as outraged as we were with incidents like the church bombing in Alabama and innumerable murders and public beatings, such as the march in Selma.

Ken Loach is somewhat like a Spike Lee in addressing his subject. No justice…no peace, never made more sense. At times I thought I was looking at a polished documentary rather than a Hollywood production about grass roots issues.

While some of the story is rather preachy, there is a scene in the film, worth the price of admission, when Rosa tells Maya not only what she does, but also why she does it. This is one of the strongest moments in film you will see this year. Carrillo is unforgettable.

Most of the workers depicted here are Latino, from Mexico, and Central and South America. And I wonder how often we look at, but don't see the Latino people who work in our yards, clean our homes or bus our tables? They have families just like everyone and need to make a living wage. The minimum wage is fine for kids and for entry-level positions for unskilled full time people. But the folks in our society who do things we don't want to do, merit jobs that have health care and pay enough so that 75% of their wages are not spent on rent.

Pilar Padilla: Debut	Adrien Brody: Liberty Heights; Restaurant
Rosa: My Family	George Lopez: Fatal Instinct
Alonso Chavez: Debut	Ken Loach: My Name is Joe