Eddie and Pen could be any couple living in Manila on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, except for one small detail: they literally live about one foot from the tracks, as this eye-opening verité documentary shows. Along a railway line there exists an entire neighborhood of corrugated shacks and the families that are stuck in them, often merely inches away from onrushing trains. Life on the Tracks captures more than merely the postcard misery of the neighborhood, however, thanks to the film's two main subjects, Eddie the easygoing dreamer to Pen's foul-mouthed micromanager. “She's got the mouth of a machine gun,” Eddie complains bemusedly, while dodging another thrown shoe. Fighting to provide for their children, fighting amongst themselves, their energy propels the film beyond verité and towards something strangely uplifting, where life amidst misery proves far more resilient than expected. Railway tracks become lined with card tables, and abandoned shacks become karaoke bars, where lyrics like “I want, I want to break free” echo with a passion both powerful and desperately literal.