They say people can endure having nowhere to live, but having nothing to drive is licking the very bottom of the barrel. That fate hasn't come to "Parked" protagonist Fred Daly (Colm Meaney), at least not yet. But he's inching closer, as he eases his Mazda into a parking lot on Dublin's east coast. This car is now officially Fred's home; after moving back to his native Ireland after years in England, he has nowhere else to go.
"Parked" is a 2010 movie that made it to the U.S. in 2012, and here it is in Japan, another two years later. Directed by Darragh Byrne, Fred's story reflects the times in which it was made — the world was in the throes of economic disaster, with joblessness and homelessness fast becoming the new normal. Looking at Fred's plight now, we are hit with a sinking realization that not much has changed — except that the rich came back on the upswing and now drastic inequality is the new normal.
As far as Fred is concerned, he's probably better off in his car than having a government system intervene with shelters and unreliable safety-net plans. At least this way he can hold onto a measure of personal dignity and a sliver of personal space.