THE PLOT THUS FAR
Set on the salt-soaked shores of Southern California’s crumbling Bombay Beach, filmmaker Alma Har’el’s three-dimensional portrait tells the story of a boy, a teenager and a man at different stages of their lives amid modern ruins.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Bombay Beach is one of the poorest communities in southern California located on the shores of the Salton Sea, a man-made sea stranded in the middle of the Colorado desert that was once a beautiful vacation destination for the privileged and is now a pool of dead fish. Film director Alma Har’el tells the story of three protagonists. The trials of Benny Parrish, a young boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder whose troubled soul and vivid imagination create both suffering and joy for him and his complex and loving family.
The story of CeeJay Thompson, a black teenager and aspiring football player who has taken refuge in Bombay Beach hoping to avoid the same fate of his cousin who was murdered by a gang of youths in Los Angeles; and that of Red, an ancient survivor, once an oil field worker, living on the fumes of whiskey, cigarettes and an irrepressible love of life. Together these portraits form a triptych of manhood in its various ages and guises, in a gently hypnotic style that questions whether they are a product of their world or if their world is a construct of their own imaginations.
Some pseudohip altie L.A. day-trippers seem to have gone slumming in one of the worst places to live in California, if not the US, and exploited it to make a “different” documentary and a name for themselves. The poor 6 year-old boy Benny is overmedicated and bereft of adequate medical care. His future is sealed: he will end up in jail or a mental institution, his life-span cut short. Somehow the movie seems immune to the sadness of its subjects. Instead, we get stupid, arty choreography, white masks, pretty fireworks and endless footage of children playing.
If you didn’t like your Brakhage by way of Gummo filmmaking…there’s more. A little boy struggling with the effects of multiple behavioral medications suddenly falls into a dreamlike trance and becomes a fireman riding a giant fire truck. A little boy and girl act out going on a date before dumping water all over each other in hilarious laughter. Two teenagers in love suddenly put on theatrical masks and dance together in slow and sensual synchronization. That’s entertainment!
The DVD comes with deleted scenes, select commentary, featurette and music videos. The AV Quality is rpetty solid with a DD 5.1 track that doesn’t really have any back channel action. The transfer makes up for it, but the standard definition covers up the lack of coverage in the regular DVD transfer. It’s a good mix, but nothing that impressive. In the end, I’d recommend a rental.
RELEASE DATE: 01/17/2012
