Bombay Beach (2011)

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I have reviewed a ton of films...more than anyone else so far on IMDb. So I obviously love movies...all sorts of movies. And, with nearly 20,000 reviews I am going to admit something I've almost never done...I bailed on this movie and never finished it because I simply was having a miserable time watching "Bombay Beach"...a documentary about three very different sorts of poor people living in a hellish moribund town along the banks of the dying Salton Sea in Southern California. Now a documentary about the Salton Sea can be very interesting...and I've seen one that kept my interest. After all, an ENORMOUS lake was formed in the middle of the desert and became a paradise, of sorts, for several decades. Folks flocked here because of the beachside communities and there was a tremendous land boom in the 1950s. But over the years, the salt level of the water has continued to increase to the point that many of the fish species have been wiped out and the once terrific place is now a smelly dead zone. This is very fascinating. But the makers of Bombay Beach have chosen instead NOT to tell the story of this area but instead focus on three trashy sorts of guys....and therein lies the problems. Listening to a crazy old guy rant and rave or a high school student talking about scoring with girls or an emotionally disturbed little boy from a bizarre family simply isn't entertaining...it's just sad. It's also about as enjoyable as chewing on an electric cord that IS plugged in...that's what I felt about this meandering and often annoying film. To make it worse, sometimes the cinematography was fuzzy...making it annoying AND tough on the eyes. No thank you.

Searching round online for any Bob Dylan news,I was surprise to recently to discover that Dylan had contributed 2 songs for a low budget documentary.With having a family friend about to pay a visit during the run up to Christmas,I was happy to see that the documentary had been brought out on DVD,which would allow everyone to pay a quick visit to Bombay Beach.The outline of the film:Film maker Alma Har'el goes to a poor, census-designated-place in Imperial County,California called Bombay Beach,that has a population of just under 300 people.Deciding to focus on three distinct residence of Bombay:the first one being an old man called Red,who despite recently suffering from ill health,continues to travel to a drug store based out of Bombay Beach,so that he can buy cigarette's which he can sell at a few pence more than he paid for them,at the trailer park that he lives in.The second person who Alma looks at is a young man called CeeJay Thompson,who after being sent to Bombay Beach by a relative who was fearing that he may get involved in gangs,is shocked to find paradise at Bombay,where along with becoming the star player in the high school's football team,Thompson also begins to fall in love with one of the schools cheerleader's.For the third person,Har'el focuses on the family of 7 year old Benny Parrish,who along with having bright dreams of being a firemen in the future,is also having to make long journeys out with his parents to medical facility,due to suffering from a bi-polar disorder.View on the film:Working closely with dance and stage choreography Paula Present,director Alma Har'el intercepts the three threads of the movie with surreal dance and stage pieces,that go from Ceejay and his girlfriend having a dance off,to the film jumping 20 years to show Benny as a firemen.Whilst this does make the documentary more openly "staged" than most,Har'el cleverly uses " the fantasy severance's" to build up a strong,dusty,ambient wasteland mood that erupts at the precise moment Alma unleashes any of the two (written just for this movie) smooth Dylan tracks on the soundtrack.Basting the film in Bombay Beach,Alma opens the movie with archival promotional Video footage from the building of Bombay Beach,where people were being told to buy property there so that they could have a piece of "the American dream".Jumping to the modern day,run day wasteland of the place,Har'el smartly shows,that no matter how much the American dream is pushed to the edge of the cliff,there are still people who are trying to find their part of the dream,in the suburb of Bombay.

Once a saline oasis for the Californian elite, Bombay Beach is one of a number of former resort towns dotted around the inland Salton Sea, fashioned in 1905 when heavy rainfall caused the Colorado River to breach its banks. Fish were first introduced in the 1930s, and by the 1950s the tourist trade was booming; Sinatra would perform in the area and Eisenhower would also make an appearance. By 1970 however, the former hotspot was deserted. Rising water levels had destroyed much of the infrastructure, and further investment dried up entirely. Har'el's 'Bombay Beach' explores what is left of the town, a refuge for the lost, the senile and the sick. And yet, in their desire to escape the reality of that where they have come, Bombay Beach recoups its image as a destination of choice, of value - it may not offer much, but its inhabitants seek the solace and contemplation its isolation offers.

The complexity of the characters performed in a minimalist way was very refreshing. How naked and honest the emotions of this film evoke in me is a priceless feeling that I cherish every so often I get the chance now days. The duality of emotional contrasts is very present in each character vividly. I feel in love with the little boy with a BIG LIFE and how he just wants normalcy, also his tired, worn down mother who is uneducated, unfit (at times), and strong in the same respect. I think that Alma projected each story line in a concise and efficient way that can be felt by a skeleton. The old man is a great well deserved lull or break from the emotional content and serves as a sort of narrator of the spirit of the film and the meaning that I personally got, being resilient through life and also loving life as it happens. Sometimes the camera work was shaky (i personally get motion sickness easily) but overall It was an exceptional work of art, also a very human, organic piece of art. It left me hoping the best for every character, and that is a great ability; to make people feel human, emotions, and love. PS. i gave it a 10 because it is better than the 6.7 rating it has at the current time PSS. shotout to Carson Daily for putting a spotlight on a great work of art, even though universal picked up the film and universal produces his show, I appreciate this movie.