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.

It is probably better sometimes to see a film after the buzz is over in order to appreciate it - its good as well as its weakest parts. The break-through film of Alma Harel was very much talked about when it was released a couple of years ago. I have seen it only now and I can probably better enjoy its best parts, as well as wonder about other without necessarily being influenced by the chorus of praise (some justified) which accompanied its release.The landscape seems to belong to a post-apocalyptic film. On the deserted shores of a sea that was born by an accident a small community of people deprived of almost everything tries to survive. Yet this is not the planet after an atomic war, and this is not the Sea of Aral either, but a real landscape and real people in the state of California, in a place located at measurable distances from all the services available in one of the most sophisticated states of the USA. The destinies of several people are being followed in parallel. A boy with behavioral problems whose parents went to jail are may be in danger of being denied parenthood if they get in any kind of more trouble. A teenager who was born and raised in the violent suburbs of a big city and has seen death and violence, and came here in the search of the right path for overcoming his social condition. An old man who survived a life of working in the oil fields but never abandoned his passion for booze, smoking, women. All the stories are human and credible and real. This may look like art fiction, but is actually a documentary of a special kind.The art dimension of the film is provided by the each of the characters dancing at some point in time. Each of the dancing episodes is so well integrated in the whole movie that it looks quite natural. Dancing may not be part of their real life, but Alama Harel made it look like it is. Yet here comes also the problematic aspect of the film. We get a glimpse of life in one very extreme area of today's America, with its people. It's real life and yet there is some manipulation here, because there was a cameraman (maybe the director herself) some place to catch what looks like pieces of truth. It's beautiful but I could not escape a feeling of artificiality. Yet Alma Arel is certainly a film-maker to follow, Let us see what subjects she will pick next.

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.