Synopsis
The rusting relic of a failed 1960s development boom, the Salton Sea is a barren Californian landscape often seen as a symbol of the failure of the American Dream. First-time director Alma Har'el revisits this poetically fruitful terrain in her distinctive documentary Bombay Beach, and finds there a motley cast including a bipolar seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea's land of thwarted opportunity. True to her roots as a photographer, video artist, and music video director, Har'el crafts here an adamantly atypical and artistically innovative film-a dreamlike poem that sets the personal stories of these distinctive yet familiar characters to a stylized amalgam of observational documentary and choreographed dance, with music by Beirut and Bob Dylan, all cast against the atmospheric scenery of the titular ghost town. The result is a moving and surreal documentary experience-an evocative, symbolic portrait of rural America and its inhabitants.
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Movie Details
| Domestic Releases: | October 14th, 2011 (Limited) |
| Running Time: | 80 minutes |
| Comparisons: | vs. Some Kind of Heaven Create your own comparison chart… |
| Keywords: | Mental Illness, Football, Gangs, Homeless, Addiction, Dancing |
| Source: | Based on Real Life Events |
| Genre: | Documentary |
| Production Method: | Live Action |
| Creative Type: | Factual |
| Production Countries: | United States |
| Languages: | English |