FILM

USA 2011 80 mins Dir: Alma Har'el

The opening crackly vintage newsreel footage informs us that the inland Salton Sea was created in 1905 when the Colorado River overflowed its banks. Perched on its eastern shore is the desert community of Bombay Beach. Back in the '50s, this was billed optimistically as "the new recreational capital of the world". Today, it's a barren and decaying wilderness with an ever-declining trailer trash population.

'Bombay Beach' focuses on three subjects. The tattooed Parrishes are like a caricature problem family, their hobbies being breeding, child neglect, living in squalor and blowing shit up. These days, they're working hard to prevent son Benny being taken into care again, but the bipolar kid's pumped full of drugs and has an alarmingly vacant stare. Self-styled "lucky cuss" Red is a racist old coot who ekes a living selling cigarettes. The only hopeful figure is CeeJay, an ambitious young black refugee from South Central LA. For him, the boredom of Bombay Beach is a welcome respite from the drug and gang culture that claimed the life of his cousin.

This is certainly a poignant setting for an exploration of the death of the American Dream. Be warned, however, that Israeli-born video artist Alma Har'el takes an openly 'poetic' approach to her subject, which, while serving up some undeniably beautiful images, smacks uncomfortably of poverty tourism.

More troublingly, in addition to persuading her subjects to participate in surreal dance routines, she appears to be magically on hand to record dramatic moments in their lives. Maybe she really was present when a vile youth threatened to distribute photographs of his underage girlfriend performing oral sex on him, and both of them were happy for the exchange to be filmed. But it feels like the rightly despised "structured reality" genre with arty overtones. (Robin Askew)

Website bombaybeachfilm.co.uk/

Opens: February 17

Copyright Robin Askew 2012