A group of teens use a stolen TV camera to document their crimes and the strange phenomena of their city.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Stillz
Starring: Juan Pablo Baena, Samuel Velazquez, Tomas Tinoco Higuita, Bryan Erlin Garcia, Samuel Andres Celis
Best known for his collaborations with Latin music idols Bad Bunny and Rosalía, music video director Stillz makes his narrative feature debut as writer/director with Barrio Triste. I use "narrative" loosely however, as there is very little in the way of plot in this meandering found footage puzzler.
Set in the troubled Colombian city of Medellín in 1987, the film opens with a TV reporter recording a piece on mysterious lights that have recently been appearing in the sky over the city. Before he can finish, the reporter and his camera operator are attacked by a teenage gang who make off with their camera.
For the rest of the movie that camera will be operated by an anonymous gang member as he documents his life in a slum overlooking the city. Early on we witness the gang launch a violent raid on a jewellry store, leaving a clerk dead on the floor. Returning to their shanty town home, the gang administers a beating to the teen responsible for the murder, and talk about how the cops will be coming after them.
It's a thrilling opening, and a reminder of how rare it is for the found footage format to be employed in the crime genre. But the robbery quickly becomes irrelevant, playing no further role in the ensuing drama (or lack thereof). The cops never come looking for the boys, who spend their time loafing around their neighbourhood, picking fights and stealing cars. In the final act those strange lights previously alluded to play a part, taking the film into the realm of the supernatural, but making it no more interesting.
A criticism of the found footage sub-genre is that a lot of time is spent watching a camera operator filming themselves simply walking around. Barrio Triste takes this to new extremes, with practically its entire middle section consisting of the anonymous cameraman walking down a hill. When the paranormal aspect kicks in you might think something is finally about to happen, but it's the very definition of an anti-climax.
Barrio Triste is executive produced by self-confessed edgelord Harmony Korine, and you can see why he was attracted to the project. Like his own work, it's centred on disaffected youth and has a rambling, episodic structure. But for all their frustrating flaws, Korine's films at least feature young characters who feel somewhat recognisably real. The young gangsters of Barrio Triste have no more interiority than the sort of criminals Charles Bronson might gun down in a Death Wish sequel. The main footage is interspersed with clips of one of the youths being interviewed in a tight closeup, talking about his woes, a lazy attempt to flesh out the film's protagonists rather than letting us get to know them through their actions.
The period detail is aided by the grainy Beta-cam footage, and the setting - a real life Medellín slum - probably hasn't changed all that much since 1987, adding to the grim reality. A cacophonous score by Arca adds a sense of foreboding doom. But there is little to engage us here. If Stillz' desire was to make us empathise with his young anti-heroes he has made them far too despicable. If it were chopped down to 20 minutes Barrio Triste might make for a passable entry in the ongoing found footage anthology series V/H/S, but as a standalone feature it's as aimless as the lives of the young men it depicts.
Barrio Triste is in UK cinemas from September 18th and US VOD from October 9th.
