The Movie:

I'm hoping Lions Gate's release of Fernando Leon's 1998 film, Barrio, means that US audiences will finally get to know the work of this talented Spanish filmmaker whose films are inexplicably hard to find stateside.

Often imbued with social commentary, Leon's films have won him the moniker "the Ken Loach of Spain". But his work is also funny and absurd and, above all, deeply invested in character. Even when his characters are behaving badly -- being selfish, short-sighted or just plain stupid - he never sells them out for a laugh or forces them into ideological postures to make a point. He treats his characters with affection, which, frankly, makes it easy for us to like them, too. In Barrio, winner of the Goya (Spain's Oscar) for Best Director and Best Screenplay, we get a brilliant example of this work.

A coming-of-age story about three 15-year-olds stuck i...Read the entire review