‘The Bad Family’ (La Mala Familia) Netflix Review - Tedious and Repetitive

This Spanish documentary begins with a bunch of young men pissing on walls, destroying property, and creating a nuisance. They’re later caught by the Police and the case goes to court. The judge announced them guilty and charged them with jail time and a heavy fine. This fine was further divided up into monthly installments. If any boy in this group fails to repay, they’d be jailed. As all the boys except Andres are out, their meets through video calls are shown. Andres still has a year in jail, and the rest of them are shown doing various jobs to pay off the fine.

After that incident, everyone except Andres moved on with their lives. A crime like this goes to court then, it also affects the friendship and the same could be seen. They can be seen telling about how they spent their time and what would they do with the money once the fine is paid off. All of them decide to meet one day and sit by the beach. There’s no direction in this documentary and the makers allowed the boys to have their natural conversations.

The worst thing I felt was how their youth was wasted after they committed a petty crime. If that hadn’t been done, they could have invested their time and money into more fruitful things. The characters try to dig deep into certain issues, but the conversation never touched that level. You feel like there’s something meaningful about to come, but all the hopes go as done as soon as the focus shifts.

The Bad Family has a total duration of 91 minutes and is about the reunion of a group after they face jail time. The documentary is very realistic in approach and the events have been closely documented. The scene in which Andres is narrating his letter has to be the best one. The boy’s letters were raw and depicted the things that he faced in jail. As he has to go back, there is sadness in his eyes. Completely helpless and insecure, Andres even sheds a drop or two. One takeaway message is always to think before doing something as it affects not just you but everyone around you. There is no saving and the family too has to suffer.

First thirty minutes, it was hard to follow what was going on in The Bad Family because of the poor approach followed by the makers. You see the friend circle or The Bad Family video calling each other, dropping messages, and asking for each other. This made everything stale because no one wants to watch such poorly knitted scenes. Also, if you’re spending your 91 minutes on a title, it must be worthwhile. The makers wanted to give us a close insight into what happened in the lives of these young men after they committed a crime. Their agenda was clear however, a better path could have been chosen. A rawer approach should have been followed with The Bad Family.

Final Score – [4/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
Follow @_riyasinghhh_ on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times