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Enjoyable look about a gang of adolescents of lower class in suburban barrios and their problems with parents and environment . This is a coming-of-age story in the vein of City of God and Kids . Rai (Crispulo), Javi (Tim Benito) and Manu (Eloi Yebra) are three misunderstood adolescents from typical working class family living in a big city , Madrid . They are unadapted and unknown children for their parents , brothers and themselves . Their families are distorted , troublesome parents have marital problems and one of them has a brother who never calls or visits . They live in a ¨Barrio¨ or "Neighborhood" and both of them want to getaway from it . Their emotional loneliness and isolation to be led to unexpected and tragic consequences . Meanwhile , the teens dedicate themselves their occupations , as Ray as a small drug dealer and another as a delivery pizza boy . Later on , there takes place an agreeable surprise , Rai receives a lottery gift , a lush motorboat . At the end takes place an astounding tragedy .

¨Barrio¨ is one of several movies dealing with Spanish adolescence and their particularities such as : rude education , jobless , sex , drugs , and delinquency , all of them interwoven with problematic parents-children relationships . This genre achieved splendor during the 70s and early 80s such as ¨Perros Callejeros I and II¨, ¨Perras Callejeras¨ , ¨ Los Ultimos Golpes Del Torete¨, ¨Yo el Vaquilla¨, mostly realized by Jose Antonio De La Loma , ¨Navajeros , "Colegas", "El Pico 2" by Eloy De La Iglesia and especially ¨Deprisa , Deprisa¨ by Carlos Saura and later ¨La Estanquera De Vallecas ¨ , among others . Seen today, his films are unique documents on how life was lived and perceived during that period . These films were notorious in the years of the Spanish transition to democracy including provoking and polemic issues and played by unknown young people . Drugs , delinquency, and generational problems are the habitual subjects in these films and specially dedicated to the underworld of heroin and a very realistic look . In "Barrio" there is a similar premise , as some unfortunate as well as hapless teenagers from lower class living hardly in Madrid streets , then they carry out tiny crimes and misdemeanors and go into a closed shop with unexpected consequences . We see their troubles with parents , brothers and police , at the same time growing in such streets , slums or "barrio" from Madrid outskirts and some fine locations . The director creates a sort of Spanish Neo-Realism by tackling the Spanish way of life of a group of teenagers in the streets from a sociological point of view ; being rightly portrayed the city of Madrid of the late 90s , in the so-called popular neighbourhoods . His style is pretty much urban and realistic as well in the atmosphere as in the fresh dialog and attempted to take a position in favor of outcast people . Filmmaker Fernando Leon shows the ugliness of those "barrios" , toughness and cold existence along with some nice scenes when the boys assemble themselves and deal with jokes , sex , dirty humor and tiny thefts . The main cast is pretty well , including young and rookie actors . The support cast is formed by experienced players such as Alicia Sánchez as Carmen , Enrique Villén as Ricardo as Francisco Algora as Ángel and Chete Lera as Pólice Inspector .

Colorful and evocative cinematography by Alfredo Mayo , being filmed on location in Madrid . Atmospheric as well as lively musical score plenty of catching songs . The motion picture was professionally directed by Fernando León De Aranoa, realizing in realistic style , and being recently available for the first time in the U.S . Fernando León De Aranoa was born on May 26, 1968 in Madrid, location where he often shoots his flicks . Fernando began working in cinema in the 90s filming shorts and writing screenplays, and has realized a few films , usually dramas . He is a nice writer and director, known for Familia (1996) , Princesas (2005) , Barrio (1998), Amador (2010) , Sabina (2011) and his best picture Los Lunes al Sol or Mondays in the sun (2002).

Barrio is a great portrait of the low-middle class in Madrid. It shows you the life of 3 teenagers sick of their way of living and dealing with all the issues it brings.

These kids have to deal with their problems, their parent's, their hormones, the lack of money, unemployment, trying not to get into the drug world... Trying to make their way out of it and it's here when a brilliant black sense of humour comes and it's delivered in the movie over and over. The story of the delivery pizza boy, among others, is surreal, funny and brutal if you think a bit about it. Is due to this scenarios full humour that you can watch the movie without feel depressed. Don't look here for nice views of Madrid cause there aren't. It's the underground that semi dark face of the city nobody want to see.

In resume: Is a great portrait of the low-medium Spanish class with a great sense of black humour.

The end is bitter, it's true but probably because you can watch the film so easily even laugh although is not a light subject at all, the end reminds you exactly that, that it's hard, is not easy and is a serious matter. It could have left and open ending, that's true too.

Acting is great. You could even think that the guys are for real and the director is filming their real life.

I like Fernando León de Aranoa. I liked "Familia" and "Los Lunes al sol" and that's not an exception. All of his films portrays the issues that the medium class people in Spain has to deal with. Is probably the Spanish Ken Loach.

Watch this movie if you haven't watched yet. I still thinking is one of the best Spanish movies of the last 20 years. 8/10

"Barrio" is the sort of film that comes from the suburbs, does extremely well, and deserves to do so, too. The poster sums the film up very well: a jetski parked and chained to a lamppost in a suburb of Madrid, a good 170 miles from the sea. It seems to capture the very funny nature of the film, but also the tragedy of it all: there's absolutely no way that the jetski is going to get used, and similarly, Rai, Javi and Manu aren't going to get out of the suburbs and fulfill their full potential.

"Barrio" (meaning "neighbourhood" or "suburb") was well received in Spain, and definitely deserves to go on a wider release, but it probably won't, if you will forgive a little gripe about foreign film distribution. There's absolutely no way that films like "Jingle All the Way" and "Batman and Robin" should have loads of money poured into them and then be released only for people to find out they're dire, when films like this should be seen by many more people. Grrrr. I guess the point is that if you're a film distributor who happens to be reading this, wise up. And if you're somebody who wouldn't give a foreign language film a chance (unlikely you'd be reading this, but never mind) - you're missing out on far too much.

I was warned by many Spanish people that I wouldn't understand a lot of the dialogue, because a lot of it was in suburban slang - but strangely, I found it one of the easiest films to understand, possibly because most of the characters spoke rather slowly. It's hard to single out somebody for individual merit because the movie fits so well together, and one gets the impression it was a great collaborative effort. Certainly the acting is consistently impressive and the direction is great because you can't see joins, to quote Morcambe and Wise.

Added to all of this, the soundtrack is great; it provides a good flavour of Spanish music, without managing to sound clichéd or tired. There's even an impressive dancing goat. (Yes, even better than the goat in "Muertos de Risa"). What more could one want from a film?

This was a very enjoyable film showing three boys, and a girl growing up in Madrid.

They all came from working class families and all families had some degree of dysfunction.

In one, the parents and children were constantly sniping at each other. The daughter (Marieta Orozco) constantly made remarks under her breath, but her brother (Timy Benito) was more open about their father. It was very funny despite the problems in the home.

The three boys spent time learning things about life, their city and it's underbelly, and about sex. Like most teens, they wanted to get laid. It was fascinating and funny as they pursued their dreams.

Make no mistake, this wasn't a Porky's. It was an outstanding film by Fernando León de Aranoa. and makes me want to see more of his work; and more of Orozco.

The story of three friends, Rai, Javi and Manu, with a common factor: they live in the same 'Barrio',(neirbourhood), and the three of them want to scape from it. They all come from distorted families, Javi's parents have marital problems, while Manu lives just with his father and he has a brother who never calls or visits. Ray's is a typical working class family. The story takes place in a Madrid suburb, in the summer season, where the three of them decide to make money out of anything. They sell flowers, that they steal, Manu becomes a pizza delivery boy, and Ray is a small drug dealer. The story is as sad as funny, because life is not always sad, not always fun, but a bit of both. It shows a side of Madrid that the tourists won't see in a visit: the underground ghosts, the junkies under the bridge.... The dialogues are so good, that they seem improvised. This is one of the best films of Fernando De Leon Aranoa, but it's also recommendable 'Familia', one of those stories that you'll remember.

Decent drama/comedy/melodrama about three 15 year old best friends growing up in Madrid's Barrio. Well intended, never boring, but not quite enough of anything.

Not gritty or real enough to work as neo-realism -- it's hard to believe 15 year old street boys are as naive as these characters about sex and life itself – they sometimes come off like they should be pre-teens, or part of the far more protected classes.

The acting is solid, and the banter between the kids has a real, often funny feel, but that's not enough to transcend. And the number of convenient melodramatic twists finally overloads the last third, and makes it hard to be really moved.

Well shot and intelligent, I just wish it was deeper, or funnier, or something. Grew a bit on 2nd viewing, but not enough to own a copy for me.

I really didn't like this movie when I first saw it. In retrospect, I am a little more forgiving, but not much.

The reason I actually gave this movie a 5/10 is that the concept was really, really good: three youths in urban Madrid seem to have little or no chance in the larger world, because of factors completely beyond their control. The environment these boys live in is devastating to think about, because it neglects so many things about them and the world they live in, yet they can't even perceive this deficiency precisely because of that deficiency.

Now, if you're thinking this sounds good, you're right. But the actual movie is not that good. While there are a few scenes that really shine(especially the final one which quite literally has a young man "trying to walk the straight and narrow"), the majority of this movie is interminably slow, with no sense of direction whatsoever. It almost felt like I was watching a very badly edited documentary. In fairness, I think I might have lost some of the more sophisticated elements of the film given that I haven't spent a lot of time around Madrid's urban slang, but the language gap wasn't so large that it could possibly explain the deficiencies of this film.

Barrio is as real as life. Everything is not all right. A very good job.

This was the worst piece of crap ever. Now that I have seen this movie my dreams of going to Madrid have become a nightmare. If this is how a low-medium Spanish class family is then i truly feel sorry for them because their lives must be truly boring. Not only does this movie show no emotion or compassion it also does not show how difficult Spanish teenagers' lives are. The story line had potential, it just needed different actors, producers, and director. I regret watching this. I would rather watch the tape they have in The Ring. Now I know I may sound harsh and rude but compared to movies I've seen like Blood In Blood Out or Mi Familia or even Machete, this is nothing. It doesn't capture the true essence on how Latin teenagers live their lives and what they do to survive in El Barrio.