The Boy from Medellín

This is a great documentary showing the real life of a world class star. Being from Colombia I understand some if the nuances missed in the real life footage. For example, you must have been in Medellín and in the comunas to understand why that portion of the documentary is so relevant. I also liked the fact that José's struggles with mental health.

As he says in the documentary: J. Balvin the artist and José are two different people. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed every minute of this documentary. It makes you realize how J Balvn is just a regular human being like the rest of us. To each their own and to me I give it a 10 out of 10.

Now every country has their issues ... and while the music is on the forefront here, we get to dive into some of the trouble here too. Funnily enough I knew some of the songs but had no idea of who sang them. There was a time where I was up to date on those kind of things, but not anymore.

You have to like the music at least a little to be able to enjoy the documentary. Yes it looks on other things too and how our entertainer here struggles with them too ... but it mostly is about how he expresses himself through music. While his family is there too, he does not hold back on the "flirting" ... there is a sexual desire and drive behind a lot of the music and the rhythm you see? That's why it is necessary for you to able to listen to them ... maybe even let them make you dance? That's up to you, I know I felt that way for sure.

TIFF 2020 03

The Boy from Medellin

This documentary had a very strong and powerful effect on me. It's about the famous Colombian singer J Balvin and his forthcoming concert in his hometown Medellin in which some of the biggest protests and strikes in the recent history of Colombia are taking place. I dont expect the critics from U.S to fully grasp the essence of this film, but in countries who deal with dictatorship and people rallying against the government, the roll of artists, entertainers and basically celebrities with a sizeable platform is controversional and disputed. I'd like to quote Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a former showman with PhD in political science in my country Iran who once said: "you can't just separate yourself from the politics. even if you try to not mess up with politics, politics will mess up with you. The two nuclear bombs that nuked Hiroshima and Nakazaki, these were potitical events. You must know politics to predict when the bomb is going to get you."

This film started as a typical singer's concert kind of documentary, but the whole protests and what Balvin had to go through with his roll about them gave this a whole new narrative and elevated it by a lot.

It was very interesting, but also somewhat painful to watch. As a J Balvin fan I would love to see him happy, but you see how many struggles he has (and you ask yourself why he puts himself through them, being very strict to himself). I think it was intentional to show, that being a star is not what many people would think it is. The title is well chosen - J Balvin is still a boy from Medellin, a star on the outside, but still insecure and very vulnerable on the inside.

Being a star helps with your bank account but it can make life´s lessons harder to learn. On the one hand the ego is flattered by all these fans, on the other hand there is this deep longing to be loved - but it can only come from the inside, and you can clearly see how lost J Balvin sometimes is. So very very brave to show this to the world to see.