By Ed Koch
“Ask the Dust” (-)
After reading Manohla Dargis’ review in The New York Times, I expected to enjoy this movie. Unfortunately, I did not. She wrote, “There are all kinds of stories about Los Angeles, that city of broken dreams, terminal sunshine and important car crashes. Among the greatest is ‘Ask the Dust’ an autobiographical novel by John Fante about his hungry years in the city when he lived on pennies, oranges and splenetic ambition.”
The locale is Los Angeles in the 30’s. Writer Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) lives in a $4-a-week rooming house and owes $24 in back rent, for which the landlady is dunning him. On his wall is a photo of H.L. Mencken, to whom he regularly sends his short stories. He receives occasional advances, one as much as $200 which was a lot of money at the time, but he is currently down to his last nickel.
In a coffee shop he meets a waitress, Camilla Lopez (Salma Hayek), and the two begin a romance, characterized by verbal abuse by both parties. Camilla believes she is discriminated against because of her Mexican ethnicity, and Arturo’s landlady, Mrs. Hargraves (Eileen Atkins), tells him that she doesn’t rent to Mexicans or Jews. The world, at least in LA, has changed a lot since then.
Colin Farrell, who resembles a very young Tyrone Power in this role, is a good actor, as is Salma Hayek. (If you haven’t seen “Frida,” in which she stars, it is worth renting). Their acting efforts in this film, however, are drowned by the pretentious script. Donald Sutherland has a cameo appearance as an alcoholic neighbor in the boarding house, but the script does not allow him to exhibit his acting talents.
So why didn’t I agree with The Times review of this movie? It never enveloped me, and I never connected with anything or anyone in the film. The story line fell flat several times and was occasionally boring. I had the feeling that an attempt was being made to create an LA counterpart to the Long Island setting of “The Great Gatsby” a movie based on a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The attempt fell flat. Don’t bother seeing this film.
“Evil” (+)
The title of this film doesn’t to a good job of conveying the subject. In my lexicon, the word “evil” is misused to describe the horrible relationship between a stepfather and his teenage stepson and what befalls that teenager at a private Swedish boarding school in the 1950’s where he ultimately ends up.
We witness a young Swede, Erik (Andreas Wilson), being beaten with a belt by his stepfather (Johan Rabaeus), who is angry with Erik for his behavior at the dinner table. The kid, meanwhile, never flinches or cries. He is a taciturn, distressed young man who was recently expelled from his last year at a public high school, and his mother sells valuables to send him to private school. I thought the hazing conduct at this boarding school was so cruel to the point of being unbelievable until I recalled that hazing incidents in America have led to the death of students.
The balance of the movie focuses on Erik’s relationship with a young Finnish waitress, Marja (Linda Zilliacus), his friendship with his physically weaker but intellectually very talented roommate, Pierre (Henrik Lundstrom), and how Erik deals with the wealthy aristocratic bullies, particularly their leader Otto (Gustaf Skarsgard). A couple of scenes are over the top, unbelievable and soap opera in style, particularly one when Erik is defended against the school authorities by his lawyer, but the acting on the part of Wilson is spectacular and that quibble should not keep you away. I enjoyed this film and believe that you will too. (In Swedish, with English subtitles. Playing at the Cinema Village Theater in Manhattan on 12th Street, between 5th Avenue and University Place).
