Click the Poster to Purchase
Review #70 of 365
Film: Ask The Dust [R] 117 minutes
WIP: $13.25
When 1st Seen: 21 March 2006
Where Viewed: UA Denver Pavilions 15, Denver, CO
Time: 12:20 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Dr. Kathy S. of Sacramento, CA
 |
DVD |
Imagine being a four-time Academy Award®-nominated writer of such films as Chinatown and Shampoo and the director of Personal Best and Tequila Sunrise. Imagine being considered one of the best script doctors in all of Hollywood but having mixed success as a director. Imagine coming across a little book called Ask the Dust published in 1939 by a Coloradoan named John Fante (never heard of him have you? Well, read his books!) set in the depression-era Los Angeles about a young Italian man named Arturo Bandini who ventures out from Colorado to write a brilliant love story about characters he encounters in the then still untamed Los Angeles. And imagine deciding, “Hey, I’m going to make this into a movie. And I’m going to use only the best-of-class, behind the scenes people: five time Academy Award®-nominated Director of Photography, Caleb Daschanel, Oscar®-winning production designer, Dennis Gassner, two-time Best Costume Designer Oscar®-winner Albert Wolsky, Make-Up Oscar®-winning Jenny Shircore, and award-winning editor, Robert K. Lambert, marquee actors: Oscar®-nominated, Salma Hayek, the continue-to-be-snubbed-by-the-Academy-so-never-nominated- but-highly-worthy Colin Farrell* and the ubiquitous Donald Sutherland*. And since I cannot film the movie in L.A. due to the fact that L.A. (2006) looks nothing like L.A. from the 1920s, I know, I’ll recreate depression-era L.A. in South Africa, yeah!” Well, if you can imagine all that…wouldn’t that be the coolest thing? to work hard and to be able to do actually put your dream team and project on film for all eternity...well, if you could, then you must be Robert Towne. If I sound sarcastic, I don’t mean to at all. If I sound jealous, you betcha (as they say in Minnesota) I am. And, for me, at least, the result of all this imagination is one little gem of a film.
I wish I knew exactly why this film has gotten so little buzz--a release in mid-March vs. next or last November, etc. Paramount Classics, what were you thinking? This is a charming and captivating story superbly directed and written. It draws you in like a siren to its sea with each new wave of insight into Arturo’s character. The casting director deserves a medal of honor. Look at this: Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini is a knock out. Salma Hayek as Camilla Lopez/Lombard is luscious perfection wrapped up in spunky, no-nonsense, huaraches. Donald Sutherland takes the bit part of Mr. Hellfrick and transforms it into yet another Academy Award®-worthy (best supporting actor) character performance. Also with potential for a supporting award, Idina Menzel pushes the role of Vera Rivkin, a Bandini-smitten housekeeper from Long Beach, to tragic heights. Finally, Justin Kirk (Christine Lahti’s forlorn brother from the sadly-cancelled-too-soon, television series, “Jack and Bobby”) craftily portrays Sammy the bartender wanna-be author who is all that stands between Arturo and Camilla’s true love. The film looks, sounds, and feels beautiful. In a time when there is a pretension in films to either compel audiences by the end to some sort of grand political action or, on the extreme other side, deactivate simultaneously every functioning brain cell such that banal and juvenile hi-jinx or extreme gruesome behavior become worthy blog fodder for six weeks, how nice it was to curl up in a reclining theatre chair with comfy armrests and just get lost in a story of a guy broke down to his last nickel working to write the next great American novel and truly living the American dream? This was back in the day when a brilliant and famous magazine editor would advance a guy $250 in the belief that he would actually deliver said novel based on a letter he published as a short story. Every once in a while, I admit to having a softer, kinder, sentimental side—not often enough maybe—and this film resonated with that part of me. If great movies are defined as those that permit us to live vicariously through those characters we grow to adore on screen, then Ask the Dust fits the bill to pleasant and mostly unexpected perfection. Please see this film and then read the book.
______
*Mr. Farrell was highly worthy of nominations for his roles in Tigerland, The New World, and A Home at the End of the World, and Mr. Sutherland certainly could have been nominated many times but most recently for his role in Pride and Prejudice
Available for Purchase or Pre-Order on DVD
Find your movies at MoviesUnlimited.com.
Ask The Dust [DVD](2006) DVD
| The Novel | VHS | DVD |
| Related film | Related Film | Related DVD |
No comments:
Post a Comment