Echo Park

The title takes its name from that run-down, Bohemian quarter of Los Angeles, where (among other inhabitants) a pizza delivery boy dreams of publishing poetry, a single mother works nightly as a strip-o-gram dancer while awaiting her big career break as an actress, and a naive bodybuilder lands a role in a cheap deodorant commercial, setting his alarm for 3:00 a.m. to see his (small) screen debut. It's a neighborhood of considerable charm and eccentricity, but too bad the same can't always be said of the film, which has its moments but (in retrospect) all too often resembles an offbeat, low-rent plagiarism of Neil Simon. Michael Ventura's script is curiously transparent from a writer (in the LA Weekly, at the time) of opaque film criticism; the only way his scenario could be more obvious would have been to make the Tom Hulce character an aspiring screenwriter instead of just a closet poet.

One of the most ridiculously written and directed movies you will ever see. Possibly entertaining to some because of it's absurdity, particularly the ludicrous ending sequence. The character's have all the depth of porn characters, making you wonder if the writer/director have ever even met the sort of people they make caricatures of. May possibly have been written by someone like Bob Dole. Particularly entertaining is the wardrobe. The bodybuilder who wears cowboy boots outside of his jeans. The slick agent who wears sunglasses over his acne indoors. You know what you're dealing with immediately in the scene where Tom Hulce brings in that 4" pizza, pulls a cutter out of his pocket, and starts slicing it up in the kitchen. Good Lord.

"We're all just delivering pizza ... " [Jonathan]*

Everyone has dreams ... but reality makes us have to live the 'normal life' while waiting for our dreams to come true. That's the way it is in Echo Park, California for three mismatched people that come together and form a bond of friendship that none of them ever expected!

A Pizza Man who's really a song writer. A Waitress that's really an actress. A Body Builder that's really the next Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In Echo Park ... dreams can come true!

===========> *TOM HULCE as Jonathan ... shows the tenderness of this endearing character. And we also get to hear some of his beautiful voice as he sings, pieces, of the song he's working on! (A definite added bonus.)

Low-budget item about three would-be stars living together in a section of Los Angeles: Susan Dey is the single mother and acting-hopeful who ends up delivering Strip-o-Grams, Thomas Hulce writes songs and delivers pizzas and Michael Bowman hopes to be a celebrity bodybuilder. The set-up sounds overly precious--though it certainly doesn't play that way, thanks to sharp, acute writing and savvy directing. Of the ensemble, it's Susan Dey who surprises with a fully-dimensional performance; cynical, wise, exhausted, and yet still clinging to hope, Dey's first assignment (stripping at a small party) is excruciating to watch (for all the right reasons), making her eventual accomplishment at this profession almost joyous to behold. This is one of the few films I've ever seen to visually equate self-confidence with success, and the tangled relationships between the roommates is well-realized, wistful, funny and touching. *** from ****

I liked this movie a lot. Kind of ad and depressing.

A single mother working hard in LA just to make i work. I watched it when I was about 15,

I don't remember if she used drugs in the movie or not maybe. Well it show different side the glamors Hollywood and Beverley hills anyway.

At that time there were not a lot of movies on Swedish television. around 1988.

I hope it will appear an a swedixh channel again some tine.

Susan Dey who to me is Grace Van Owen in LA Law and nobody else make a good performance in this movie. I recommend it.