Echo Park

A cute film. Echo Park is apparently a fairly seedy district of Los Angeles. Susan Dey plays a bartender who wants to be an actress (unheard of in L.A., huh?) and gets a job doing Strip-o-grams. The pathetic thing is, she considers this her big break. She takes in a roommate, Tom Hulce, who delivers pizzas for a living. He immediately falls for her, but she is enamored of a neighbor, an Austrian who spends all his time pumping iron. He is convinced that he will be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is completely oblivious to how miraculous it is that there is one Arnold, and hardly a big market for another. Anyway, Hulce's character spends much of the film suffering that terrible pain of loving someone, but seeing her throw herself at someone inferior. I had never heard of this film, but I liked it fairly well. Cassandra Peterson and Cheech Marin have small roles, also. Grade: B

That's what Susan Dey asks Tom Hulce, a pizza delivery man with ambitions of being a musician. He's good at it, but music won't pay the rent. So her question is really philosophical: he delivers pizzas, but his heart is in his music. So..."What do you REALLY do?" By itself, this film is barely a "C" movie. The only reason I choose to critique it is that it addresses the plight of so many wannabe actors, writers, musicians, artists, whomever, in LA. For all of what we hear on "Entertainment Tonight" or other shows focussing on stars, most of us "in" the entertainment business are doing something else for a living while dreaming of that lucky break. When Tom Hulce asks Susan Dey if she is an actress, she answers, "I TRY to act. I WANT to. I go to classes, but does that make me an actress? If it doesn't, then no, I'm not." The Tom Hulce character delivers pizza for a living while he dotes on the Susan Dey character, who throws herself at a dim bodybuilder who dreams of being the next Schwarzenegger. And in the meantime, they are all living in Echo Park, a seedy suburb in LA just outside of Hollywood. The whole film has an unfinished look to it, as though they had a limited budget and ran out of money just before they could wrap things up. And it has that cheap, pop-80's synthesizer music in the background, very common for that time frame. For entertainment, you can do a whole lot better than this. But if you plan to join us here in LA, this movie should be required viewing. Chances are that the lives these characters lead will be the life YOU lead if you decide to move to LA. There'll be an apartment for you to rent in Echo Park. 3 out of 10.

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.

"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 ****