Little Ashes (2009)

Who payed the critics

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Trying to cover up the personalities, the minds and the artistic and historical period of Spain in the 1920's and 1930's is a huge and difficult task and no film could ever capture and portray that in a positive way in less than two hours. "Little Ashes" is a small but good film that shows us few moments of that era in something we might call of a summary of events, and that's what makes this movie good but this also is his Achilles tendon, it might kill the experience (and it did to some viewers) of watching it and understand what the movie was since the film is too short and deals with too many subjects. If you know the period you'll get easily, otherwise you're gonna need to make a research on icons like Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel and their meaning to the arts."Little Ashes" follows the friendship between these three artists, from the time they were students until the beginning of their careers and some of its famous moments, pictures, films, poems and all. More than that, the film explores a love relationship between Dali and Lorca, played respectively by Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán; and their involvement in art and revolutionary acts during Franco dictatorship. The rest is history, mentions of "Un Chien Andalou" (Buñuel & Dali film partnership) and the famous image of the eye; poems by Lorca; and Dali's strange magnetism as a bizarre figure with his surrealistic art and way of living and style.The film is panned and harshly criticized by many people complaining that everything in this movie is wrong, its inaccuracy in everything, and most of all that Pattinson is a terrible actor and he shouldn't portray Dali and things like that. My observations to this nonsense is that the movie succeeds in its attempt to cover the artistic period and of being a strange and romantic love story that sounds original, almost without clichés. There are some innuendos, many artistic licenses and some awkward moments and unexplained things (such as Buñuel being presented as half homophobic who seems to approve Dali's homosexualism but on the other hand he doesn't approve that Lorca is too, to the point of beating up a guy who wanted to have sex with him and he looked for this guy, he wanted. A very silly moment and totally unbelievable). As for the performances they are very nice, especially Javier Beltrán, who has an unique dramatic talent, the actor you'll want to see more and more in the film thanks to his ability to display a poetic emotion that seems to reflect the character very well, not much of an acting, it's more like a embodiment of Lorca. But this review cannot be completed without the Pattinson controversy. "Little Ashes" gathered a lot of attention after his role as Edward Cullen in "Twilight" since many twilighters wanted to see more of his films, and along with that attention came some of the critical examinations saying that he wasn't a good choice for this film, and others even worst than this trashy comments that said that a movie about Dali with Pattinson starring is unwatchable. Well, they are all wrong! He has a good performance despite being too handsome for the role, although his Dali's mannerisms might look as a caricature of the important artist, but after a moment he gets very similar to the real figure (that "crazy" look in his eyes is very similar). And more difficult is the portrayal of a man who seemed to have a peculiar view on the world, and a strange care for his sexuality, and with all that in mind we can't judge the actor for his role in other films, but only for what he did here and he did a great job. If "Little Ashes" was directed and produced by the cinema of Spain with Spanish actors, and if they have a fantastic budget to spend in producing a film with more than three hours covering until the final days of Dali and Buñuel (sadly, the movie didn't followed him much), it would be a spectacular epic film. But for what it tries to accomplish this film is a good entrance door in the lives of some of the most interesting minds of the 20th Century. 9/10

I can't help but be slightly worried about anyone that professes this to be the Best Movie Ever, it was really quite bad! I've marked it 2/10 purely for Beltran's performance but the rest... well, the accents made me wince & the acting was really quite wooden and awkward for the most part. As good an actor as Pattinson is, this was a disastrous bit of casting - I thought he actually looked a bit embarrassed at times.... I do believe this would have been a lot better if the whole cast & dialogue was Spanish with some subtitles for us; the story itself is an interesting one and it would have been much more believable - and much less distracting - if that were the case.

I stumbled across Little Ashes when looking for Robert Pattinson movies as embarresing as that is but I soon became irrevocably in love with the story. I generally am a very open and accepting person and this story truly showed me different styles of life. I believe that the acting all around was fabulously done not only by Robert Pattinson but also his amazing co-stars. Although like the description says, there were a few disturbing images in the film i believe it was necisarry to understand the main point, "no limits". I was so focused on the movie it was only half way through that I realized I was standing up the entire time. even after a few weeks of watching it, I am still left pondering the very well written lines and the character motavations. the movie inspired me to research Salvador Dali. after completing an autobiography on the great man, I realized that Robert Pattinson didn't show the true side of Mr. Dali. Dali was always "mad" even as a child and even though quite and reserved I believe that Robert could have showed some of that side in the beginning. over all though an amazing film and I recommend to anyone with an open mind to watch!

I watched "Little Ashes" last night. I have to admit I watched it mainly because Rob Pattinson is in it, so I was curious. I was prepared to not like it, having read some of the critics' negative reviews. But it was surprisingly good, very interesting and very moving. I don't know how historically accurate it is, but I felt like I learned something from watching it. All the actors were wonderful, and Rob did a great job of portraying Dali and all his eccentricities. Rob claims he never knows what he's doing when he's acting, but I think viewers, whether or not they're Pattinson fans, would be impressed with his acting ability based on this movie. If you've never seen him in anything except the Twilight movies, you'd be pleasantly surprised here. I'd recommend it to his adult fans and non-fans, as well.