Little Ashes is a case of too little of this and too much of that, and like the rumored affair, nothing of substance to hold on to.
Comment
05/08/09
Little Ashes (2009)
24
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:15
Rotten:48
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: It has a beautiful cast, but Little Ashes suffers from an uneven tone and a surplus of unintentionally silly moments.
Theatrical Release:08-05-2009
Synopsis: A romantic story about the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dali, filmmaker Luis Buuel and writer Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change as traditional... [More]
Starring: Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell
Director: Paul Morrison
Reviews for Little Ashes
Top CriticFor much of its running time, Little Ashes wavers between the polite, stuffy style of a Masterpiece Theater production and the more pointed agenda of gay indie cinema.
05/08/09
Top CriticDirector Paul Morrison nicely re-creates the period, but puts too much weight on the sexual relationship as determining the men's artistic courses.
05/08/09
Sensual, mature tale of young artists in 1920s Spain.
05/08/09
The tangled three-way friendship of Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca could make for a fascinating movie. Instead, we have Little Ashes.
05/08/09
Top CriticLikely has an audience out there, but I'm not it, nor are most of the people who will be checking it out for its much-hyped casting of Pattinson as a gay-experimenting Dal.
05/08/09
As soon as Pattinson steps forth with Dali's famous up-twirled mustaches pasted to his face, the picture collapses.
05/08/09
A disappointing biopicture about the relationship between the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the artist Salvador Dali.
05/08/09
...the translation of young Dal into a homoerotic Vogue model places the actor, rather than the character, front and center.
05/07/09
The meandering film has moments of urgency, particularly when it focuses on Lorca, his growing politicization and the mystery surrounding his disappearance. But that arrives too late to redeem what has gone before.
05/07/09
Soggy plotting and Pattinson's tepid turn keep Ashes from catching fire.
05/07/09
A strictly genius guy thing billed as historical fantasy, as this trio of high IQ party animal sexaholics, among them a defanged low testosterone Pattinson as Dali, frolic at a college resembling an antique Animal House.
05/07/09
In art there's nothing more damning than being called tedious and simple; Ashes is both.
05/07/09
The films biggest problem, beyond the overheated melodrama and paper-thin period trappings, is that the trios fictionalized dalliances diminish their real art.
05/07/09
For a movie about revolutionary artists whose motto was “No limits,” there’s a long list of things holding back Little Ashes.
05/07/09
The film teeters on camp, but the melodramatic music is a killjoy nagging the love struck teens in the audience that they should ache in their soul--not their pants
05/07/09
Little Ashes is absorbing but not compelling. Most of its action is inward.
05/07/09
Top CriticThis bland tale of outrageous talents reduces them to two-dimensional stereotypes. If you hope to learn anything substantive about them as men or artists, look elsewhere.
05/07/09
Pattinson and Beltran are stuck with a rudderless script, and they make a soft, dull pair.
05/06/09
Artists lives are rarely as interesting as their art, and Little Ashes risks trivializing its subjects work as mere responses to history.
05/06/09
Latest News for Little Ashes
May 14, 2009:
Little Ashes Moustache Contest Winners Announced!
Your humble Rotten Tomatoes editors would like to thank everyone who participated in our Little Ashes Moustache Contest! We received TONS of great moustache submissions for our... More...
May 08, 2009:
Little Ashes Moustache Contest - Give Us Your Best 'Stache!
In this week's period piece Little Ashes, Twilight star Robert Pattinson adopts the mannerisms -- and the famously eccentric facial hair -- of Spanish artist Salvador Dali. In... More...
May 07, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Star Trek Is The Best-Reviewed Wide Release of 2009!
This week at the movies, we've got a brand new Enterprise (Star Trek, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) and a failed delivery (Next Day Air, starring Donald Faison and... More...
April 19, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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