Main Cast: Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, Michael Bowen, Christopher Walker, Shirley Jo Finney
Release Year: 1985
Country: US/AT
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This bittersweet comedy looks at the denizens of Echo Park, a decaying section of Los Angeles popular with struggling actors and musicians, largely because of its (relatively) low rents. May Greer (Susan Dey) is a single mother and aspiring actress who makes ends meet by tending bar (the most lucrative job she's been offered in show biz is as a combination stripper and singing telegram girl). Her neighbor August (Michael Bowen) is a body-builder from Austria who dreams of becoming a movie star like Arnold Schwarzenegger, though these days he's supporting himself by doing low-budget TV commercials for deodorant. May and August have an on-again, off-again relationship, which has more to do with sex and loneliness than love. Hoping to stretch her budget a bit, May rents out a room to Jonathan, a wannabe singer/songwriter who makes his money delivering pizzas. May takes a liking to Jonathan, and her son Henry (Christopher Walker) sees Jonathan as the benevolent father figure that's been missing from his life. The supporting cast includes cult figure Timothy Carey and Cassandra Peterson, best known as princess of the dark Elvira. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Echo Park is the kind of film you might stumble across late at night on cable, and ask yourself what the blazes you're watching. This strange nugget of '80s cinema is purportedly a character study about eccentric residents of L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood -- May Greer (Susan Dey), a single mother who pays the rent via stripper-grams, and Jonathan (Tom Hulce), a pizza delivery guy who wants to be a musician. But, a byproduct of the film's Austrian roots is that there's a bizarre third character infiltrating their boy-girl romantic dynamic, an Arnold Schwarzenegger-worshipping Aryan body builder named August (Michael Bowen) suited for no greater function than the "wacky neighbor." He instead becomes a central figure, perhaps even the protagonist. This unconventional structure informs numerous other plot points, and the overall sense is that aliens are playing the roles of humans. The most glaring problem is that Dey's character is essentially profane and unlikable, an unfit mother who doesn't achieve the redemption that's usually in store for her type of character. Never mind her profession -- rarely is she home at the times a mother should be, and she thinks nothing of letting her son ride around in Jonathan's ramshackle delivery truck, which (for reasons unknown) is missing its doors, possessing only a flimsy chain on each side to separate a passenger from certain death. Undoubtedly intended as a quirky comedy, Echo Park wildly shifts tones, veering off into melodrama one minute, corny slapstick the next. The saving grace is that despite bearing the undeniable stamp of the '80s, it's also got a grungy recklessness that makes it seem like a holdover from the '70s, possibly explaining some of its failure to play by the rules. Consequently, Echo Park is intermittently interesting, but more often, it displays the peculiar abruptness of a cult film. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Timothy Carey - Vinnie; Heinrich Schweiger - August's Father; Cassandra Peterson - Sheri; John Paragon - Hugo; Paul Anselmo - Policeman; Jesse Aragon - Policeman; Dorothy Dells - Consulate Secretary; Yana Nirvana - Woman in Bar; Robert Shafer - Commercial Director; Martin Suppan - Austrian Consul; Biff Yeager - Jailer; Cheech Marin - Sid; Dee Cooper - Man in Park; Anne Marie Bates - Prospective Roommate; Robert Cabral - Policeman; Dana Collins - Telegram Stripper; Peter Drain - Bar Customer; Douglas M. Ford - Biker; Stephen Gaines - Desk Sergeant; Penny Harris - Telegram Stripper; James Helppi - Guest in Elevator; Top Jimmy - Bar Customer; Doug Knott - Birthday Man; Renee LeBallister - Prospective Roommate; Fred Leaf - Burt Reynolds' Look-Alike; Michael Marloe - Party-Goer; Jason Mayall - Prospective Roommate; Bob Moss - Birthday Boy; Skip O'Brien - Prisoner; John Pochna - Bar Customer; De Schneider - Real Estate Secretary; George W. Scott - Man with Tip; Jim Smith - Party-Goer; Mary Thompson - Prospective Roommate; Patricia Tippo - Telegram Stripper; Jacki Easton Toelle - Girl in Commercial; Max Trumpower - Telegram Stripper; Merrill Ward - Telegram Stripper
Credit
Patti Callicott - Costume Designer, Robert Dornhelm - Director, Ingrid Koller - Editor, David Rickets - Composer (Music Score), David Boerwald - Songwriter, Tom Boles - Songwriter, Dean Chamberlain - Songwriter, Bo Harwood - Songwriter, Black Patti - Songwriter, Bobbi Permanent - Songwriter, Steve Richardson - Songwriter, Doug Sahn - Songwriter, Shandi - Songwriter, Mark Walton - Songwriter, James Woods - Songwriter, Bill Wyman - Songwriter, John Wilson - Songwriter, Chris Shaw - Songwriter, Bernt Amadeus Capra - Production Designer, Karl Kofler - Cinematographer, Walter Shenson - Producer, Jamie Beardsley - Unit Production Manager, Michael Ventura - Screenwriter, James Big Boy Medlin - Screenwriter
