Ashby (2015)

Ashby: Directed by Tony McNamara. With Mickey Rourke, Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts, Sarah Silverman. High-school student Ed Wallis enters into a friendship with his neighbor, Ashby, a retired CIA assassin who only has a few months left to live.

“Ashby is a departure for Mickey Rourke, as heu0026#39;s been kind of slumming it in B movie junk for a few years. That changes here. Rourkeu0026#39;s cowboy machismo and brooding vibe of danger is genius and takes on a whole new light when contrasted with the bright, idiosyncratic realm of the low key indie dramedy. Itu0026#39;s a perfect concoction of ingredients, a melding of todayu0026#39;s millennial teen angst with the battle scarred remnants of 1990u0026#39;s gritty pulp fare. Here Mickey plays Ashby Holt, an ex CIA assassin quietly residing in present day suburbia. He becomes aimlessly lost when he finds out he has terminal cancer, and is given three months to live. Next door, a high school kid (Nat Wolff) whou0026#39;s new in town tries to fit in with his peers, and make new friends while his incredibly insecure mother (Sarah Silverman♡) also tries to.. make new friends, I guess you could say. When he gets a class project to interview an u0026#39;old personu0026#39;, he spots Ashby, and reaches out. Ashby needs a driver, and the two strike an amiable enough relationship thatu0026#39;s both tragically funny and a sly statement on the addled nature of youths today. Gradually Ashby becomes sort of a father figure to him, and the bond deepens. Nat also strikes up a romance with a peculiar girl played by Emma Roberts. Sheu0026#39;s one who usually plays the bitchy bimbo, but here wonderfully surprised me by giving the quirky outsider girl just the right amount of depth and empathy. You might just not recognize her, taking on the kind of oddball role her father Eric is famous for. Thereu0026#39;s scene stealing work from Kevin Dunn as well, playing a cantankerous football coach. The film briefly falls victim to u0026#39;quirky for the sake of quirkyu0026#39; indie tropes, and initially I was detached and wished it would bring it in more and smarten up. No one likes too much of that hipster bullshit lol. But it does, pulling back the curtains of glib comic inaccessibility to slow itself down and distill emotional, realistic work from its actors, the wonderful script a playground for them to explore. Rourke brings the best work heu0026#39;s done since The Wrestler, and is nothing short of sensational. When heu0026#39;s given the right material, he soars higher than most actors ever dream of reaching, and he finds the regret, sympathy, coldness and wounded spirit mentality of Ashby. He NEEDS more roles like this. Nat Wolff is a bit of a u0026#39;nattereru0026#39; at first and got on my nerves a touch, but he grows on you, his naive sweetness a fascinating opposite to Rourkeu0026#39;s weary burnout sadness. Fans of Rourke (heu0026#39;s my second favourite actor of all time) will find a gold mine in this one, and casual viewers should enjoy itu0026#39;s unassuming first half, and be moved by the down to earth second act that gives the characters the full circle arc they deserve. Well done.”