Little Odessa 4K 1994

I think everyone has seen ‘Terminator 2’—many of you probably remember the boy (Edward Furlong) with the interesting hairstyle. Even back then, as a young boy, he had surprisingly sad eyes. There was something tragic about them—the eyes of a fallen angel.

I happened to watch ‘Little Odessa’ late at night—the usual time of day for a different kind of movie. I immediately liked the sight of pure white snow in the grimy, impoverished Bronx, so unlike the prosperous America we know. And then there was that boy from *Terminator 2*. A Hollywood actor—usually, actors like that either slide into tackiness, like M. McDowell, or keep playing the same role over and over; I even thought for a moment it wasn’t him. Soon, Furlong was chain-smoking one cigarette after another. So much for John Connor—the savior of all humanity :) It’s filmed in a really calm, even unassuming way—you could even say it lacks flair—but at the same time, it’s impossible to look away. The movie flew by in an instant.

Tim Roth, who plays Furlong’s older brother, is handsome and cool—completely unlike his character in ‘Dead End’—where he starred alongside the late Tupac Shakur. Clean-shaven, fit, reserved, and also fading, he and Furlong are both falling, fading stars. It seems like things will turn out okay for them—they’ll stop falling, Roth will stop killing, and Furlong will kick his drug habit and go back to school. Both have alter egos: one representing who they are, the other who they could be.

I think there should be more films like ‘Little Odessa’ about the ‘lowest depths’ of human existence, because you can only see white particularly clearly against a black background.