Rubin & Ed

THE YOUNG, INTROVERTED, OUTSIDER Rubin has a weakness for Mahler, platform-shoes and soft rubber animals. His companion Ed is a passive, touchy, salesman in his late middle-age, with strange clothes and unbelievable hair-style. Together they head into the unexplored desert in South Utah in order to bury Simon, a deep-frozen, cross-eyed cat. It turns into a bizarre journey through the psyches of two misfits. _
Comment:
RUBIN ISN'T QUITE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. Dressed in tight, striped, pants and giant platform-shoes he walks around the desert, a cooler in his arms. Inside the cooler lies Rubin's beloved cat, semi-rotten among half melted ice cubes - a cat whose favorite composer is Mahler. Rubin is looking for a suitable burying place, The only problem is, he's lost Ed, a real-estate agent in a poodlewig who persistently tries to convince Rubin to participate in a seminar. Neither Rubin nor Ed really knows where they are. Both are lost in the desert. Or, as Rubin irritably exclaims when he stumbles on a stone: ''This is what happens when you leave home.''
A word like eccentric is not enough when describing Rubin & Ed; a film, just like Rubin, not quite like the rest. One american critic wrote: ''the most miraculous thing about this film is that it was made at all'' and thinking of the screenplay, you can only agree. The scenes where Rubin gets angry and catapults one of his platform-shoes like a projectile, would probably have been cut by most producers.
It is then completely logical that Rubin is acted by Crispin Clover; Hollywood's most notorious actor. Few other actors could have identified with a character like Rubin - and no other could have performed the role more convincingly. Crispin Clover had his break-through as Michael J Fox's nerdy father in Back to the Future, but was soon blacklisted by the big companies because of his violent temper. For example, his guest-appearance in David Letterman's popular TV-show ended with Clover trying to hit Letterman with a carate kick, on air. When Clover, added to that, thought he was worth more money than Michael J Fox for acting in Back to the future II alld III, his part was cut. But, that Crispin Clover is a great actor is indisputable. He was very convincing as Sean Penn's buddy in Eye to Eye, he was unforgettable in Riper's Edge, and later we've seen him in smaller parts, in for example Wild at Heart, where he played Laura Dern's disturbed cousin, and in The Doors, where he was Andy Warhol. If, besides, someone else recognizes Howard Hessemann, the man playing opposite to Clover, you've seen him in Police Academy 2, and in series like ¤Baretta¤ and ¤Soap¤. _
JAN GRADVALL

Medverkande
Crispin Glover, Howard Hesseman: Producent
Paul Webster: Manus
Trent Harris: Foto
Bryan Duggan: Musik
Fredric Myrow: Talat språk
English