‘Ashby’: Assassin Mentors High School Nerd

A fatherless, high school boy moves next door to an ex-assassin. Bingo! We predicted and explained the connection between boys who lack guidance and assassins, in the article “Why We Like Movies about Reformed Assassins so Much,” and now they’ve gone and made a movie about that very thing.
Mark Jackson
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One of this reviewer’s favorite topics lately is the cultural phenomena of how the boyhood-to-manhood rite of passage has gone missing from modern, “civilized” society.

Another favorite topic is the reason so many movies are being made about assassins and ex-assassins.

Imagine my delight upon learning the premise of “Ashby”: a fatherless, high school boy moves next door to an ex-assassin. Bingo! We predicted and explained the connection between boys who lack guidance, and assassins, in the article “Why We Like Movies About Reformed Assassins so Much,” and now they’ve gone and made a movie about that very thing.

Would that this perfect premise had been able to deliver a well-told tale of a boy becoming a man before our popcorn-stuffed faces, but it was not to be. In the way an artist does a “study” (a sketch for a painting concept), “Ashby” is a study for the engrossing, coming-of-age movie that could have been.

Geek Establishment

“You’re a bunch of Ritalin-addicted porn freaks,” says the high school English literature teacher to his class, more matter-of-factly than disapprovingly. Then he asks new-kid Ed Wallis (Nat Wolff), what he knows about Hemingway. Ed knows a lot. Which instantly lands him in the nerd box.

Nat Wolff as high school geek/football star wannabe Ed Wallis in "Ashby." (Peter Taylor/Paramount Pictures)
Nat Wolff as high school geek/football star wannabe Ed Wallis in "Ashby." Peter Taylor/Paramount Pictures
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to film, he enjoys martial arts, motorcycles, rock-climbing, qigong, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by 20 years' experience as a New York professional actor. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook "How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World," available on iTunes, Audible, and YouTube. Mark is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
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