For years, scholars have debated the nature of the relationship between surrealist painter Salvador Dali and poet Federico Garcia Lorca; director Paul Morrison's Little Ashes delves into their personal interaction and their acquaintanceship with Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, with whom Dali made L'Age d'Or and Un Chien Andalou. In 1922 Madrid, bohemian lifestyles are flourishing -- from the arrival of jazz music to the en vogue teachings of Sigmund Freud. As the tale opens, Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) is only 18, but his dreams of artistic glory lie poised in front of him; his outré personality and social attitudes soon draw the full-fledged attention of two from the in-crowd -- Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). For a temporary period, the three become the most "in" clique in all of Spain and find themselves virtually defining the currents of modernism; however, Buñuel then leaves for Paris, and Salvador and Federico are thrust together even closer than before -- so close that one night, their relations suddenly cross the line from platonic friendship to something far more intimate.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide