Echo Street is indeed something to cheer, an intimate insider's journey through a Los Angeles neighborhood that you seldom see on television. Susan Mogul and her Highland Park neighbors co-star as an extended family. It�s 32 minutes of seductive ordinariness - an affirmation of just how transfixing the peaceful, everyday trivia of life can be.
A former New Yorker, Mogul lived for 13 years alone in a one-bedroom apartment on working-class Echo Street, a rare Jew in a section of town that is predominantly Latino. Mogul leans out her window with her hand-held video camera in a signature stance as if inhaling the neighborhood she is about to chronicle.
In addition to the 13-year old neighbor practicing her violin, we meet Mogul�s confidante, Rosie Sanchez, who operates Armando�s, a family restaurant; Eddie (the Animal Lopez) an ex-heavyweight boxer with spaces in his front teeth beneath an enormous moustache; the guys at Abdul Shell station, and Lillie-Mae the recycler.
From her window Mogul observes male and female pigeons �doing it� and jokes about being jealous. Soon, however we�re introduced to a man Mogul met in the produce section of Ralph�s. He becomes a romantic interlude, although Mogul frets when he waits more than a week to phone her after their first date.
More than a friendly neighborhood tour, this is a personalized film threaded by Mogul�s self-effacing wit, whimsical charm, and candid introspection about her life as she settles into middle age.