> What Just Happened
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Robert De Niro, Robin Wright Penn, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Michael Wincott, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci
Rating: (M)
2 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by Christine Powley.
Hollywood gossip is one of the few growth areas for the American economy. People love to read all about it, but for some reason films about Hollywood rarely catch the public's imagination.
What Just Happened (Rialto) started as a Hollywood autobiography of successful producer Art Linson.
He chronicled how one day he seemed to be top of the heap and then the next people arbitrarily started to treat him as a joke.
He was past it, but no-one had bothered to send him the memo.
In desperation he penned a book in which he named names.
Linson's days as a film producer were not over.
He produced this one, but instead of keeping the autobiographical flavour director Barry Levinson has added fictional flourishes relating to floundering producer Ben's (Robert De Niro) private life.
What Just Happened is probably great fun if you work in Hollywood and can play match the stories to the real people. For the rest of us, it is a bit boring and silly.
One of the problems is that so few of us really know what a producer does.
Ben seems to walk around all day taking calls on his earpiece.
He keeps the wheels moving by spinning bulldust, which may be necessary but it does not help us to identify him as an heroic character.
In the end, should Hollywood really be making films that spell out why so much Hollywood product sucks?
Best thing: Michael Wincott, as the director desperate to keep his artistic integrity, is the only one who gets that this is supposed to be funny.
Worst thing: The number of fine performances that are wasted on this who-really-cares story.
See it with: Someone who is interested to learn that Bruce Willis is playing Alec Baldwin.
