It’s fun to see him there, but you just can’t get over feeling that he needs to be playing at a higher level. That may be my biggest criticism of What Just Happened?. In a film stacked with a marvelous cast that lives up — or in Bruce Willis’ case, surpasses — expectations, De Niro assumes the role of captain for a ship that runs just fine on its own. De Niro plays Ben, a languishing Hollywood producer juggling a pair of ex-wives, children with both, a titanic embarrassment sailing into Cannes and bearded, fat Bruce Willis, which becomes more of a problem than you might think. Ben is constantly on the move and never able to escape the world of problems swirling around schedule, but we can only handle them one at a time. First up is Michael Wincott’s fabulous portrayal of Jeremy, an emotionally unstable, recovering substance-abusing director with a potential bomb heading into the Cannes Film Festival. Ben’s charged with changing the ending, which is polarizing and painful, depending on how you look at it. The director wants to keep his cut intact, but the studio won’t stand for it. Ben is left to deal, but most of his attention lies with his most recent ex-wife. The pair is seeking counseling to ease the transition into separation, a fun concept and one of the film’s bright spots. The strength of the movie comes from its performances, but the story seems to languish at times. There’s fine resolution that is diluted with what appears to be an extra 20 minutes of footage director Barry Levinson just decided to throw in at the end. You just want the movie to end. It’s not annoying, necessarily, but it feels wrong. What Levinson and writer Art Linson do well here is keep us entertained. The übertalented cast is given a wealth of material to feed off of and therefore deliver. Wincott is quirky and fun. Willis – who plays himself – is uniquely not Bruce Willis. Stanley Tucci could wander into any film as far as I’m concerned and be fine, and John Turturro finally gets a make-good for being in Transformers. I did like De Niro is this role, but I really felt like it was more me liking Robert De Niro than me liking the role. The film has received mixed responses at the festival, but that may not matter. Was it worth watching? Yes. Is it up to the same level as its Sundance peers? Not necessarily, but it is a movie you’ll enjoy, with performances alone worth talking about.
Ben (Robert De Niro) is a movie producer who’s at the top of his professional game but floundering in his personal life. Living alone in a sparsely furnished apartment, he spends his mornings shuttling between the lavish mansions of his ex-wives in order to take his kids to school, which is about the most quality time he can spare from his hectic day. Things are further complicated by the fact that he and his latest ex Kelly (Robin Wright Penn) obviously have unresolved feelings to discuss, if only he didn’t have to answer his cell phone every two minutes. Ben’s plate is more than full; he has to convince an eccentric director (Michael Wincott) to change his artistic vision before studio exec Lou (Catherine Keener) pulls the plug on the entire project. Even worse, the fate of Ben’s next production hinges on whether or not he can convince Bruce Willis to shave his beard. The extensive cast includes stars playing parts, such as John Turturro and Stanley Tucci, and stars playing themselves, like Willis and Sean Penn. Willis, around whom much of the plot revolves, is particularly willing to send himself up for the sake of a laugh, pitching truly diva-sized tantrums about his facial hair. Throughout the mayhem, Ben is in full damage control mode, racing against the clock to bring his deals in on time. Like flipping through the tabloids while waiting in line at the supermarket, “What Just Happened?” gives the viewer a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action and the thrill of famous faces trotted across the screen. But just like celebrity magazines, the film is also short on plot and in point. Nothing is ever really at stake: Ben’s not going to lose his job, he’s not going to lose his family, and he’s not going to change anytime in the near future. Robert Altman’s “The Player” it’s definitely not; nothing cuts to the bone, there’s no incisive exploration of Tinseltown here. There are, however, enough easily identifiable characters and humorous episodes that industry insiders recognize from their own experience that they will smile and chuckle while nudging each other and shaking their heads. Which is not to say that others can’t enjoy it as well—after all, we’re the ones buying the trash mags, right?
What Just Happened is the best Hollywood satire since Robert Altman’s The Player. However, I’m afraid that this film might be too “inside baseball” for some people, but most of the people at Sundance (including myself) liked it, as to be expected. Some of the jokes are all too real. For example, the Bruce Willis storyline closely mirrors the story of Ryan Gosling’s run-in with director Peter Jackson on The Lovely Bones. I’m pretty sure the movie was filmed before all that controversy. You never know, living in world where Entourage is one of the highest rated shows on HBO, maybe something like this could play to mass audiences. For fans of the show, this film might feel like a very extended episode not featuring Vince and friends. The storyline, as mentioned above, features a Billy Walsh type director fighting the studio for a non-mainstream idea. And the film is also set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. What Just Happened is also Barry Levinson’s best film in the last 10 years, not that it means much.
Based on producer Art Linson's book What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, the film version tells the story of one very successful Hollywood producer, and the ways in which he juggles multiple professional crises, as well as some prickly domestic issues at the same time. Robert De Niro is our movie producer, doing his best "sly" comedic work since (probably) Wag the Dog. John Turturro is the archetypal agent: skittish, shifty, and packing a nasty ulcer. Stanley Tucci is the writer who needs our protagonist for professional reasons, but pursues his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) for other activities. Michael Wincott is the drug-infested director whose ultra-edgy film is being mangled by horrifying studio boss Catherine Keener. Toss in some supremely amusing "self-mocking" performances
from movie stars Bruce Willis and Sean Penn, and you've got
the makings of a flick best described as "movie geek heaven."
And while What Just Happened? is by all means a colorful and
generally pretty funny expose of modern-day Hollywood, it often
feels like Levinson and Linson (he also penned the screenplay
adaptation) are content to preach to the choir. It's meant to
be outrageous and unbelievable how art turns into pure commerce,
but there have been plenty of Hollywood satires that demolish
the "test screening" mentality, the "beleaguered
producer" conceit, and the oh-so-cynical insinuation that
Hollywood has no integrity whatsoever. So while much of the
material in What Just Happened? is insightful and accurate ...
it's just not all that new or shocking anymore. For all its jabs at a clearly cash-obsessed Hollywood, What Just Happened? is not all that venomous of a satire. The finale throws a few clever zingers at Keener's clueless studio chief character, but ultimately What Just Happened? has little to say besides "Boy, Hollywood sure is a two-faced and devious place to work!" As if we didn't already know that by now. As a gimmick-style farce, it works just fine, packed as it is with so many funny performances -- but as a satire it's a fairly toothless affair. Mr. Linson still does a lot of business in Hollywood, don't forget. But really, how many times will you get to see Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, and Robert De Niro work together? (And in a comedy, no less.) That combo alone is probably worth the price of admission -- or most definitely a DVD rental fee.
Directed by Barry Levinson, best known for big budget studio fare like "Rain Man," "Toys", "Sphere" and most recently, the political comedy "Man of the Year," goes the indie route with a "modestly budgeted" (relative to his last few movies) $30 million movie about the film industry, following the day-to-day of a producer (Robert De Niro) based on Linson as he tries to juggle various crises with his dysfunctional family life from two ex-wives. Although the name of the producer has been changed to "Ben"—as if that might throw us off of the fact that the two main incidents are based on true stories from Linson productions—the movie consists of a number of interlocking stories, the main one involving a temperamental British director upset about the studio wanting to change the ending of his movie, which involves a dog being shot in the head, something that doesn't go over well with the audience at the test screening that opens the movie. The other main crisis involves Bruce Willis having signed on to do one of Ben's movies for $20 million but him vehemently refusing to shave a beard he's grown for six months, despite the studio threatening to pull the plug. (This was based on a similar incident between Linson and Alec Baldwin on "The Edge.") At the same time, he is trying to reconnect with his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) who he thinks is seeing an ambitious screenwriter (Stanley Tucci) and his 17-year-old daughter (Kristen Stewart) seems to be maturing far faster than Ben wants to admit. This is another great role for De Niro, one that gives him a chance to stretch his comedic muscles but also show a more human side to the Hollywood producer than we usually get to see. Even though he's clearly a powerful man in control, we do get to see some of the vulnerability when he deals with a studio exec played by Catherine Keener and when he backs down in a confrontation with the rampaging Willis—he really likes that beard apparently—because it's so counter De Niro's own tough guy images. For the most part, De Niro doesn't seem to mind Levinson putting him in embarrassing situations like a situation where we watch him exercise in his skivvies and applying some "Just for Men" to the graying temples. John Turturro is also very funny as Willis' neurotic agent, although most of his humor comes from a recurring stomach ailment that eventually resorts to broader physical comedy at the graveside of a fellow agent. Considering the film's Levinson tries a few new techniques at keeping things moving despite the repetitive nature of the humor, including many scenes of Ben driving along the L.A. highways cut together in a stylish way. Otherwise, there really isn't that much of a story or a character arc for Ben, because when it's all over, it doesn't seem like there was much of a learning experience for personal growth that some might expect, rather just being a series of vignettes and anecdotes that build up to predictable resolutions with a tacked-on epilogue that tries to show that there are indeed happy endings in Hollywood. In a world where "Entourage" takes far more biting and clever shots at Hollywood, Levinson and Linson's film seems somewhat dated and redundant, and most of the funniest jokes and references might not have much relevance to non-insiders if the comatose Texan couple sitting next to me at the premiere was any proof.
Robert DeNiro's Ben essentially plays Linson's alter ego, a Hollywood producer reduced to living in a small apartment after two divorces leave his ex-wives with multi-million dollar homes. And Ben has two major headaches: his British director of an action thriller starring Sean Penn won't change the end of a film called "Fiercely" to please studio head, played by Catherine Keener. And Bruce Willis, the star of Ben's new film, has shown up to the set overweight and sporting a large bushy beard he refuses to shave. Meanwhile, Ben's on-going divorce from Kelly (Robin Wright Penn) requires a special therapist. And his teenage daughter from his first marriage (played by hot-as-a-pistol newcomer, 17-year-old Kristin Stewart ) has been having an affair with another agent who's committed suicide. The suicide leads to my favorite scene in the film, the agent's funeral. (And one of the best lines. DeNiro, disbelieving the news of the death, says "I always thought agents killed other people, not themselves.") Levinson has so stuffed "What Just Happened" with beautifully textured moments that you have to listen carefully as the organist is playing "Every Breath You Take." It's sublime. There are lots of other great characters roaming around in "What Just Happened," a film that sort of picks up where Robert Altman's "The Player" left off, but really is more of an ode to Blake Edwards' "S.O.B." Indeed, even though DeNiro is supposed to look like Linson he really reminded me of William Holden in that earlier forgotten masterpiece. Some of the other witty highlights: John Turturro as an agent with an unfortunate gastric ailment; Michael Wincott as that British director who might be Guy Ritchie but comes off more like Keith Richards; Peter Jacobson as that kind of long-suffering assistant producer who has to rationalize the craziness going on around him; and Stanley Tucci as a hilariously clueless screenwriter who thinks he's convinced Brad Pitt to play a florist. Tucci gets off one of the film's funniest exchanges too when DeNiro complains that he's now dating his ex-wife. "And you're married!" DeNiro says. "Yes, but what does that have to do with it?" Tucci replies with comic deftness. "I'm unhappy." No one knows Hollywood like Linson. He's been a lot like the prototypical studio producer Ray Stark in that he's churned out so many films that some have been great ("Heat," "Melvin and Howard") and some have been awkward missteps ("Fight Club," "Pushing Tin"). He's also worked a lot with Brian DePalma on a lot of bad films like "The Black Dahlia" and "Casualties of War," although "The Untouchables" was a major hit critically and financially. He also is credited for writing the story for Floyd Mutrux's classic "American Hot Wax," which I'm told is finally being released on DVD. "What Just Happened" cost $20 million but was shot in 33 days, so it qualifies for Sundance even though it was expensive and has a lot of stars. Who will release it is the next question, followed by what is the audience for it besides Hollywood insiders? Here's one answer: it's a disarmingly smart, comically-rendered farce from the brilliant Barry Levinson in the style of his great "Wag the Dog." It will do just fine. |