‘What Just Happened’ shows Hollywood’s underbelly
It’s not until the last few minutes of “What Just Happened” that the film’s title is posed as a question, not by the protagonist but by his ex-wife. She doesn’t get a straight answer, as, presumably, she never has.
Barry Levinson’s funny, sly and highly stress-inducing movie about two crazy weeks in the life of a successful producer is a fictionalized adaptation of the autobiography of veteran producer Art Linson, who also wrote the screenplay. Briskly, almost curtly directed by Levinson, it stars a low-key, even-keel and surprisingly affable Robert De Niro as Ben, a producer on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The cast includes Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Robin Wright Penn, Catherine Keener and Michael Wilcott as, respectively, Sean Penn; Bruce Willis; Ben’s indecisive second ex-wife, Kelly; an icy studio head named Lou; and the bad-boy (read: drug-addicted, self-important hack) British director Jeremy, whose ultra-violent, downer movie has fallen out of favor with Lou.
The story is framed by a scene of a photo shoot for Vanity Fair’s power issue and everything that happens between Ben finding out that he’s been included on the list and the photo actually being taken.
Here is Hollywood in all its back-stabbing, hypocritical, self-serving, narcissistic, self-sabotaging glory. Any remaining illusions anyone might have about the survival of the artistic process should be dashed by scenes like the one in which a test audience in Costa Mesa is given response cards and told, “You’re very much a part of the filmmaking process.”
The surprise is how sympathetic Ben manages to be, considering what he does for a living. Even more surprising, by that measure, is that the movie’s second-most sympathetic character is the agent. But maybe “sympathetic” is taking it too far. Rather, by the end, you know how he feels: queasy, clenched, weirdly exhilarated.
– By Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
Poppy is insufferably, unbearably upbeat. Always with a smile, laughing even when she’s in pain, she wears you down with her sweetness and light. If only she weren’t so maddeningly adorable.
Played by Sally Hawkins, she is the grinning, goofy heart of British filmmaker Mike Leigh’s latest scripted improv about the English working class. And even if we never learn what’s made her so “Happy-Go-Lucky,” we can sense an inner sorrow, a loneliness that Hawkins hides behind Poppy’s daffy boots and rubber ducky earrings and dizzy habit of joking about everything.
But as perfectly observed as Leigh’s life-slices are, the effort shows in this one. The banter, though often clever, can seem too polished.
– By Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
It’s not easy to drag yourself to a Holocaust movie.
Certainly, there’s value in heeding the lessons of history, but you always know you’re in for a tough time: The setting will be wearily familiar and the ending, no matter what the particulars, is a guaranteed downer.
Occasionally, a movie bucks convention: “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” does breathe life into a story that is, unavoidably, about death.
It’s told through the eyes of 8-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield), whose high-level Nazi father (David Thewlis) accepts a top-secret post in the countryside.
Writer-director Mark Herman, working from John Boyne’s novel, doesn’t try to make any grand statements but instead mostly hews to Bruno as he seeks the truth about his friend and his own family.
– By Rafer Guzman, McClatchy News