Review of What Just Happened (2008) by Mario E — 26 Aug 2009

I just love a good comedy, especially if it's searingly expository and has that unique ability to blow you away with one-liners and exceptionally witty dialogue. Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened" is one such comedy.

Written by Art Linson (and based on his memoir), the veteran Hollywood producer of, um...I have no idea what, this film is about a Hollywood producer (duh), who's having trouble accompanied by serious amounts of stress in his life. His latest film which hasn't yet been released is receiving hateful reviews because of a scene where a dog is murdered in cold-blood, so it's his job to convince the high-strung, bohemian director to cut the scene away and fix the ending. (By the way, the dog IS fine, the animal wasn't harmed). Meanwhile, his upcoming film is about to be closed down because the $20,000,000 star they hired for the leading macho heart-breaker leading role refuses to trim a Messiah-like beard and lose some weight.

This producer has to deal with finding a way to fix up those two problems, and deal with two broken marriages for which he has to pay child support and alimony. Whta we're entreated to is a very honest memoir-to-film view of Hollywood and the, supposingly, ab-fab lifestyles producers, directors and actors are involved in.

Oh, don't get me wrong. They DO live in multi-million dollar pads with every luxuriousness available to mankind, they DO travel in class and in the latest car designed, they DO believe themselves to be Kings of the World and therefore are entitled to throw hissies and destroy entire sets in a fit of rage because, ooh, they're being paid twenty million dollars for a movie role and they refuse to shave their beards cuz it "interferes with their artistic sensibilities".

I consider this film to be an entertaining backstage look at how the movie-making process begins and ends, with high-chair studio executives controling the board game, producers trying to make some sense into it, and directors and actors trying to salvage their artistic projects before they're turned into money-grubbing crap.

Have I mentioned most of the dialogue in the film is held through phone conversations? Well, it is. It sort of reminds me of "Dr. Strangelove" and how important decisions and courses of actions are decided through the phone while the speakers try to deal with their own little dramas. Only that in "Dr. Strangelove" it's nuclear war and potential human extinction; here it's beard-shaving and scene-cutting.

The movie is, also, extremely funny. You'll be chuckling your way through it all, and there's a scene or two (plus a collection of stupenduous one-liners) that will make you explode in laughter. Which, I think, is priceless nowadays, when apart from a few choice movies, every comedy churned out is basically silly and uninteresting.

There's a great deal of irony here. I won't go into details for fear of spoiling a surprise or two, but I must say that the pervasive use of irony in the film is to be applauded. This is one of the truly entertaining movie experiences you'll have.

Rating: 3 stars and a half out of 4!!