What Just Happened

The title of this Hollywood memoir cum dirty-old-Tinseltown expose is startlingly apropos. By the time it was over, I was asking myself the same question. Based on the memoir by producer Art Linson ("The Untouchables"), it's ostensibly a tell-all satire of the dysfunction of the movie business and the trials of our protagonist, veteran producer Ben (Robert De Niro), to get films made in this environment. By the time this pageant of self-absorbed actors, sanctimonious directors, insincere studio bosses and mercenary types in every level of the business comes to a close, it's hard to tell how this compromised producer is any better. Or even different. I expect better than this confused, unfocused and self-absorbed portrait from director Barry Levinson. Features commentary by Levinson and Linson, "making of" featurettes and deleted scenes.