The Thousands

Written and co-produced by veteran producer Art Linson from his memoir, What Just Happened is a dry and achingly sad Hollywood satire. While it echoes themes from The Player, Entourage or even Tropic Thunder, director Barry Levinson finds genuinely touching moments amid the backstabbing and buck-passing.

Ben (Robert De Niro) is a movie producer besieged by personal and professional crises. He must placate steely studio boss Lou (Catherine Keener), ego-stroke drug-addled British director Jeremy (Michael Wincott), convince an overweight and belligerent Bruce Willis to shave off a Grizzly Adams beard, strongarm Willis’s neurotic agent (John Turturro) and stop his supposed friend, screenwriter Scott (Stanley Tucci) from schtupping his ex, Kelly (Robin Wright Penn), whom he still loves.**De Niro is wonderfully funny and sly, full of winces, shrugs and grimaces. It’s interesting to see him stripped of authority, menace and even dignity, scrambling just to keep his shit together. Despite Ben’s failings and dubious morals, he’s basically a good guy and we want to see him come up trumps. But What Just Happened is too cynical a film to settle for a happy ending.