My 10 Worst Films Of 2008: 7: What Just Happened
Yes, yes I know. Its a Robert De Niro film. Its a Robert De Niro COMEDY. Its a Robert De Niro comedy which has a stultifying nondescript title, and turns out to be that most toothless of comedies, the Hollywood Insider Satire. It is all of that and it had this as a poster. Look its the hilarious concept of Bob De Niro IN FLIP-FLOPS.
You know what’s most offensive about What Just Happened? I can just about accept that Paper Planes by M.I.A. is only in the trailer for Pineapple Express, it doesn’t really matter that its not in the film. But Robert De Niro never turns up in What Just Happened in a beige cotton suit, walking a dog in flip-flops.He wears flip-flops in a dark casual suit in one tiny scene, without the dog and certainly not in a Hawaiian shirt of any description. I can’t say if this particular melange of appropriate hilariousness would have made the film any funnier. But if this is the level of fun the poster is trying to express, you’d think they would put it in the film itself.
Based on what one assumes is a much, much better insider whistleblowing book, What Just Happened takes some fictionalised film industry types and puts them through the wringer. We see the hotshot director coked up to the eyeballs claiming artistic integrity. He’s a cock. Then there is the head of the studio who insists on cuts in the film. She’s a cock. Then there is the slippery artists manager who, surprise surprise is a bit of a cock. And Bruce Willis, playing himself with a big beard. Ha ha, he’s a cock too (its OK, he’s not in real life). But luckily at the heart of it is Bob De Niro playing a producer and – oh – he’s a cock too. Well that was a waste of two hours of my life, watching fictional office politics where I don’t want anyone to win. The title of the film, shoehorned in at the end, just highlights that not only apparently nothin’ just happen, but nothing apparently was supposed to happen. Which makes the conclusion, What Just Happened? A lousy movie.
Pete Baran in FT • 157 views
I’d argue that while it has produced some duds, the Hollywood/film-making insider genre has been a pretty productive one, thinking of The Bad And The Beautiful, Sunset Boulevard, In A Lonely Place (OK, the biz isn’t really what it is about but…), Singin’ In The Rain, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Living In Oblivion, Mulholland Drive, White Hunter, Black Hear, Bowfinger – plus some people really rate The Player, Day for Night, Le Mepris (I think it’s deadly myself, but there you go) and My Favourite Year. Plus, on TV, Action and Entourage…
Point taken. Though I think the line is usually easy to draw. The rubbish ones are the ones where people cameo as “extreme” versions of themselves. So in WJH its Bruce Willis (not particularly noted as a diva) and his beard.
I suppose a lot of the films you list are Hollywood Insider ones, though not many are comedies (thoug Bowfinger is a good call, probably Steve Martin’s only good film of the last fifteen years). I may construct a more restrictive schema which retains my general thesis whilst allowing your accurate criticism.
Yes, Bowfinger is a rare broad comedy version of the Hollywood Insider movie that works (where do you stand on Tropic Thunder?). I think what gives it the edge is that Steve Martin is actually angry about Scientology and (allegedly) Anne Heche – plus Eddie Murphy is brilliant, and that is something not often said this side of 1985.
Where it is easy to fail is the balance between “look, see, we know we are ridiculous, greedy, vain etc” and “hang on, but you do love us really…”
Re: versions of “self”, I loved the Steve Coogan-Alfred Molina bit in Coffee And Cigarettes (having just checked the archive, I can see I enjoyed the whole film a lot more than you did – hearing the Rza say “Bill Muwee” is enough to keep me happy, for some reason).
I liked Tropic Thunder but more for its absurdities than the overall effect (and also its brutality). Tropic Thunder seemed more on a par with Zoolander, where silliness was the order of the day rather than a specific satire of Hollywood (like many a film about films, it ends up lying about the actual process to make its conceit work – much like Slumdog Millionaire lies about how TV is made).
I liked bits of Coffee and Cigarettes, the RZA, Bill Murray and Molina/Coogan segments stand out, but a lot of it annoyed. And I guess I find something odd about the Coogan persona, who is a bit of a dick contrasted to the real Coogan who, as far as everyone I know who has ever dealt with him, is also a bit of a dick! In many ways Steve Coogan is Steve Coogan’s best character.