What Just Happened?

Barry Levinson directs Robert De Niro playing a movie producer. Somewhat farcical comedy covering much of the same ground as the HBO series Entourage. To wit: producers are scum, to be sure, but they don't have it as easy as you'd think, and in fact are to be pitied in many respects for being victims of the system as much as any one else. Bruce Willis subplot is ridiculously distracting as slapstick. My favorite part was at the very beginning when De Niro's character is walking through a multiplex to get a screening of "Fiercely," a fake movie-within-a-movie starring Sean Penn played by Sean Penn. We follow De Niro down the hallway of the multiplex past titles of other fake movies, all of which are delightfully funny. My kind of humor. (Seen at the Showcase cinemas in Worcester).