What Just Happened (2008) (R)

Quicklook Rating★★★½
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synopsis

"What Just Happened" is about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer--as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. This is the tale of a man besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things--a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in--everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary. Ben is already in over his head trying to balance the tug-of-war of having two ex-wives and two different families with his latest business venture--the boldly "visionary" movie "Fiercely," starring Sean Penn--when everything that can go wrong goes completely screwy. Somehow amidst all the madness, treachery, deceit, runaway egos, rampant commercialism, personal politics and atrocious behavior of America's dream-making machinery, Ben has to find a way not just to make it to Cannes with a finished film, but to cope...

details

Comedy, Drama
1 hr. 47 min.
Opened October 17th, 2008

director

Barry Levinson

writer

Art Linson

MovieGoer Review

The smart and riotously funny What Just Happened is a good movie about the making of a very bad movie.

Story

In What Just Happened, director Barry Levinson does for Hollywood what he did for politics in Wag The Dog. Mo... MORE

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synopsis

"What Just Happened" is about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer--as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. This is the tale of a man besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things--a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in--everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary. Ben is already in over his head trying to balance the tug-of-war of having two ex-wives and two different families with his latest business venture--the boldly "visionary" movie "Fiercely," starring Sean Penn--when everything that can go wrong goes completely screwy. Somehow amidst all the madness, treachery, deceit, runaway egos, rampant commercialism, personal politics and atrocious behavior of America's dream-making machinery, Ben has to find a way not just to make it to Cannes with a finished film, but to cope...

details

Comedy, Drama
1 hr. 47 min.
Opened October 17th, 2008

director

Barry Levinson

writer

Art Linson

MovieGoer Review

The smart and riotously funny What Just Happened is a good movie about the making of a very bad movie.

Story

In What Just Happened, director Barry Levinson does for Hollywood what he did for politics in Wag The Dog. Mo... MORE