What Just Happened (2008)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers (WGA):

Art Linson (written by)
Art Linson (book)

Release Date:

28 November 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

In Hollywood, everybody can hear you scream.

Plot:

Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made.

Plot Keywords:

Beard | Hollywood | Ex Wife | Agent | Actor

Cast

Robert De Niro	...	Ben
Sean Penn	...	Himself
Catherine Keener	...	Lou Tarnow
Bruce Willis	...	Actor
John Turturro	...	Dick Bell
Robin Wright Penn	...	Kelly
Stanley Tucci	...	Scott Solomon
Kristen Stewart	...	Zoe
Michael Wincott	...	Jeremy Brunell
Jason Kravits	...	Pollster (as Jason Kravitz)
Mark Ivanir	...	Johnny
Remy K. Selma	...	Jimmy (as Remy Selma)
Christopher Evan Welch	...	Studio Marketing Guy
Lily Rabe	...	Dawn
Sam Levinson	...	Carl

Also Known As:

What Just Happened? (International: English title) (long title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44075) | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:12 (f) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

California State University Northridge - 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

2929 Productions

Trivia:

Was the closing film of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It was screened out-of-competition.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ben: Vanity Fair named me as one of the 30 most powerful producers in the business. Power is an elusive term, but in Hollywood it's everything, I don't care what they say, you either have it, want it, or you're afraid of losing it. Where you stand at these things, or who you may be standing next to, may not seem like the most important thing, but it *really* matters.

Movie Connections:

References Alien (1979)

Soundtrack:

Flow of Experience

Completely Predictable and Incomplete

I love DeNiro, and expect a lot from this film. The movie started out nicely, with great acting, but became incredibly predictable. I just flat out predicted the ending. The movie ended without any conclusion, to any of the plots. And each subplot was more incomplete than the other.

Bruce Willis subplot was absurd, just a bunch of commotion about his beard and then the result and then what? Nothing. It was all about the beard.

The wife and the main character are apparently divorced; we don't see any real chemistry between them. We don't get anywhere with that either except that the two are less intimate in the end. Wow, that was so important to know.

The movie has no moral, no big surprise, no story. It's almost like a fragment of an episode of Entourage, without actually getting to know any of the characters.

What was the point of this movie? Don't trust some Hollywood people? Or that Hollywood is tough? Or that people that get divorced don't get back together?