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Review

Love him or hate him, independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom (Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?, Babyfever, Eating) continues to make his idiosyncratic and improvisatory women-centered features with his stock company of indie Hollywood actors. Unabashedly heterosexual, Jaglom enters the gay world with hilarious results in this whacked-out take on All About Eve. Fresh from Iowa, Margie Chizek is a red-headed mess of a girl desperate to become a Hollywood actress, despite the fact that she is an emotional wreck, has no connections and is bulimic to boot. It looks like a bus ride back to the farm is in her future until the neurotic ingenue meets kindly Kaz (Zak Norman), a gay film producer who takes a liking to her (“You lie -- which means act -- beautifully”). She quickly becomes the “it” girl for Zak and his high-strung lover, Caesar (David Proval), who have her move into their guest house. She soon meets the handsome Robin (Justin Kirk), a rising star who, in order to advance his career, claims that he is gay. When the tabloids catch gay Robin with Margie, questions are posed and complications arise. But nothing can stop Margie’s frantic drive for stardom. Featuring brilliant cameos from Karen Black (who steals every scene she is in), Seymour Cassel, Sally Kirkland and Eric Roberts, the Los Angeles Times called this outrageous comedy “corrosively funny and unexpectedly poignant.”

 -- Raymond Murray