Women in Film Reviews

This curious shot-on-DV pseudo-documentary, which consists primarily of a series of talking-heads interviews, is probably best appreciated by Hollywood insiders. Others may tire quickly of the characters' whining confessions. Unknown screenwriter Gina (Portia DeRossi) confides in her diary that she uses her position as masseuse to extract useful information from Hollywood powerbrokers. Because Gina believes TV executive Jeremy Stein stole her concept for Beverly Hills 90210, she callously regards all her clients as stepping stones toward her own place in the sun. Already an industry insider, Phyllis (Beverly D'Angelo) has been scraping together funding to produce a remake of Pasolini's TEOREMA (1968). During pre-production, Phyllis recommends her in-crowd psychiatrist to a screenwriter, who repays Phyllis by deserting the offbeat project. Feeling that she, too, is entitled to a trendy shrink, Gina — who's Phyllis's masseuse — poses as the ungrateful screenwriter to secure an appointment with Phyllis's therapist. Gina subsequently gloats when Stein's wife, casting director Sara (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), gives birth to a blind baby. Covering all the angles, Gina graduates from being Stein's masseuse to his mistress in order to set him up for further revenge. Sara's marriage falls apart after Stein fails to bond with their child, while Phyllis loses her backing after an Italian financier is murdered. When Phyllis's shrink realizes Gina is an impostor, Gina attacks the analyst. Will Phyllis ever remount TEOREMA, and will Gina wind up with a studio assignment or a jail stretch? Author Bruce Wagner might benefit from developing some new material and abandoning his penchant for name-dropping. Having already filmed part of his acclaimed novel I'm Losing You in 1999, he focuses here on a single chapter of that book, which he treats with undeserved weightiness.