what just happened?

One Hollywood era just ended, that’s what.

A movie that is currently on offer at Sundance, titled What Just Happened?—a reductive, gag-dependent spoof of Hollywood—sounds like the final nail in the coffin.

If you’re a ravenous movie nerd like me, than there’s very little in Barry Levinson’s “inside baseball” Hollywood movie What Just Happened? If, on the other hand, you don’t know a whole lot about studio politics, the angst of test-market screenings, and the tricks that movie-makers (or, more specifically, movie-sellers) will pull just to get a festival screening and a huge opening weekend, then you’ll most likely get a whole bunch of chuckles out of the flick. To those who know about this stuff all too well, the comedy should still make for an interesting enough diversion — thanks mainly to a massive, colorful cast and a few solid jabs that hit Hollywood right in the kisser.

This is “indie” fare? I mean: Sundance is indie, right?

Wow. Remember when Sundance was all that mattered?  when Miramax—the quintessence of Sundance and of “indie”—had clout, as this “Matt and Ben”/ Good Will Hunting site attests?

That was only ten years ago. It feels like it was a century ago.