"Harried film producer Ben (Robert De Niro)juggles a lunatic director, a temperamental actor (Bruce Willis) and an out-of-control production while courting a studio head (Catherine Keener) and dealing with his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) in Barry Levinson's funny and poignant exploration of the movie business. The all-star comedy is based on the sharply observed novel by veteran Hollywood producer Art Linson."

What Just Happened is one of those Hollywood insider movies that I usually don't like because a lot of them have references and jokes that go over my head and it's irritating. This movie, through good writing and direction and acting, managed to convey the issues to me so I could follow the story and appreciate what was going on. I liked it.

One of the stories in it was about a movie that ends up with the man's beloved dog being shot and killed, and all the effort Robert DeNiro's character went to in order to talk the director into editing that out because the audiences hated it. As well they should. When I saw the dog, the words "I hate a movie where animals are in peril" had just died from my lips and the dog's blood was splashing onto the camera lens. This sounds horrible and it was, but the genius of it was they hit upon something that we can all identify as taboo subject matter for a film. There was no sense of it not being important enough to cause all the ensuing drama and we all had a stake in seeing the edited movie handle the situation better. And when they went to Cannes, there was the dog actor clowning for the camera, so in true movie fashion we knew he was okay.

I liked the other sub-plots including Robert DeNiro's character trying to make enough money to support two ex-wives, at least one of whom was receiving $30,000 alimony a month. It reminded me of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities (the book, not the movie)in that sense: struggling to maintain a lifestyle when the money is not coming easily.

Oh. One more thing. They pronounced Cannes as CAN (like tin can) not CAWN, which is probably the French pronunciation. Made me feel all kinds of better since I want to say Can not Cawn.