What Just Happened? is a withering comedy of appalling Hollywood manners. It puts the boot into poncy art-house directors, and charts the tantrums of overpaid stars. The story, based on the memoirs of the legendary producer Art Linson, is so absurd that it rings alarmingly true.

Robert De Niro is a middle-aged studio executive whose career hangs by a thread. The art-house masterpiece that De Niro has commissioned for the Cannes Film Festival is a potential $25 million disaster. His refrigerated boss, Catherine Keener, wants to save $15 million of bad taste by cutting the barmy climax where a dog has its brains blown out next to the corpse of Sean Penn. The enraged British director (Michael Wincott) smashes up the office furniture and gobbles dangerous quantities of pills.

De Niro is a grumpy marvel as the Machiavellian smoothie whose bank account and wellbeing are tragically shackled to the whims of self-obsessed divas. He casually bins a thrilling script about a florist by Scott Solomon (Stanley Tucci) until he discovers one of the writer’s socks under his ex-wife’s bed. The anger is wonderfully bottled.

De Niro’s clumsy attempts to win back his exasperated ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) are forever interrupted by Bruce Willis screaming abuse down De Niro’s Bluetooth mobile phone. Willis refuses to shave off his beard for a multi-million-dollar action movie. His mad belligerence could cost De Niro his shirt. The heart-attack tension is beautifully spoofed.

Levinson’s fresh and light-fingered film belies the slightly crusty allegory. The opening and closing scenes cleverly sandwich a familiar parable about Hollywood power in a photoshoot for Vanity Fair. Cinema is littered with razor-sharp satires about the industry that stretch from vintage thrillers such as Sunset Boulevard to seminal documentaries such as The Kid Stays in the Picture, about the extraordinary life and times of the producer Robert Evans. The crisp and merciless ribbing of De Niro in What Just Happened? is a worthy rival. It’s also great fun.

15, 102 minutes

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