Despite never quite making up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or a clever thriller, this garish, noisy and inventive piece entertains us almost up to the end. A story taking place over 24 hours or so is told from the point of view of several of its participants. Three check-out clerks clock off for the day. Ronna (Sarah Polley) behind with her rent, plans a drug scam with local dealer Todd (Jack Nicholson-lookalike Timothy Olyphant), but falls foul of two actors (Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr) whose own narcotics rap has forced them to act as police dupes. Claire (Katie Holmes) tags along to the local rave, where she sells aspirin as Ecstasy until Todd catches up with her. Simon (Desmond Askew), a Brit with dyed red hair, heads for Vegas with three friends, where they accidentally inherit a car and a gun. Things get very complicated, with John August's screenplay, if an unlikely sequence of events, still a marvel of ingenuity that finds strands in common with all three stories, and still manages to intertwine them in the final scenes. The best performance comes from Askew as the eager beaver who can't keep out of trouble.