A very intense look at the boot-licking required to stay alive in Hollywood today. Frank Whaley is Guy, a film school graduate who has landed a job as assistant to the vice-president of a major studio. The mogul, Buddy (Kevin Spacey), proves to be a total tyrant (of whose shouted insults Guy finds himself the constant butt), who can switch to a wheedling charm at the swish of a starlet's skirt. While Guy suffers for putting the wrong sweetener in Buddy's coffee, his sanity is saved by an affair with Dawn (Michelle Forbes), a fledgling producer who has slept her way to the top, and whose film Guy gets Buddy to make. When Buddy decides he wants Dawn (an old flame, natch) back, the worm finally turns. The film, although often entertaining and bitingly witty, wears out its welcome around the hour mark, and there's a twist ending we didn't begin to understand. But Spacey is a delight, as the movie-maker who taunts his staff even as he toys with the opposition. Writer-director George Huang based the script on his experiences as a personal assistant.

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