Ivans xtc is shot with slow shutter speeds and no 'tripod', with the result that it looks like a documentary - but it's not. Add to that some superb acting performances and the result is an extremely credible fiction film. One reviewer here complains of a lack of wisdom; I wasn't looking for wisdom. I was just watching a film about some very believable characters and what happened in a short section of their lives. Yes, it was interesting and gripping. It was also supported by some magnificent music, including excerpts of Richard Wagner's Tristan. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

Shot at 60i fps on the Sony HDW-700A HD video format digital camera, which proved problematic for theatrical distribution, this film was originally intended to be a Dogma 95 movie.

It's a rough satire on Hollywood, filled with booze and excess, and comes from director Bernard Rose, who you may know from Candyman and Paperhouse. It's also based on Leo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, so if you have a low tolerance for art films, you may not enjoy this. We sure did.

Danny Huston (half-brother of Anjelica Huston) plays Ivan Beckman, a doped up and driven agent who starts the film by dying. We go back to see just how he got to the grave - thanks to an early cancer diagnosis - and the lives he's touched along the way, including Peter Weller as his sleazy client, SLC Punk director James Merendino as a director (typecasting?) and numerous hangers-on. Writer and producer Lisa Enos acted is in this as well and look for an appearance by Tiffani Amber-Thiessen.

Huston is the main reason to show up for this, as he makes you care despite the grainy looking footage and grabs you directly by the collar and forces you to watch.

The box copy for this movie suggests some kind of mystery, but don't be mislead. This is a morality drama about Hollywood deal-making at its most soulless and cynical. Peter Weller gives an unflinching performance as a high-powered star who steamrolls people, talking over them, repeating himself just in case the message didn't penetrate the first several times, making no effort to listen, and occasionally trying to justify his actions but never apologizing for his arrogance or boorishness. Danny Huston plays his agent with a painted on smile, trying to make everybody happy to get The Deal to come together, and greasing the wheels with cocaine and vodka. Huston is dying, but he puts on a happy front for the sake of the picture and knowing that the heartless, selfish people around him wouldn't care anyway. His death leads to professional complications for his agency, but little actual mourning. Indeed, it is a moment of supreme irony when his sister takes the large turnout at his funeral to be a sign of how well loved he was, while egos clash in the back of the church! The film is shot in a very documentary fashion: tight camera placements, roving camera, swish pans from one character to another. It plays like an episode of COPS, but with Hollywood power brokers at its center rather than deputies, and the look and the details of life at a big shot talent agency makes the movie seem convincing on a superficial level, but not particularly compelling dramatically. There are few original characters or situations here. The movie is good enough for its type but there is little here that seems fresh or even all that interesting.