DIRECTED BY Steven Soderbergh

STARRING Julia Roberts, Catherine Keener, David Duchovny, David Hyde Pierce, Nicky Katt

Opens May 23, Cert 15, 111 mins

Carl loves Lee but Lee wants Calvin but Calvin’s really Nicholas who loves Catherine who’s really Francesca. Lee’s sister Linda is lusted after by Gus who’s producing the movie Calvin and Francesca are in, which is being directed by David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt, and everyone’s about to meet at his birthday party in Beverly Hills. Except for Hitler, who’s in a stage play, cracking jokes and wondering whether breakdancing Nazis are in bad taste.

So okay, it isn’t Ocean’s Eleven. But although Full Frontal took a panning in the States, you’d have to have found Solaris incomprehensible to be baffled by it. We’ve played into its critics’ hands with that opening paragraph, but a synopsis of most Altman films would read just as insanely. And boy is Soderbergh showing off his cinephile credentials here, as if embarrassed by his commercial clout.

The role model is Truffaut’s Day For Night, with undisguised comic references to Fellini’s 8