Somewhere

Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie-Antoinette).

Stephen Dorff plays a Hollywood actor living a soul-less party-heavy existence in Hollywood's Chateau Marmont hotel, when his eleven-year-old daughter shows up and presumably he has to re-examine what's important to him or something.

Pros: Lost in Translation, another aimless hotel-dweller movie, was really rather good, even if, when it came to the whispered phrase between the two main characters it was what a good ole harmless racist back in the day might have called a bit of a gyp. I'm all for letting the audience decide for themselves, but you do have to narrow it down a bit. Multiple choice, Sofia, that's all I'm saying.

Cons: While it's really nice to see Stephen Dorff doing something substantial again after filling the years since Backbeat with what can most kindly be described as complete and utter shite (apart from the odd decent supporting role in the likes of Public Enemies and World Trade Center, the latter of which I have, to nobody's surprise, yet to see), and I'm sure he puts in a nice performance, he isn't Bill Murray, and there is no Scarlett Johansson. Plus the music seems really miserable, although I'm only going on the trailer for this, I don't know much about the band Phoenix except that they're from Paris.

I'm putting this down as a miss, unless you're really into that kind of thing, and don't require that your films offer real entertainment as such. But then what the hell do I know? I see nothing these days.