The Cat's Meow

Bogdanovich returns to the territory he knows best with this witty, scurrilous account of a vintage Hollywood murder mystery. What really happened on board media magnate William Randolph Hearst's yacht when has-been producer Thomas Ince ended up dead? The starry dramatis personae - Charlie Chaplin (Izzard, a revelation), novelist Elinor Glyn (Lumley, tolerably subdued), Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons and, of course, Marion Davies (Dunst, very good, as usual) - and a nicely barbed script make for an enjoyably colourful and cynical portrait of Tinseltown in its carelessly corrupt, decadent heyday (rather more innocent than nowadays, one suspects). Featherweight but fun.