Jimmy Hollywood

It's a sign of the times that Barry Levinson's slick, gimmicky Disclosure got a major theatrical release in Britain, while the same director's quirky, fascinating Jimmy Hollywood snuck out straight to video virtually unnoticed. Ironically (as the title implies), Hollywood is at the heart of the picture. Pesci plays an out-of-work actor, Jimmy Alto, so frustrated by his stillborn career that he turns vigilante instead. Not that he's a Falling Down, mad-as-hell kind of guy; he's more an accidental hero - and his media friendly alter ego, guerilla crime-fighter Jericho, turns out to be the role of a lifetime. The pacing might be tighter, but much of the movie is a delight. With shades of Bugsy and Rain Man, as well as the verbal riffs and gender tensions which distinguished Diner and Tin Men, it's a key film in Levinson's oeuvre.