Backstage dance musical centered around a Chicago ballet troupe, not necessarily the Joffrey Ballet that does the actual dancing. A labor of love for Neve Campbell, who trained in her native Canada as a ballerina and who co-wrote and co-produced in addition to starring, and just a labor for Robert Altman, who directed in his no-sweat, semi-bored and semi-distracted manner. The rehearsals and conferences look and sound authentic ("You're all so pretty. You know how I hate pretty!"), and the dancing is respectfully and appreciatively recorded in long unbroken stretches, albeit in drab and dingy photography, and Neve Campbell appears to hold her own among the pros. But there is nothing really to hang all this on -- no real dramatic structure, no real narrative drive, no real character interest -- and so it slumps to the floor in a shapeless heap. It's all well and good to do away with soap-operatic clichés as long as you've got something to put in their place. The only thing Altman has to put in their place is a funny idea of what constitutes a movie. With James Franco and Malcolm McDowell. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.