As pointless a film as I've ever seen. The plot is just downright boring and gives you no reason to keep watching. And at points the acting was laughably bad. It is inconceivable that this film was nominated for the Golden Lion. A waste of two hours.

bir filmin yapim surecini konu alarak basliyor ve hikayenin orgusu ve karakterleriyle oyunculari bi catismanin icine sokarak film icinde filmi ic ice geciriyor. fikir olarak super gorunuyor, anlatmak istedigi bi cok seyde var belli ama akiciligi yok maalesef.

Yes, it is a film-within-a-film shot as a cheap, campy noir. And yes, it is supposed to be completely empty, a lackluster work of a director trying to depict the life of a real woman -- or of his own life being dragged by the main actress that is playing this real woman and also this confusing process of falling in love and making a film and being part of these both things as actor and director. It's a powerful parody (?) of Hollywood, but it just doesn't look like that. This is serious.

I know it's meta, but did it have to be so slow and boring?

Blurring the lines between the diegesis and a film within it has potential but that concept has been put to much better use elsewhere. The mystery retained my interest for a while but the whole thing does, indeed, sort of lead nowhere.

A movie-within-a-movie plot is bound to be alienating for some viewers, as it gives the appearance of clever-for-cleverness' sake. However, there are things to admire in this movie. Shannyn Sossamon gives a good performance as a woman blurring the lines between two roles and the digital cinematography is impressive in its crystalline drabness. Hellman, a capable director, films in a languid, dreary style that slouches toward an anticlimactic payoff. 'Road to Nowhere', indeed.

This blurring of the line between reality and theater has been done many times before (fairly recently by Lynch), but never this boringly. Monte Hellman was a stellar director in his youth, and it kind of pains me to hate this.