MOVIE REVIEW : ‘My Life’ Loses Sight of Its Comedic Goal

Movies about the making of movies can be as good as Fellini’s “8 1/2” or they can be as bad as, well, “My Life’s in Turnaround.” This micro-budgeted feature co-written, directed and starring Eric Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward doesn’t have much going for it except the dithery rapport of its two leads, and that rapport doesn’t go very far. They’re trying to be a New Wave comedy team but deadbeat grunginess isn’t a thrilling substitute for good humor.

Splick (Schaeffer) is a motor-mouth New York cabbie and Jason (Ward) is a bartender with a yen for young models. Thirtyish and worn out performing oddball theater sketches together, they decide to make a movie. All they lack is money, actors, expertise. They also lack ideas but, as Jason says, “I think this whole idea thing is overrated anyway.”

Given the incompetencies of this movie, Jason’s line is particularly self-serving. Schaeffer and Ward seem to believe that their idea for a movie--a movie about two guys with no idea for a movie--is a great idea. The bad pacing, wayward dialogue, blotchy lighting and going-nowhere jokes can seem funky if you take the film as a put-on. But it’s also meant to be hilarious.

The only halfway interesting “idea” is the way the guys keep running into well-known actresses in the city and then conning them into being in their movie. Phoebe Cates and Martha Plimpton have cameos that brighten the blandness, and John Sayles also turns up in a very funny bit as a sharky Hollywood producer type. Sayles must be sending up a real producer here; the satire is chillingly specific. But the most powerful line in the movie comes when the boys’ friend and agent (Lisa Gerstein) tells them, “You have to focus. Life is short.” Her advice applies equally to this film’s audience.

* MPAA rating: Unrated. Times guidelines: It includes scatological humor and racy language. ‘My Life’s in Turnaround’

Eric Schaeffer: Splick Featherstone

Donal Lardner Ward: Jason Little

Lisa Gerstein: Sarah Hershfield

Debra Clein: Amanda

Arrow Releasing in association with Islet presentation. Writer-Directors Eric Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward. Producer Daniel Einfield. Cinematographer Peter Hawkins Editor Susan Graef. Music supervisor Sue Cirillo. 1 hour, 24 minutes.

* In limited release, at the Sunset 5, Sunset at Crescent Heights, (213) 848-3500; and at the Monica, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741.