Guide Rating -

Garofalo, playing the independent director's levelheaded daughter, is strangely tan. She gets angry. She takes care of business, but the film belongs one hundred percent to Stiller. After an illustrious career in comedy, Jerry Stiller is probably best known as real life father of Ben, and television dad to George Costanza on "Seinfeld." In that role, Stiller annoyed me no end with his antics, but in "The Independent," he is just right. Vain, selfish, full of himself, immodest, an artist who makes bad art -- and a bad artist is something you rarely get to see in films these days. Lots of people have vision; that doesn't mean they are any good.

The best thing about "The Independent" are the clips of Fineman's campy films shown throughout. The film is sprinkled with countless snips from Fineman's career. Terrible B films, delicious titles: Teenie Weenie Bikini Beach, Christ For the Defense, Cheerleader Camp Massacre, Bald Justice, Nuclear Nun, Heil Titler. Sit through the credits for the full treatment of 427 titles. I have a thing about Siamese Twins -- perhaps that's why I loved the clip from Brothers Divided: Siamese brothers, one head a hippie and one head patriotic, go to Vietnam.

"The Independent" follows Fineman's illustrious career as he struggles to make his last feature, either a shoot-em-up euthanasia picture (Miss Kevorkian) or a musical about a serial killer. Cameo appearances from directors Ron Howard, Nick Cassavettes and the infamous B-film maker Roger Corman round out this charmer film. To tell the truth, it's a one joke film, but Jerry Stiller as Morty Fineman keeps you laughing all the way through.