The slightly twisted Dutch comedy Everybody's Famous, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, is now out on DVD. It's the story of Jean (Josse De Pauw), a factory worker with the face of a working class David Niven who dreams of turning his teenage daughter into pop star. During night shifts, he composes songs for her in the bathroom, humming into a cheap tape recorder. His daughter, pudgy Marva (Eva Van der Gucht), sings at contests in beer tents to rowdy audiences. (Anybody who has ever sat through the European Song Contest will think this is twice as funny.) When Jean kidnaps a successful pop star to make his daughter famous, things get whacky.

With shameless glee, director Dominique Deruddere plunges the movie into wild plot twists. Incompetent kidnappers are always entertaining, and in the end, Deruddere puts a spin on events that make for interesting media criticism. Everybody's Famous owes its success to the unique characters, fascinating people who are equally touching and hilarious, people you don't usually see in polished American films because they're neither hip nor beautiful - which makes them even more endearing.