Fresh from domestic box-office smash Cloud 9, director Dresen delivers a spirited, delightfully old-school celebration of thespian eccentricity and the volatile chemistry of moviemaking. Built four-square around the effortless comic talents of Henry Hubchen — seizing the role of a lifetime as a washed-up, drink-soused star struggling to stay in the limelight — this is commercial, intelligent Euro-cinema at its very best, from one of the continents few filmmakers equally popular with critics and audiences.