Live! (2007)

It’s hard to distinguish between the cynical indifference of the characters and the arrogant nihilism of the film itself.

Watchable satire with some nice touches and a strong performance by Eva Mendes, but it's neither as funny, as clever or as original as it thinks it is.

This straight-faced satire of American television raises important issues and is engaging enough to keep us gripped. But the astute commentary peaks too early, then gives way to a finale that's messy in more ways than one.

Mendes' Courbet is all the c-words: clever, cunning, a control freak, cynical; ultimately conformist. Here's another c-word - Cowell, Simon Cowell. Like him, she knows what the public want - before even they know it.

So spake that prescient philosopher Julie Brown: "Just be vague, there's nothing to it."

Worth seeing for the slinky, snakelike, sexy and oddly vulnerable performance of Eva Mendes, a star-making role if I've ever seen one.