Cinema: Slums Of Beverly Hills

Murray Abramowitz (Alan Arkin), trapped in dreams of lost prosperity, urges his kids to think of themselves as nomads, adventurers wresting their livelihood from a harsh yet enticing landscape. His daughter Vivian (Natasha Lyonne)--15 and squirmy with all the anxieties, social and sexual, of her age group--knows better. The swell school district isn't worth what living in the slums of Beverly Hills entails: decamping from sleazy apartments at night to avoid the rent, taking in a crazy cousin (Marisa Tomei) in hopes her father will support the Abramowitzes in a style to which they're unaccustomed. There's farce in Jenkins' reflections on her adolescence. But there's also a tough-tender authenticity in her film that sets it poignantly apart from most coming-of-age comedies.

--By Richard Schickel