Cinema: Timecode Directed By Mike Figgis

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In 1916 D.W. Griffith created Intolerance, a four-part movie set in different ages, all stories converging at the climax. Figgis is more modest: he has four interlocking sketches of show-biz life (all shot simultaneously), one for each quadrant of a split screen. The mood is tres California: four earthquakes and a dying man taking a cell-phone call! When things go slack, you can stare at some of the world's most watchable women (Saffron Burrows, Salma Hayek, Leslie Mann, Golden Brooks). But this spectacle of strenuous improvising is more stunt than true experiment. Nice try, folks. Now go back and make some movies.

--By Richard Corliss