New Suit

Kevin Taylor (Jordan Bridges) is a Hollywood newcomer who can't get anywhere with his screenwriting, so he ends up working as a personal assistant to a small production company. Tired of being teased by his more successful compatriots, he invents a writer and a script called The New Suit, which of course becomes The Hot Thing in Hollywood, despite the fact that no one has met the writer or read the script. Things spiral toward a bidding war and into absurdity.

If The Big Picture hadn't told this story before but twice as funny, New Suit might have earned a small cult following. But really what sinks New Suit is its rank unlikelihood -- with producers spending millions to get a script that no one has read. Hollywood is notoriously paranoid about spending money. Everyone reads a script before anyone considers buying it. And while bidding wars do happen, they just don't happen like this. New Suit is born of Hollywood legend (with a shout-out to the fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes), not from anything that could conceivably ever happen. (Perhaps te biggest and most absurd problem with the story is that Taylor changes his mind immediately and keeps trying to call off the joke rather than take advantage of the situation.)

The film is packed with solid direction and good performances (Marisa Couglan as the agent of the phony writer is especially effective). Ultimately it's a decent film, just one that's hard to take seriously.