There were no great standouts among the screenings I caught Sunday but there was one big disappointment.

Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?" has one of the best casts in the festival, but they're squandered on a morose and uninspired Hollywood satire.

Robert De Niro stars as a producer whose life is a seemingly non-stop exercise in crisis management. The director (Michael Wincott) of his latest project refuses to budge when the studio head (Catherine Keener, the film's best asset) objects to a violent, depressing ending. De Niro's ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) may be sleeping with a colleague (Stanley Tucci). Another project is jeopardized when the star (Bruce Willis, as himself) refuses to shave. And on and on.

None of these problems are actually very interesting and the sluggish movie becomes far more of a chore to watch than Levinson must have intended. He dresses it up with self-conscious camerawork and editing, and makes the inexplicable decision of casting Wright Penn when her (soon to be ex) husband also plays himself in the movie.

Anyone who caught the video of "I Heart Huckabees" director David O. Russell throwing an on-set tantrum saw a far more illuminating portrait of Hollywood insanity, in a fraction of the time.

Also disappointing, but not without some merit, is "Incendiary," the story of a young mother (Michelle Williams) in an unhappy marriage whose life is turned upside down after a massive terrorist incident in London. Co-star Ewan McGregor sent a videotaped message to the film's premiere and extolled the "best female leading role [he'd] ever read in a script." Hyperbole aside, if the role was really that strong on paper it simply doesn't translate to film.

Writer-director Sharon Maguire, working from a novel by Chris Cleave, makes a significant departure from her previous work on "Bridget Jones's Diary," but her efforts are manipulative and miscalculated. Built around an embarrassing letter that Williams' character writes to Osama bin Laden, the film wallows in tragedy before giving way to a perplexing love triangle.

Faring considerably better, at least on a stylistic level, is "The Broken," a creepy horror thriller starring Lena Headey (currently enjoying small screen success with "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles").

It wouldn't be fair to say too much about the plot, but it doesn't matter anyway. The film's true pleasures stem from its sleekly chilling atmosphere and unsettling scares. I'll reveal this much: the ending is bound to leave many viewers scratching their heads in confusion.

Also worthy of some attention is "Derek," a small but big-hearted documentary about the late British independent filmmaker Derek Jarman. His art films have a loyal cult following and those devotees are sure to lap up this doc. But any kind of wide exposure is pretty much out of the question. The only real selling point is the presence of Jarman's muse Tilda Swinton, who reflects on the filmmaker's legacy in a poignant letter she wrote following his death that's used as narration throughout the film.

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