Official Competition is a Spanish satire about the film business, in which two rival actors make their first movie together.
Sooner or later, most filmmakers seem to want to make a movie about filmmaking.
Since they spend all their waking lives making them or thinking about making them when the time comes to write a new script, what else are they going to write about?
Official Competition is made by a pair of Argentinian writer-directors, which is promising. I've seen some terrific films from Argentina.
It opens on a multi-millionaire, Umberto, who feels unloved and disrespected. The solution is to finance a prestigious movie by genius auteur Lola Cuevas, played with the biggest hair imaginable by Penélope Cruz.
She has the project - a script called Rivalry - and the perfect cast to play the estranged brothers, those household names Iván Torres and Félix Rivero.
Umberto, who knows nothing about films, has only one question: "Are they the best?"
Lola tells him that Iván is the most respected actor on the Spanish stage. Think someone like Argentinian superstar Oscar Martínez.
And Félix may not be respected at all - he just happens to be the biggest movie star in the country. Think Antonio Banderas.
Which of course is how they cast it. Official Competition is about the rivalry between two volatile actors.
Iván has nothing but contempt for his film-star opposite number, particularly when Félix is regularly late for rehearsals with increasingly lame excuses.
Meanwhile, Félix is paranoid about being acted off the screen by a "real actor".
So he undermines his rival every step of the way, showing off his many flashy awards and his popularity among the great unwashed.
But just as you think the official competition of the title is entirely fuelled by testosterone, a third contestant steps up to the plate.
Director Lola didn't get her prickly reputation by letting anyone get away with anything. For her, the rehearsal period is a time to break down actors' egos.
First, she butts heads with the knight of the theatre Iván.
His first line "good evening" is never right, no matter how he does it. She corrects him again and again, while Iván seethes with frustration.
Félix is amused - serves him right!
But then Félix gets shown up when Lola criticises his kissing technique.
The Girl in the movie is played by producer Umberto's stage-struck daughter, and Lola proceeds to kiss her star off the screen.
All a bit modern for Umberto.
In other words, it's a general satire of what it's like making movies all over Europe.
Florid, pretentious directors, ego-driven stars, producers with more money than sense, but with the ever-present possibility of triumph in Official Competition at festivals and award shows.
As I say, very European. Which is, frankly, nothing like the movie industry here.
We lack this kind of Latin pretense, to say nothing of multi-millionaire backers. Hollywood studios would never make this sort of prestige movie either.
So while we may love the performances in Official Competition - Antonio Banderas is often hilarious - many of the in-jokes fall a bit flat.
I wanted to like it rather more than I did - and if you're expecting an Argentinian version of the French TV comedy See My Agent, well it's not that.
Official Competition is a film that might work rather better if it was covered by someone good. I wonder what Taika's doing at the moment...
