Actor Steven Antin wrote the screenplay, and U.S.C. film professor Jefery Levy directed this self-absorbed trifle about a self-absorbed screenwriter and his nutty family and friends. Antin plays Monkey Zetterland, an innocuous young man who is trying to work on his screenplay -- something having to do with the defunct Los Angeles streetcar system -- while a collection of relatives, friends, and neighbors continually interrupt him. His family is a collection of personified neurosis: there is Honor (
Katherine Helmond) a soap-opera actress with hemorrhoids who is afraid of being fired; Grace (
Patricia Arquette), his lesbian sister who is crestfallen to find that her lover Cindy (
Sofia Coppola) is pregnant; brother Brent (
Tate Donovan), an anal hairdresser with his elbow constantly bent over a cell phone; and Mike (
Bo Hopkins), his Dad, who shows up for Thanksgiving dinner with his pet parrot. But his neighbors are no better: Imogene (
Sandra Bernhard) screams to him, "I love you, Monkey Zetterland!"; Daphne (
Debi Mazar) complains that Monkey doesn't spend enough time with her; Sofie (
Martha Plimpton) and Sasha (
Rupert Everett) are a pair of terrorists devoted to blowing up insurance companies that deny insurance policies to HIV-positive patients; and Bella (
Ricki Lake), a crazed fan of Monkey's mom. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide