Babe in Paradise (2008)

People living in the shadows of Los Angeles glamour -- retired stuntmen, limo drivers, bartenders -- populate nine atmospheric stories by filmmaker Silver. Most are deft montages of disillusionment: In ''What I Saw From Where I Stood,'' a couple's brutal carjacking is juxtaposed with the wife's recent miscarriage. Some tales feel Hollywood-flashy and a little forced, as when the mousy acting student in ''Statues,'' while apartment-hunting with her frustrated screenwriter husband, meets a porn-producing landlord and asks him to film her. This debut's best offerings are three lucid, effortless stories about the title character, a neglected, nose-pierced young woman searching for her place in a city that rarely resembles heaven on earth.