Notes from Underground (1993)

Few would deny actor-writer Eric Bogosian is an artist of formidable talent, but most will agree Notes from Underground is an embarrassment. It includes a stunningly puerile diary of a lunatic (Notes) and a play (Scenes from the New World) filled with characters who are cliches of Bogosian's repertoire: street trash, shallow yuppies, and a ruthless entertainment-industry executive. Politically disengaged and lacking entirely in Bogosian's acid wit, Notes suffers most from the author's misperception that aping inanity is the same as parodying it. D