(Bloomberg) ? ?Look at Me? is a perfectly titled French movie about a cruel, egocentric father, his angry overweight daughter, and various opportunists who intersect their lives. They?re all people who demand attention and can?t understand why everyone around them isn?t as absorbed with their problems as they are.

Plump and plain Lolita (Marilou Berry) is an aspiring classical singer who lives in the shadow of her father, Etienne, (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a celebrated writer and publisher who split from Lolita?s mother and married a pretty young thing.

Etienne is so busy with his career and new family ? he?s got a child young enough to be his granddaughter ? that he virtually ignores Lolita and her travails with vocal lessons, boyfriends and nonstop self-loathing.

Whenever someone shows interest in her, romantic or otherwise, Lolita suspects it?s because the person wants to get close to her powerful father. That?s initially the case with her music teacher Sylvia (Agnes Jaoui), who sees the connection as a way to help her husband Pierre (Laurent Grevill), a struggling writer who has all but given up.

Indeed, Etienne?s influence does help Pierre climb the literary and social ladder. (After Pierre?s new book gets a rave review in Le Monde, he appears on a celebrity TV show, surrounded by scantily clad models.) But Sylvia grows disgusted with his sleazy ambition and starts to befriend and encourage Lolita.

While her father remains a self-indulgent jerk he walks out of her choral group?s performance after a few minutes and only returns for the curtain call ? Lolita discovers that some people genuinely care about her. This is no sweet story, though.

Co-written by Jaoui and Bacri and directed by Jaoui, ?Look at Me? takes an unsparing look at some of the uglier aspects of human nature.

Bacri, in particular, doesn?t attempt to soft-pedal his character?s flaws: The father is petty, selfish, impatient, nasty and oblivious to others? needs ? and isn?t about to change.

How refreshing to watch a movie that doesn?t pander to its audience by giving even the most despicable characters some likeable traits. ?Look at Me? isn?t a pretty sight, but at least it?s honest.

?Look at Me,? from Sony Pictures Classics, has opened in New York and Los Angeles.

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It?s fitting that Quentin Tarantino served as ?special guest director? of one of the scenes in ?Sin City,? the ultra- gory movie version of Frank Miller?s gritty comic-book series about an urban netherworld of cops, hookers, serial killers, crooked politicians and other assorted slimeballs.

Without the success of Tarantino?s ?Pulp Fiction? and ?Kill Bill? movies, I doubt ?Sin City? would have been made.

His slick, stylised bloodfests paved the way for arty trash like ?Sin City,? which may be the most violent film I?ve ever seen. Heads are severed, private parts are ripped out, faces are punched into goo, bodies are impaled and people are eaten alive.

Although the killings are all done in wham-bam, cartoon fashion against a surreal setting, the net effect is still disturbing. Instead of ?R,? it should be rated ?N? for nauseating.

?Sin City,? directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez, interweaves three stories: an about-to-retire cop (Bruce Willis) with a bad heart who?s out to save an 11-year-old girl from the sadistic son of a corrupt senator; a private investigator (Clive Owen) trying to protect his prostitute friends after a policeman is murdered in their neighbourhood; and a disfigured hood (Mickey Rourke) determined to avenge the death of a beautiful one-night stand named Goldie.

The black-and-white shots, the deadpan narration and the hard-boiled dialogue ?Kill ?em for me, Marv. Kill ?em good,? one damsel in distress cries out are an obvious homage to the film-noir classics of the 1940s and ?50s.

Give me ?Double Indemnity? and ?Touch of Evil? anytime.

?Sin City,? from Dimension Films, has opened nationwide.

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