First-time filmmaker Dan Zukovic seems to have reached a similar conclusion. His hilarious and original new film The Last Big Thing follows this trend to its logical (if insane) conclusion. Zukovic not only writes and directs the film but stars in it as Simon Geist. Geist is an enigmatic L.A.-based intellectual who has supposedly started a hip new culture magazine called The Next Big Thing. In actuality, though, The Next Big Thing doesn't exist. It's nothing more than an attractive lie. Nonetheless, Simon seeks out people in various media and tries to set up interviews with them. It's all an elaborate excuse for our post-postmodern protagonist to confront and question the creators of culture ... or just insult them if the mood strikes.

Simon's unusual "project" attracts the attentions of Darla (Susan Heimbinder), a self- effacing trust fund baby who meets the highbrow heckler "after a period of deep depression that lasted from the ages of four to 23." Darla and Simon hook up, acquire "the perfect camouflage" (a house in suburbia bought with money from Darla's rich father) and set about to expose "the most fucked-up city of the last thousand years" as the pointless, fame-obsessed fraud that it is.

Zukovic, looking like a hulking version of David Byrne, sulks his way through the role of Simon with perfect self- importance. "Zeitgeist" directly translated from the German means "spirit of the time." This character, this intellectual puzzle, this pop culture mega-critic known as Simon Geist is, literally, a spirit of his time. He is both an embodiment of the age and a pale shadow walking through its days. At first, it seems as if Simon is on to something. Certainly, rock bands with pretentious names and stand-up comics with a million weary references to '70s sitcoms are ripe targets for satire. Simon's (and Zukovic's) skewering of cheesy soap actors and clueless artists is both scabrous and funny. Eventually, though, Simon's project begins to run out of steam. He chooses a picture perfect cover model named Tendra for his final "interview." Unfortunately, Tendra turns out to be quite the intellectual herself, matching Simon's cultural musings tit-for-tat and upending his entire world view.

As a director, Zukovic seems to have a natural way with actors, wheedling believable performances from every member of his novice cast. Susan Heimbinder is quite appropriate as the starry-eyed idol worshipper who slowly finds her own intellectual voice by chronicling the rise and fall of Simon Geist's cultural excoriation. Darla's obvious love for Simon is nicely demonstrated by her growing jealousy of Tendra. At the same time, her own intellectual agenda becomes more apparent with her burgeoning self-awareness and her waning confidence in Simon.