Flakes

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What’s the Story?

Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford) is a musician who moonlights as the manager of Flakes, a quirky café that serves only cereal. His artist girlfriend, Miss Pussy Katz (Zooey Deschanel), wishes he would quit his job and finish the album he's been working on so they can finally start a life together. But Neal can't shake Flakes because its foggy-minded owner, Willie (Christopher Lloyd) is almost always out to lunch. When Pussy offers to man the fort while Neal focuses on his music and he refuses, she hightails it over to the upstart cereal bar across the street. The place is owned by a nerdy wannabe, Stuart (Keir O'Donnell), who's café is threatening Flakes' stability. If Flakes closes down, Pussy surmises, maybe Neal will finally focus on his art. But Neal isn't about to go down without a fight. Needless to say, their relationship suffers.

Is It Any Good?

Cereal is the ultimate comfort food: easy, uncomplicated, reliably pleasing. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for FLAKES -- the latest film from director Michael Lehmann (he also helmed Heathers) -- despite the fact that it's about the hipsters and hippies who hang out at a restaurant that serves nothing but the boxed breakfast staple.

If the plot seems like too little to sustain a whole movie, that's because it is. Charm alone -- the movie stars Deschanel, after all, and makes some interesting (albeit unoriginal) points about art vs. capitalism -- can't carry Flakes through. It's fun to see New Orleans through the camera's affectionate, even longing, gaze, and the cast clearly has rapport, but in the end, Flakes is simply much too soggy to relish.