Josef von Sternberg had Marlene Dietrich. George Cukor had Katharine Hepburn. Henry Jaglom has, uh, Tanna Frederick. A deep-pocketed filmmaker who finances his own indie comedy features, Jaglom lately has insisted on starring his real-life companion, Frederick — though she's neither comely nor charismatic, just annoyingly coy, peppy, and overemotional. In Queen of the Lot, Frederick actually quotes the Boston Globe review of an earlier Jaglom movie, Hollywood Dreams, in which Ty Burr cites her as giving "the most irritating performance of the year." But here she's less irritating, and often pretty funny, as an unlikely Hollywood action-movie star grounded with a Lindsay Lohan–style ankle bracelet from the LAPD who counts her Google points each morning. When it's parodying Hollywood narcissism and self-help obsession, Queen of the Lot works. But the stretched-out second hour bogs down in a boring romance and a melodramatic robbery. Better luck with the next Frederick-Jaglom collaboration — which is already in the works.
