Absolutely fabulous mockumentary that treats us to everything from a spunky lead and a great script to dazzling Vegas vistas and a guest appearance by Siegfried and Roy. Maybe it's Christian Taylor's dry, tentative British essence, but there's an air of British television's "The Office" and "Little Britain" in the excellent, inventive Showboy.

A BBC documentary team follows Christian (Taylor), a Brit abroad who's working as a script writer on "Six Feet Under". When Christian is fired on the set in Las Vegas, he's too embarrassed to tell the documentary team and instead invents a story that he's researching a new script about a male Vegas chorus dancer. Really, he doesn't know what else to do and has decided to stay in Vegas and see if he can cut it in showbusiness. Meanwhile, the documentarians know he's been sacked and film him from a very cynical angle. As the adventure progresses, Christian becomes immersed in his quest to break into show dancing, and the documentarians become ever-fascinated with their fly-on-the-wall material.

Apparently, Taylor really did work as a script writer for Alan Ball, the creator of "Six Feet Under" before being sacked just as in this film. He's even been nominated for an Academy Award, for his film school graduation short. It's tough to work out where the lines of fact and fiction intersect in Showboy and this is part of the fun, and part of the brilliance. There are scenes where you can sense the real Taylor is talking about his own experiences, even if he's added a layer of performance to the telling. The emotional impact of the film is sincere - it rings true and we really feel for Christian as merciless cameras reveal his every ambitious, embarrassing move. He's not talented enough and lacks any substantial dance training. His ambition is part guts, and part self-delusion. We'd like to see him succeed, but at the same time wish he'd come to his senses, get a desk job and put himself and everyone else out of their misery. He's so self-driven and at times annoying we don't wonder why he's single, but at other times he's most endearing and his admissions of loneliness and the vague desire to find love are really affecting.

Showboy was filmed on mini-DV for around a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Siegfried and Roy paid their cast and crew overtime so a key scene could be filmed, apparently because Taylor and Heymann's low-budget energy reminded the entertainers of their own beginnings. But you have to search through the production notes on the film's official site to find this kind of information out - you don't pick up from watching that this is a scratched together movie. It's a sophisticated and classy movie and all involved deserve bright futures.

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Interview with Christian Taylor