Marci X, though, is just clueless and sad, seemingly having missed the point that hip-hop is no longer a novelty to be slapped on the cheek with a white glove.

[it] might better have been called Marci Why.

Rudnick can be an extraordinarily clever writer, but he doesn't seem to understand that a screenplay has to entail more than a series of skit ideas strung together.

The running theme through "Marci X" is, "You've got to be real." But there's nothing real about the characters in this dismal comedy. Even as a satire, it fails because the filmmakers don't understand the subject they're satirizing.