Nobel Son

Ten years ago, Tarantino wannabeism was rampant and at least understandable. Today it induces cringes so strong they feel like dry heaves. Yet here are writer-director Randal Miller and his wife and co-writer Jody Savin, most recently of Bottle Shock, with an obnoxiously loud hodgepodge of plotlines and hollow stylistic tics, brimming over with borrowed attitude but coming up way short on actual humanity. The gist: Just as his philandering prick of a father (Alan Rickman) wins the Nobel Prize, a grad student (Bryan Greenberg) finds himself kidnapped and held for ransom by his own, heretofore unknown, half-brother (Shawn Hatosy). Also involved are Mary Steenburgen as a jaded wife/concerned mom, Eliza Dushku as a temptress/unstable open-mic poet, Bill Pullman as a doughy detective and Danny DeVito as a dumb one-note joke.