A GEM HITS THE SCREEN WITH 'CHUCK & BUCK'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

``Chuck & Buck'' pulls off the neat trick of subverting three different genres in one movie, and doing so with considerable warmth, humor and originality. This is a buddy movie about two friends in heavy denial, a man-child film featuring an infantile character with dangerous ideas and a stalker thriller with a happy ending. Quite simply, it's one of the best films of the year.

Screenwriter Mike White, fresh from the television trenches of ``Freaks and Geeks'' and ``Dawson's Creek,'' has written a script that's thoroughly unpredictable and completely unafraid to explore the darker undertones of its story without sacrificing its essentially sweet tone. ``Chuck & Buck'' also skewers Los Angeles and the desperate nature of performers better than any movie in recent memory. Wanna-be actors will howl with recognition.

They also might howl with indignation, since director Miguel Arteta has cast the film mostly with non-actors. Start with White himself, who memorably plays Buck, a childlike young man who becomes obsessed with his boyhood best friend, Chuck (Chris Weitz). In adulthood the two are complete opposites - Chuck has a successful career as a record executive, a beautiful fiancee and all the trappings of instant wealth. Buck still lives at home with his mother in his old room, which is a monument to arrested adolescence with its neatly displayed Matchboxcars and toy soldiers.

When Chuck's mother dies, he calls Buck and invites him to the funeral. The two haven't seen each other for 16 years, and the reunion is as awkward as one might expect. Buck doesn't help matters much, though, when he invites Chuck into the bathroom and brazenly grabs his crotch. Visit over.

But Buck isn't finished. He comes to L.A. and begins to follow Chuck everywhere he goes - work, home, restaurants. When Chuck understandably begins to ignore him, Buck writes a play, the hilariously bad ``Hank & Frank,'' and rents the theater across from Chuck's office to stage it for one night. Needless to say, Chuck's fiancee, Carlyn (Beth Colt, one of the film's producers), begins to wonder about Buck and whether Chuck might be hiding something from her.

It turns out he is. One of the most fascinating things about the movie is how both Chuck and Buck simplify the history of their relationship. For Buck, childhood was the best time in his life; Chuck doesn't even want to remember it. The film takes both characters to a middle ground, suggesting that it is possible to reconcile some pretty complicated issues.

It's that hopeful spirit that makes the movie a refreshing departure from the kind of independent films that typically end in bloodbaths. White's script also creates imperfect characters that manage to be believable in their frailties, but not unsympathetic because of them. It doesn't have the hollow, misanthropic tone that characterizes, say, Alexander Payne's work.

Arteta shot the movie on digital video, providing the perfect level of intimacy for his cast to take some interesting chances. He has elicited a great many surprising performances, beginning with White himself, moving on to Weitz and his brother Paul (the duo directed ``American Pie'' and wrote ``Antz'') and extending to the great Lupe Ontiveros, who plays Beverly, the theater manager who directs Buck's play.

Ontiveros' character is worth the price of admission alone. Beverly is a wise, talented woman who has existed in the background for most of her life waiting for someone to notice her - much like the actress herself. Her performance is just one of the many pleasures of the satisfying ``Chuck & Buck,'' a film that turns a quirky stalker into an improbable hero for our times.

The facts

--The film: ``Chuck & Buck'' (R; sexuality and language).

--The stars: Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Miguel Arteta. Screenplay by Mike White. Released by Artisan Entertainment.

--Running time: One hour, 35 minutes.

--Playing: Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena; Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, Landmark NuWilshire in Santa Monica.

--Our rating: Four stars.

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Buck (Michael White) enlists Beverly (Lupe Ontiveros) to direct his play in the movie ``Chuck & Buck.''