WRITER'S DRUG NIGHTMARE COVERS AWFULLY FAMILIAR GROUND.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

Call it ``Fear and Self-Loathing in Los Angeles.'' Or maybe ``Dazed and Confusing.'' Call ``Permanent Midnight'' anything, but don't call it a good movie. Doing so would make me suspicious that you're high on something.

``Permanent Midnight'' is based on writer Jerry Stahl's hyped memoir about his descent into drugs while cranking out scripts for godawful sitcoms like ``ALF.'' Writing for a show about an extraterrestrial puppet could explain Stahl's compulsion for drugs, but this movie's paper-thin story isn't much interested in character development or insight. There's nothing new here, just another drug story and a poorly told one at that.

Ben Stiller, appropriately sullen and self-absorbed, stars as Stahl, who comes to Los Angeles to ``get away from drugs.'' (And palm trees, too?) He makes some contacts, writers and junkies, and ends up marrying a Brit (Elizabeth Hurley) so she can get a green card and stay in the country. The prospect of waking up next to Elizabeth Hurley, even if she is a bad actress, would be enough for me to kick heroin, but for Stahl, it only seems to make matters worse.

The film unfolds as one long flashback as Stahl relates his story to a former addict (``ER's'' Maria Bello) while they spend the night in a seedy motel room. It's an awkward structure, and the film sputters in fits and starts because of it. It doesn't help either that we know little of Stahl's own history before he moves to L.A., which gives us no rooting interest in what happens to him. Instead, the film has a clinical feel to go along with a certain off-putting smugness.

Even what's supposed to pass as dark comedy rarely works because the script (written by the film's first-time director David Veloz) never manages to capture the banalities of this industry town. Stahl could well have been a real-estate agent for all we learn of the world of television writing. (I did get a kick, though, out of the scene where Stahl, in a drug-induced stupor, imagines he's being attacked by an ALF-like puppet.)

``Permanent Midnight'' does have an interesting cast, which includes cameos by Owen Wilson, Fred Willard, Cheryl Ladd and the always entertaining Janeane Garofalo, the latter playing a literary agent who never seems to comprehend that her would-be client is as high as a kite. Stahl himself turns up in one scene as a straight-talking doctor at a drug-treatment center who tells his screen alter-ego that kicking drugs involves a lot more than just saying no.

It's too bad Stahl didn't spend a little more time counseling the filmmakers. Maybe then his life's story could have been something more than another bad movie.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Permanent Midnight'' (R; pervasive drug use, language and sexual situations.

The stars: Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Elizabeth Hurley.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by David Veloz. Based on the book by Jerry Stahl. Released by Artisan Entertainment.

Running time: One hour, 27 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: One and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Ben Stiller portrays sitcom writer Jerry Stahl, whose memoirs are the basis for the film.