I was puzzled after reading Mark Olsen‘s 11.8 “Indie Focus” column this morning. The focus was Sebastian Guitterrez‘s Women in Trouble, an apparently sexy, allegedly Pedro Almodovar-esque indie anthology that will open in New York and Los Angeles on 11.13. It costars Carla Gugino, Adrianne Palicki, Marley Shelton, Simon Baker, Elizabeth Berkley and Josh Brolin.L.A. Times columnist and screening series host Pete Hammond, who knows everyone and sees everything) telling me they’d never heard of Women in Trouble, much less received an invite themselves.

I eventually learned that the film is being repped by Mike Rau of 42West. There have been one or two select screenings in Los Angeles, apparently. (I’m not sure about NYC showings.) The responses, I’m told, have been moderate to cool. A guy I spoke to who’s seen it says “it’s not bad…there’s nothing horribly wrong with it, but it’s not great either.”

Screen Media is a kind of “for hire” vanity distributor, I gather. You pay them, they put it out there, handle the ads and whatnot.

I’m a Gugino fan (especially after seeing her in Desire Under The Elms) and really wouldn’t mind seeing this. Any movie with girls running around in underwear gets at least half a pass from this quarter. Okay, not really but underwear is…you know, a pleasant thing.

Here’s a South by Southwest review by Variety‘s Joe Leydon. Here’s the Wikipedia page. Here’s a promotional/fictional blog by Gugino’s “Elektra Luxx” character.