SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS

The year is 1976. It is the era of Let's Make A Deal, the last hurrah of bell bottoms, big lapels and even bigger cars. It is also the year Vivian Abramowitz (Natasha Lyonne) learns the ABCs of bra sizes. It's a tough time for Vivian, made even tougher by her single, divorced father Murray's (Alan Arkin) constant search for a better lifestyle. Murray's goal is to keep the entire family -- Vivian, wise-mouthed older brother Ben (David Krumholtz) and wide-eyed little brother Rickey -- in the Beverly Hills School District (albeit on the very fringes of the city), because as Murray puts it: "Furniture is temporary, education is forever." The four Abramowitz's move to a cheap one-bedroom. In these uncomfortably close quarters, Vivian watches in horror as her blossoming sexuality becomes a family spectacle -- not to mention a great curiosity for her strangely compelling, Charles Manson-obsessed neighbor, Eliot (Kevin Corrigan). Enter Rita (Marisa Tomei), the Abramowitz's wild cousin and potential saving grace. A royal screw-up just out of drug rehab, Rita is the daughter of Murray's wealthy brother Mickey (Carl Reiner). Though hopelessly confused, Rita becomes the unlikely female role model that the adolescent Vivian urgently needs. SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS is Jenkins' funny, raw and engagingly personal memoir of growing-up on the wrong side of the 90210 zip code. Based on the true stories of what she calls the "nomads of divorce," Jenkins tells the story of a family out of its element and a teenager on the brink of sexual discovery. The Abramowitzes of Beverly Hills provide a skewed portrait of family life in America's city of dreams. Challenged by divorce, addiction and dysfunction -- yet still determined to fit in with the "in" crowd -- the Abramowitzes survive at the edge of Beverly Hills with humor and the precarious things that hold loved ones together. Starring Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner and Natasha Lyonne, the film marks the debut of writer