Starring Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega. Unrated.

Ten things, or less, that I liked about 10 Items or Less:

1) The chemistry between unlikely duo Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega, playing an affable, unnamed actor in a career slump and a feisty Spanish grocery clerk on the way up.

2) The indie-rock tone of the movie uses Phedon Papamichael's cinematography, mostly of the colourful industrial wasteland south of L.A., to delightful effect even when nothing else is happening in the story.

3) Director Brad Silberling, who normally does bloated, expense-account movies like Casper and that Lemony Snicket, dropped the whole Hollywood thing to make something easygoing and fun and super cheap.

4) The music from Cypress Hill, Delinquent Habits, and other Latino roughnecks adds an extra kick to the long montage sequences, which are essentially strung-together Movie Moments (think choreography at the car wash), cleverly edited by Oscar-winner Michael Kahn, who worked on most of Steven Spielberg's films.

5) Paz Vega is funny! Who knew the slinky star of Sex and Lucia and the less estimable Spanglish could turn a line like "I'm originally from Spain" into a crackup moment. Of course, the idea that someone this smart and gorgeous would be worried about her next crummy job is a bit of a stretch.

6) The whole movie is a stretch. At 82 minutes, including obligatory (and worthwhile) outtakes, the movie is essentially a short's worth of material pretending to be a feature. Actor needs a ride, coaches store clerk before big interview. That's it.

7) Whenever funky side characters, as played by Wes Anderson regular Kumar Pallana and Bobby Cannavale (as Vega's cowardly ex), appear, they up the unpredictable energy, and there should have been more of them.

8) You have to laugh when Freeman's character keeps running into unsellable VHS tapes of a dog he made with Ashley Judd.

9) The sense of pros taking a vacation too often threatens to slide into slumming here. And the lead personalities are ultimately more acting-class sketches than real people. But the same things that make this thing silly and frivolous are what make me recommend it, especially to people who already see a lot of (more substantial) movies.

Wait a minute! There were three items under that last number. Please use another line.