No ticket to stardom for this docudrama.

I saw “Atropia” virtually from the Sundance Film Festival, and I haven’t really thought much about it since. I may have liked the leading lady Alia Shawkat, who tries to save the show, but I wasn’t taken by its direction and creativity.

This Luca Guadagnino-produced war docudrama is also the directorial debut of Hailey Gates, who just played Josh O’Connor’s date in Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” and has also appeared in a short film that he directed called “O Divine Night.” Unfortunately, like Guadganino’s last film “After the Hunt,” I’m not seeing any direction here. In fact, it’s just as meandering than that film. This is far from their finest collaboration.

The time is 2006. It starts off like an international thriller in the tradition of “The Hurt Locker,” and then it’s revealed to be a movie within a movie. Actually, Atropia is a place in Los Angeles, where the US Army is given a simulation of Iraq, before they go to the actual country. A role playing scenario to say the least.

Some critics may compare and contact “Atropia” to “Tropic Thunder,” which also dishes on war and actors. Given today’s standards and how offensive that comedy was, I doubt we could get a sequel, but I still thought it was brilliant and funny. “Atropia” is not even close to that level.

As reported by Box News (get it?), an actor is coming to the set to do some research for a role. And that actor happens to be Channing Tatum. Who else? Shawkat plays an actress named Fayruz, who is trying land a major Hollywood role by having a soldier beat her in the streets, while praying “Death to America,” just to impress Tatum. It doesn’t really work out for her.

And then she meets a real married solider named Abu Dice (Callum Turner, currently in a much better role in “Eternity”), as he accuses her of being a mole in this operation at first. It also becomes a romance for them as they find themselves in dangerous territory. At least, I think it’s dangerous territory if this is a fake set with a real solider.

The cast also includes Jane Levy as a fake war correspondent, Lola Kirke as Abu’s wife, and Tim Heidecker and Chloe Sevigny as sleazy military directors. But I’m not seeing anything in their characters, as they’re more fake than real. And there must be a distinction between them.

“Atropia” could work as a satire and the genre has worked before, but this film doesn’t know who the targets are. I wasn’t even sure what it’s trying to convey here, and in the last 11 months since I watched it, I’ve been thinking less of it. And it’s often difficult to tell if whatever happens is supposed to be real or acting. Shawkat does some good work here and she has the right kind of charisma, but the screenplay doesn’t provide her with fresh material. It just goes through the motions, it all fells self-indulging and self-congratulatory. She deserves a better character study and screenplay, and she plays Fayruz just right.

I’m told this movie won the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, but my reaction is like knowing that “Bohemian Rhapsody” winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture. That wasn’t worthy of that award, and neither was this.

In Select Theaters This Friday