Checked out early

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2015)

Watched this because HBO had it on as their Saturday night feature. Did not get 15mins into this before i checked out, completely.
There's a teething 7month old visiting us for the evening, so maybe not the ideal time to put this on. But, honestly, the baby's babbling had more coherence, and was far more entertaining.
I'm a huge fan of 4 actors in this movie: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts, none of that mattered. Surely this is not what the director had in mind? Aside from some simplistic explanations about upending Hollywood conventions, what did the director have in mind for this?