Schizopolis

I will echo a comment that someone made about -The Big Lebowski- (my #1 favorite comedy followed by this delightful mess). "Warning: this film transmits on a strictly limited wavelength." If you don't catch this curveball, you're likely to be bored. I won't say that if you don't like it on first viewing, then you're never going to like it. In my case, certain movies get more enjoyable on repeat viewings even after receiving a ho-hum response the first time around. This is one of those movies. With a narrative more fractured than your average David Lynch film, there are connections between one scene and another that jump out and take notice only on repeat viewings, sort of like "portals" from one part of the movie to another. Music that plays, pictures shown on the wall, one-sided phone conversations, that sort of thing. Aside from the already-limited-wavelength humor, these amplify the laugh factor. This is a movie destined for some kind of limited cult-following someday, but keeping to a murmur level when you're standing next to an air conditioner. The Criterion DVD has some good features and outtakes, like the "Maximum Busy Muscle" segment extolling the virtues of all products vinyl.

Update Nov. '06. Re-watching this almost on a whim, and it all comes together (such as it is) even more. This is truly hilarious, a comedy masterpiece reveling in all its many absurdities, which come one after the other at a highly accelerated rate. I'm upping my vote from 9 to 10.

"You will learn something from me here today." --Elmo Oxygen (Noooo!!! Oooogghghgh!!)

From the prologue I instantly thought I understood the tone that Steven Soderbergh- writer, director, cinematographer, possible pornographer, and double-actor on Schizopolis- was going for: pure absurdism, not just with how the prologue is worded (as the most important film experience of all time, the "full completed version"), but how he goes between all the different lenses like a young film student checking out the gears on a Bolex. But it's always a tricky thing going into a Soderbergh "experiment", and that it could be a mish-mash like Full Frontal (I've yet to see Bubble). And, in all truth, it is a mish-mash. It tells a coherent story only in that there's maybe two (or three) stories that seem to make any sense, but is scattered around scenes and freewheeling camera moves and editing tricks and music that come closest to that oft-mentioned critic term "off-beat". And a lot of the time it seems to be so personal to Soderbergh (real life ex-wife playing ex-wife, plus what may be his real kid playing Brantley's daughter), and so unconscionably irreverent, that it dares to run off the tracks any minute.

But it's this fully realized move to just be silly and strange, to make just random moments of wild satire (Rhode Island sold as a shopping mall, "Well, at least we didn't sell it to the f***ing Japanese", and a man randomly getting caught up in a straight jacket by fellows from a mental hospital), more well-rounded jabs at the drudgery and pointless meandering of everyday white-collar work life (is there a spy, or a mole, who cares if there's masturbation?), and statements just abstracted as if done sort of by a spontaneous idea in the editing room (title cards quoting a page in the script?), that makes it such a daring work of ludicrous intentions. This isn't a filmmaker trying to make an innovative and possibly important film like Traffic, or even a fun mainstream romp like Ocean's Eleven. In fact, it's seeing the opening prologue, and seeing how the style takes off right away (the title for the film on the shirt of a naked guy running away!) it sets off wonderful irony at every turn.

Not that Soderbergh isn't being self-indulgent. In fact, I'm sure that's why there's something of an honesty to his going head-long into his own personal crises of dealing with a relationship or marriage, and throwing caution to the wind by making the emotional problems actually quite real while obfuscating them with some truly goofy vignettes. It's almost like directorial therapy: let the actors improvise, let it all be loose, and even have a truly warped storyline involving an exterminator, really an actor looking for motivation and a written scene (ha), yet having in many instances moments of confession. Even if one might not know some of the circumstances surrounding Soderbergh's first marriage (it's detailed in the book Rebels on the Backlot), it feels like it's coming from the heart a good lot of the time, which uplifts the comedy. A running gag late in the film, as certain scenes from earlier with the perfectly dead-pan Soderbergh and Brantley are repeated, has Soderbergh being dubbed over in Japanese, French, and Italian, though in scenes that involve break-ups, awkward sexual tension, and a reconciliation.

This is not to say that Soderbergh isn't also more devilish than he's ever since been with his innuendo- make that outright hilariously immature sexual comedy- and it's amazing to see Soderbergh read a 'love letter' he's written to his "Attractive Woman #2", describing his profession of emotions in very graphic ways. And if Soderbergh does some strange things to surprise as the only time he's starred, let alone acted, in one of his films (the scene where he's in the bathroom making faces at the mirror is one of those pure moments in absurd cinema that speaks to the success of paying homage to Richard Lester movies), his going for broke stylistically pays off too. Or doesn't, depending on how one can take the mix and match of film stocks used from grainy 16mm to the usual 35mm, jagged hand-held racing after the exterminator man beating up on a man and woman, extreme fast-motion film-speed, perfectly composed images like a boy in right field missing a baseball, and even documentary style in the scenes with T. Azimuth Schwitters. On top of the dialog being continuously crazy and self-conscious (what's that film crew following along?), it's possibly the best, or at least most fun, that Soderbergh has to offer as an independent filmmaker.

So see it at your own risk, definitely check out the trailer beforehand to get an idea of what's at hand (if the poster wasn't sign enough what a tailspin one can expect to get into), and if one is already a fan, if only in the guilty pleasure sort of way as I know I am, do check out the Criteron DVD for Soderbergh "interviewing" Soderbergh commentary, including the story how the deal for David Lean to direct two years after his death fell through (damn Showtime channel)!

Stream-of-consciousness conception, sharp writing and creative technique. There's plenty here to amuse any smart audience, but the parts add up to an (intentionally) oblique whole. The film is so playful and irrespective of convention, it's as if Soderbergh threw up his hands and said 'Screw it, I can't make the movies they want me to." Take it with his work since and you've got the most supple, witty and consistent filmmaker working in the U.S. today.

There's lots to analyze, and myriad connections to be made. But don't try to make too much sense of it... let it take you, and enjoy.

Steven Soderbergh's 'Schizopolis' is a masterpiece. It's a satire on the formulas and cycles of ordinary people's every day lives. It very brilliantly satirizes relationships, marriage, sex, stress, work, the media, and communication, and many more elements of life. Soderbergh's wife in the movie (played by his real-life ex) is an example of a middle-age woman trying to find a good solid relationship, as she flees from her husband to his 'alter-ego' and can't decide which one she is more attracted to. The way the two talk is in Soderbergh's own made-up language, indicating the relationship they have. Which is a very common one, where everyday they have the same pointless, shallow discussions about their semi-awareness of plans for the evening, and at one point their relationship in bed. The marriage is fuelled by lies (a nod to his earlier 'sex, lies, and videotape'). At one point in the film, everyone speaks out what their subconscious tells them, in a very disturbing level of honesty, indicating what they're really feeling and really thinking, and how they express it, whether truthfully or dishonestly. Among things, the film is hilarious, frustrating, shocking, spontaneous, and even touching. It's like nothing ever put up on the screen before, it's a fresh antidote to anything formulaic, and for once, something new.

This is part of my Scarecrow Video Guide inspired movie-trek, following "The Specials." I've always been a hypocrite Soderbergh fan. I claim to be a bit of a movie snob, but really I think of Soderbergh as a guy who makes really great "Hollywood" flicks. Kind of the anti-Michael Bay. "Out Of Sight" is probably in my top 50 of all time. But I've always ignored most of his artier flicks, probably because I watched "Kafka" in college and didn't care much for it.

Well, this is as out-there as Soderburgh gets...or nearly anyone. It looks like a student film, but it was actually made right before he started his commercial streak with "Out Of Sight". Any description is probably pointless- suffice to say it's a film about communication that goes out of it's way to NOT communicate with it's audience. It would all come off so absurdly pretentious if it wasn't for Soderbergh's hilarious opening and closing statements. ("Anything you don't understand is your own fault") In hindsight, it almost seems like a parody of pretentious student films, and you can enjoy it on that level. But there is a point here, even though it doesn't come remotely close to clear.

Most importantly, it's pretty dang funny. There's enough silly stuff to appreciate, even if you don't "get it". Soderburgh himself is a deadpan riot in a dual role (or is it? You decide!) But "Nameless Numberhead Guy" steals the show.

"Schizopolis" isn't the weirdest film I've ever seen- that honor would probably go to "du-beat-E-o". But it's probably the best ratio of weird-to-watchable. Even if you're completely lost, you'll find something to like if you like film. But If you like Michael Bay, best skip it.

Next up is "Jerry & Tom"