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What Is It?

  • 2005
  • Unrated
  • 1h 12m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
1K
YOUR RATING
What Is It? (2005)
Drama

What Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and dem... Read allWhat Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes.What Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes.

  • Director
    • Crispin Glover
  • Writer
    • Crispin Glover
  • Stars
    • Michael Blevis
    • Carlos Richardson
    • Lisa Fusco
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.2/10
    1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Crispin Glover
    • Writer
      • Crispin Glover
    • Stars
      • Michael Blevis
      • Carlos Richardson
      • Lisa Fusco
    • 20User reviews
    • 17Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:21
    Trailer

    Photos4

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster

    Top cast21

    Edit
    Michael Blevis
    • The young man
    • (as Michael Bleviss)
    Carlos Richardson
    • The young man's alter ego
    Lisa Fusco
    • The young man's fantasy girl
    Steven C. Stewart
    • Dueling Demi-God Auteur
    • (as Steven Stewart)
    • …
    Crispin Glover
    Crispin Glover
    • Dueling Demi-God Auteur…
    John Insinna
    • The Young Man's Outer Sanctum Friend…
    Kelly Swiderski
    • Inner Sanctum Concubine…
    Robin Adams
    • Inner Sanctum Concubine…
    Adam Parfrey
    • The minstrel
    Rikky Wittman
    • The minstrel's nemesis
    • (as Rickey Wittman)
    Lynn Conley
    • The Minstrel's Concubine…
    Cheryl Brown
    • Outer Sanctum Mocking Tormentor…
    Tom Carroll
    • Grave Digger…
    Eric Yates
    • Inner Sanctum Puppet Show Audience Member…
    Mary P. Hayes
    • The young man's mother
    Fairuza Balk
    Fairuza Balk
    • Screaming Snail
    • (voice)
    • …
    Zoryna Dreams
    • Monkey Woman
    • (as Zoreena Dreams)
    Ivonna Earnest
    • Monkey Woman
    • Director
      • Crispin Glover
    • Writer
      • Crispin Glover
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews20

    5.21K
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    Featured reviews

    1Vincentfoti

    Did not like at all

    I appreciate surrealist art. I like dark comedy, the subversive, the cryptic and the bizarre. however this movie is nothing more than a painful waste of time. it completely reeks of "trying too hard" and the use of actors with down syndrome acts only as a gimmick rather than adding any depth. i've seen Crispin glover in other things, and usually he passes as a decent actor. he thrives when he's playing some kind of weirdo. but the only worthwhile roles he's had were written and produced by other people. his own personal work in video or music (yes music) is mostly garbage. this movie is nothing than an answer to a trivia question.
    10james_Rey

    What Is It - Behind the Scenes/Party

    I worked on the set of this movie in Salt Lake City, Ut and have some behind the scenes footage. Crispin is a wonderful person and this movie is great. After the movie, Crispin threw us a party and it was captured on VHS. There weren't any digital cameras back then, sorry. there is a talent showcase at the end of the party which is hilarious. However you tube deleted the last part which is a stripper. I have seen videos containing more nudity that the one I posted but they took it down anyway. If you get a chance please check out these exclusive videos. enjoy!

    Check it Out!!

    http://www.youtube.com/crucifixxkiss

    http://youtu.be/NqRs_x1Dryw

    http://youtu.be/KaGVHGEKRS0

    http://youtu.be/hBeFnJXVbSE
    8Agent10

    If you ever wondered how far someone could go to the left, then this is the movie for you

    It takes a very special kind of person to make a movie that is so wretched, beguiling, disgusting and repulsive, but make it in a way that also makes it brilliant and the quintessence of personal cinematic liberation. Crispin Glover, in all of his "out there" antics and predispositions, truly made something that is unique. In a world that has become starkly partisan, this film seems to evade the standard lines of creativity and art and effectively startle everyone.

    Right off the bat, the film takes on a rather distant paradigm (if there really is a model at all) and initially shapes it with the likes of Shirley Temple in front of a swastika and naked women pleasuring a man with cerebral palsy. It's rather shocking stuff, but if you had the opportunity for the Q&A sessions after the screenings, it clearly opens up a bag of worms that leaves you wondering whether this is art or just the lowest common denominator. In either guise, you sense the tremor that this film will ultimately cause. It will never be accepted, not even by the supposed auteurs of the world who boringly speak about the human condition. You may not like it, but it is certainly something worth watching.
    10lopaville-1

    A breathtaking masterpiece of incalculable magnitude

    Crispin Glover has presented a monumental film that what will surely change cinema forever. Not only does it trace and honor the Afro-American roots that preceded Lumiere by almost a hundred years, but proudly restores that tradition and provides a very subtle critique of the modern movie business.

    Profits are nowhere to be found in this low budget homage to Capra and Selznick. Hats off to to Glover for not pulling any punches whilst showing a decadent sequence involving a naked gentleman being ejaculated whilst laying inside a giant oyster. No expense - including excess pubic hair - has been spared.

    On another note, I know what you must be thinking in the back of your mind: "wait, I think I have seen a graveyard sex scene before." Perhaps, but was it in the first five minutes? Did involve two fully clothed people with one too many chromosomes (each)? Crispin Glover proves that we have moved beyond the tired old traditions of repetitious childhood storytelling and myths and entered into a new realm wherein we are free to recreate and reimagine what it means to be a theater-going experience.

    My long-time partner of two months, Brenda Velasquez, who recently left me, agrees with me. We might be like oil and water and sulfuric acid in the bedroom, but when the curtains go up, we are united before the grandeur of moviedom. Congratulations, Mr. Glover. We love your deliberately ratty film.
    9meryles

    Sumptuous Decadent Beautiful Ugliness

    Hilarious, evocative, confusing, brilliant film. Reminds me of Bunuel's L'Age D'Or or Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain-- lots of strange characters mucking about and looking for..... what is it? I laughed almost the whole way through, all the while keeping a peripheral eye on the bewildered and occasionally horrified reactions of the audience that surrounded me in the theatre. Entertaining through and through, from the beginning to the guts and poisoned entrails all the way to the end, if it was an end. I only wish i could remember every detail. It haunts me sometimes.

    Honestly, though, i have only the most positive recollections of this film. As it doesn't seem to be available to take home and watch, i suppose i'll have to wait a few more years until Crispin Glover comes my way again with his Big Slide Show (and subsequent "What is it?" screening)... I saw this film in Atlanta almost directly after being involved in a rather devastating car crash, so i was slightly dazed at the time, which was perhaps a very good state of mind to watch the prophetic talking arthropods and the retards in the superhero costumes and godlike Glover in his appropriate burly-Q setting, scantily clad girlies rising out of the floor like a magnificent DADAist wet dream.

    Is it a statement on Life As We Know It? Of course everyone EXPECTS art to be just that. I rather think that the truth is more evident in the absences and in the negative space. What you don't tell us is what we must deduce, but is far more valid than the lies that other people feed us day in and day out. Rather one "WHAT IS IT?" than 5000 movies like "Titanic" or "Sleepless in Seattle" (shudder, gag, groan).

    Thank you, Mr. Glover (additionally a fun man to watch on screen or at his Big Slide Show-- smart, funny, quirky, and outrageously hot). Make more films, write more books, keep the nightmare alive.

    Best Emmys Moments

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Crispin Glover's directorial debut.
    • Quotes

      Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man's inner psyche: Good. He's dead. Now we can have a good time.

    • Crazy credits
      This film has not advocated the assassination of Steven Spielberg in any way.
    • Connections
      Featured in Durch die Nacht mit...: Juliette Lewis und Crispin Glover (2010)
    • Soundtracks
      Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)
      by Johnny Rebel

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    FAQ17

    • How long is What Is It??Powered by Alexa
    • Who was the first executive producer money for this film?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 27, 2005 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Production company
      • Volcanic Eruptions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 12m(72 min)
    • Color
      • Color

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