Schizopolis
Year: 1996
Grade: B-
Country: USA
Director: Soderbergh
Review“offbeat comedy” doesn’t really do the film justice. it’s a film composed in three parts. the first shows steven soderbergh’s primary character (he plays two people in the film) in his role as family man and “office space” type employee, but he works for a scientology type organization. the second segment follows soderbergh’s secondary character (a dentist) who is having an affair with his first character’s wife. the third segment follows the wife. all the segments overlap in time and space, but they don’t necessarily cover the exact same time frame….and since they follow the three characters separately we see what each of the people does during their day. it’s filled with seeming non-sequiturs – like the elmo character who factors very heavily in the end of the film. it’s a hard film to really judge because it’s tough to really understand what’s going on, what’s reality, what’s not, what’s there for comic effect and what’s there as actual storytelling. in the first segment soderbergh’s character talks to his wife like this: “bland greeting.” she’ll reply “obligatory pseudo-loving response.” etc. in the third segment his primary character (the husband) talks to his wife in japanese and his secondary character (the dentist – her lover) speaks in spanish. to what effect you might ask…i don’t know. sometimes it’s funny, but i don’t think it’s all about comedy. sometimes there is commentary on the mundane nature of our lives or on filmmaking, and other times the film will poke fun of nothing (or everything?) in particular for a laugh. it’s a tough film to grasp because it gives the impression that there is something to grasp, but it is so offbeat and almost surrealistic that analysis after one viewing is very difficult. unlike full frontal, though, the film isn’t overly pretentious. so any difficulty there may be in trying to interpret potential meaning is met with eager curiosity at best, and indifference at worst. whereas full frontal turns the viewer off with its pedantic too-indie-for-you style.