Schizopolis
| Year: | 1996 |
| Studio: | .406 Production |
| Director: | Steven Soderbergh |
| Producer: | Steven Soderbergh |
| Writer: | Steven Soderbergh |
| Cast: | Steven Soderbergh |
The most experimental of Steven Soderbergh's films, in which he writes, produces, directs and casts himself in the role of an everyday schmoe with a young family who works at the company of a famous motivational speaker as a speechwriter, a company where an industrial spy is threatening chaos on everyone's lives.
He also plays a charismatic town dentist, the man his wife's having an affair with but who's obsessed with another woman. And all the while, a slightly unhinged exterminator drives around town seducing beautiful housewives and accepts an offer from an apparent documentary crew for a much more exciting gig.
Of course, this film is what cinema was invented for. Trying to describe the movie with the above paragraphs is like trying to write about the taste of chocolate. High art, absurd farce, Lynch-like crossing strands of plot and several bizarre cinematic devices are used to tell the strange story. Just watch the scene where the hero comes home after work and every line of dialogue is - instead of actual dialogue - more of a marker for what unimportant thing the character's saying ('generic greeting').
You'll enjoy it like you won't necessarily do so such extreme examples of arthouse film because unlike much of the work of Lynch and his contemporaries, Schizopolis is very, very funny.
He also plays a charismatic town dentist, the man his wife's having an affair with but who's obsessed with another woman. And all the while, a slightly unhinged exterminator drives around town seducing beautiful housewives and accepts an offer from an apparent documentary crew for a much more exciting gig.
Of course, this film is what cinema was invented for. Trying to describe the movie with the above paragraphs is like trying to write about the taste of chocolate. High art, absurd farce, Lynch-like crossing strands of plot and several bizarre cinematic devices are used to tell the strange story. Just watch the scene where the hero comes home after work and every line of dialogue is - instead of actual dialogue - more of a marker for what unimportant thing the character's saying ('generic greeting').
You'll enjoy it like you won't necessarily do so such extreme examples of arthouse film because unlike much of the work of Lynch and his contemporaries, Schizopolis is very, very funny.