Post by The Narrator Returns on Jun 16, 2013 15:27:47 GMT -6
Here is a movie that one will either love or not get. I am firmly in the former category. In fact, this is my favorite Soderbergh film, and in a career with as many gems as his has, that’s saying something. Describing the film as accurately as possible will only result in more confusion, so I’ll try my best; Fletcher Munson (played by Soderbergh), a speechwriter for a Scientology-esque religion named Eventualism, created by T. Azimuth Schwitters, is stuck in a dispassionate marriage with his wife (Soderbergh’s real ex-wife). He discovers that she’s having an affair with his doppelganger, the dentist Jeffrey Korchek (also played by Soderbergh), who is fond of bad puns (“I may vote Republican, but I’m a firm believer in gum control.”) and Muzak. Mrs. Munson leaves Fletcher for Jeffrey, only to find out that Jeffrey is himself infatuated with Attractive Woman #2 (also played by Soderbergh’s ex-wife), to whom he writes an explicit letter to (“I know that if for an instant I could have you lie next to me, or on top of me, or sit on me, or stand over me and shake, then I would be the happiest man in my pants.”) And there’s the business of Nameless Numberhead Man (played indelibly by the Ocean’s Trilogy’s Eddie Jemison), who everyone is convinced is the mole (or the spy) at Eventualism headquarters, and Elmo Oxygen, an exterminator who seduces housewives with his own bizarre language, and who ultimately becomes an agent of chaos (he does everything from beating people up for no good reason, ripping the tags off mattresses, and attempting an assassination). And I almost forgot Man Being Interviewed (C.C. Courtney) and odd news breaks spread throughout. Got it?
From my rambling (yet entirely accurate) description, you might think I’m lying when I say that this had a deep personal meaning for Soderbergh. But it did. At the time he made this film, he was fed up with Hollywood (after having a bad experience with The Underneath), and decided to recharge his creative batteries with a weird Richard Lester tribute (it’s no coincidence that the man who has to die for Fletcher to write Schwitters’ speech is named Lester Richards). And it worked. Without Schizopolis, we wouldn’t get Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, Solaris, or anything more than four films (five including his Yes concert film) from him. And I will be forever grateful, as well as thankful that a film this hilarious was made.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Masterpiece
The Soderbergh Players: As I said before, Eddie Jemison would later appear in all three Ocean’s movies, as well as The Informant! Mike Malone (T. Azimuth Schwitters) has had many bit parts in Soderbergh’s work (most notably as a guy at the bank Clooney robs at the beginning of Out of Sight), as has David Jensen (Elmo Oxygen).
Soderbergh’s longtime producer, John Hardy, produced the film and made a brief appearance in it. Cliff Martinez composed his fifth score for Soderbergh. And Soderbergh shot the film, although not under the pseudonym he would use for later films.
From my rambling (yet entirely accurate) description, you might think I’m lying when I say that this had a deep personal meaning for Soderbergh. But it did. At the time he made this film, he was fed up with Hollywood (after having a bad experience with The Underneath), and decided to recharge his creative batteries with a weird Richard Lester tribute (it’s no coincidence that the man who has to die for Fletcher to write Schwitters’ speech is named Lester Richards). And it worked. Without Schizopolis, we wouldn’t get Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, Solaris, or anything more than four films (five including his Yes concert film) from him. And I will be forever grateful, as well as thankful that a film this hilarious was made.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Masterpiece
The Soderbergh Players: As I said before, Eddie Jemison would later appear in all three Ocean’s movies, as well as The Informant! Mike Malone (T. Azimuth Schwitters) has had many bit parts in Soderbergh’s work (most notably as a guy at the bank Clooney robs at the beginning of Out of Sight), as has David Jensen (Elmo Oxygen).
Soderbergh’s longtime producer, John Hardy, produced the film and made a brief appearance in it. Cliff Martinez composed his fifth score for Soderbergh. And Soderbergh shot the film, although not under the pseudonym he would use for later films.