Soderbergh Maraton: Part 8

Intro

Bubble (2005)

Soderbergh is the perfect director for this feature.  I want to possibly try my hand at other directors once I'm through with Soderbergh's absurdly high number of films, but I'm afraid that it will just be too much of the same with other directors.  Or even the same at all.  As of now, Soderbergh has not made a single film that is remotely like the others.  Nine films in, all are drastically different.

It doesn't get much more different than Bubble, which seems more like an experiment than an actual movie.  The best way to describe this movie is to simply tell you how it's made.  Soderbergh went to West Virginia and scouted non-actors to be in this movie.  The lead actor was found working in a drive-thru at KFC.

After that, there was a "script" which was just an outline.  And the non-actors had to improvise the dialogue on the basis of the outline.  The idea, in theory, was to create a naturalistic and realistic feeling movie.  It's...  sometimes successful at that?

The problem, as far as I see it, is its the worst of both worlds.  At times, it does feel realistic, but it's also painfully boring.  There's a reason why most of our lives wouldn't make good movies.  The entire movie is mostly conversations of things that are just simply not interesting.  And when it doesn't feel realistic, it really does feel like you're watching non-actors who are not skilled in improv trying to improv.

Soderbergh planned to film six movies like this and as far as I know this ended up being the only one.  So I'd called it a failed experiment.  Thankfully, the movie is astonishingly short.  Which makes sense.  What could be called the plot could be written in one sentence and doesn't happen until 45 minutes into the movie.

Roger Ebert loved this movie and god rest his soul, but I do not agree with him.  But if you trust Ebert's opinion, go ahead and search for his review of it, and maybe give it a shot after that.  Myself?  I can't recommend this movie unfortunately.  It's the first true dud for me in this marathon, but at least it's a dud trying something different.

1.5/4 stars