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Review #22 of 365
Film: Bubble [R] 73 minutes
WIP: $10.50
When 1st Seen: 1 February 2006
Where Viewed: Landmark Metro Cinemas , Seattle, WA
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Film’s Official Web Site: Bubble
Review Dedicated to Jordy M. of Friendswood, TX
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DVD |
Described as a highly experimental project, Steven Soderbergh, whose last directing project utilized a more conventional approach, superstars, and a lot more money (a little film called Ocean’s 12), has ventured where nearly no one has gone before in creating this tiny masterpiece known as Bubble. According to press releases, Soderbergh shot the film in HD Digital film on a shoestring budget using completely unknown actors who actually live in the town where the film is set, and then broke all rules by releasing the film simultaneously via HD-Net Films, in theater(s)—only one in Seattle—and on DVD, which you could actually purchase from a vending machine in the lobby of the theater for, I think, $22.99. Given this experimental stuff going on, this review will be split into two parts: Part I—The Movie and Part II—The Experimental concepts.
Part I—The Movie:
As stated, this is a very short film by today’s standards. There is something refreshing about a short running time for a film. It reminds of the days when I got my very first lap top computer the Sinclair ZX-81. Yes, believe it or not, I still have it. This little PC came out just before the Radio Shack TRS computers that eventually got supplanted by the Apple and the DOS based PCs we see today—sorry for this computer history lesson—suffice it to say it was 1981 or 82. The Sinclair ZX-81 came with exactly 1K (I am not making that up) 1K of RAM. To put that in perspective, my current Apple PowerBook G4 which I use to do all of my work on has 1.4 GB of RAM or 1,073,741 K. In other words, the computer I am using now has nearly unlimited memory vs. that trusty ZX-81. Well, you can imagine that the version of Pong® that I wrote for my ZX-81 had to be an ultra-efficient program that wasted no code. Every character had to be narrowed down. With the cheap cost of memory chips today, programmers have gotten less efficient, and programs are unwieldy. Now there, finally, you might be seeing where I am going. If you give someone $150 million and 3 hours, there is going to be a lot there that might not really be necessary to get the job done. Meanwhile, Bubble, was shot for $1.6 million and set to last only 73 minutes. Therefore, there is little time for monkey business. The story starts right away by introducing the two main characters Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) and Kyle (Dustin James Ashley) on their way to work at a baby doll factory where Martha glues on hair and eyelashes and Kyle pours the resin to make the doll parts. After a few minutes, we meet the third leg of what will become a very off-beat crush triangle (I wouldn’t say love triangle because the depth of the relationships any of these characters has with one another is simply too shallow), and her name is Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins), whom by another other name would smell as sweet or would she? From there, things develop quickly toward the climax of the film that is both sudden and unexpected. Of course, you sort of know that something has to happen at some point in the film to make it worth having been made. There must be something more than watching the three eat french fries in the factory lunch lounge to warrant making a movie about these characters. I won’t spoil it, let’s just say that these characters would fit right in on Wysteria Lane. There will be much criticism for this film that you could generate upon seeing it, so prior to seeing it I have decided to give you some questions to consider and think about during the film keeping in mind the running time limit. Why did Soderbergh use so much of the time capturing scenery, landscape, and the shots of the baby dolls? Do you notice anything about the eyes of each of the three main characters--remember these people were selected from open casting calls (you can view their actual audition interviews on-line at the film’s web site—which I encourage you to do just after you see the film as they are incredible pieces of Americana in and of themselves)? What are the clues leading up the climax? What is each main character hiding? And what line of dialogue made me burst out laughing harder than any single line I’ve heard in a movie since Napoleon Dynamite? I still crack up thinking about it right now—I’ll give you a clue, the line itself is probably not that funny, but the context and the way it’s said just make it hilarious. Is this a great film? No. However, it is a great experimental film. I cannot even imagine how cool it would have been to be involved in this project. The very idea of taking complete unknowns and just making a movie. Are they the greatest actors? Of course not. But, you know what? For me, that’s what made this movie work. They are completely believable because, after all, they are just real people. Look for Dustin Ashley to be the next Jon Heder. There is room in this world for plenty of quirky actors. In any case, Bubble is unlike so many experimental films. The ending makes since. Things are all tied up. And probably no one will stand up at the end, like happened when I finally caved and paid to see “The Blair Witch Project” at this theater in Chicago. When the film ran out, a guy stood and screamed, “I paid $9 %^&^%$%^ bucks for this! I want my life and my money back.”
Part II—The Experimental Stuff:
(a) Using Unknown Actors from the small town where the film is set—Risky but authentic. I have often thought this would be a cool rule to apply to movies all the time and, you know what, to sports teams too—imagine, to play for the Minnesota Twins, you have to actually be from Minneapolis or St. Paul. You get people who really know the culture of the town, and if you think the culture of this town is the same as every small town…try again. I hope other directors and producers will take a chance like this. It was fun, and I’d love to see the auditions from the people that didn’t make it. That could make for a great reality show on Fox Network—failed movie auditions.
(b) Releasing on all media at once—risky because you could end up alienating the theaters that normally screen the films. I mean, if you put the theaters out of business, they probably won’t be too happy. For me, that could never happened because I love going to the movies and seeing the movie on the big screen, with a huge audience, on opening day, and the bigger the better. Besides, I don’t usually watch movies more than twice, so I would never even break even buying the DVD for $22 bucks. Do I care if movies are released simultaneously on DVD? Not really insofar as there are still movie theaters to go to. I doubt this will catch on in the long run, however, because any time they can get money out of you twice, the movie studios are going to prefer that. I, for one, will not purchase the DVD in the lobby. I don’t think this move will hurt anything but the bottom line for the film.
Still, I admire a guy that experiments, and my hat is off to Mr. Soderbergh for his many years of experimentation in the film industry.
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Bubble [DVD](2006) DVD
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