Schizopolis

1996 dada practical joke

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Fletcher Munson's a bored guy. He's bored with his marriage, and he's bored with his job as a speechwriter for a quasi-religious organization called Eventualism. That corporation might have a mole, a spy, or both a mole and a spy. Meanwhile, Munson's relationship with his wife deteriorates to the point where she begins to take steps to leave him for a dentist who looks exactly like him.

You've got to love a movie that doesn't need any excuse whatsoever to have a crazed exterminator named Elmo Oxygen who runs around town seducing housewives until he's offered a more exciting movie role and leaves the movie. Or maybe you won't love it. I don't think Steven Soderbergh really gives a shit. I've seen this one thrice now, and although nothing new is really garnered from subsequent viewings, it does help to know that this is the type of movie that you really shouldn't try to "get" and instead just let the thing crawl on top of you and wiggle around in a semi-violent and arguably inappropriate way. It is entertaining, and you will laugh. Or maybe you won't, but Soderbergh won't give a shit about that either. I do really love what this movie has to say about communication and relationships; it toys with language in an interesting way. For a movie allegedly shot without a script and largely improvised, the three distinct parts (showing the speechwriter, dentist, and wife's point of views) come together so well, overlapping in ways that are surprisingly meaningful. This is about as close as you can get to a Pee Wee's Big Adventure for adults, and the world would benefit from having more movies made similarly to this. Or maybe not. Soderbergh wouldn't care.