Schizopolis (1997)

Schizopolis is piled with layers of amusement for the id, ego, and superego. People earn their liberal arts degrees in order to be able to watch and understand this film. Some of it is outright funny (like a man with no pants running around) or weird funny (e.g. an exterminator milkman that talks like the $10,000 Pyramid on Mars), but much of it you have got to get it to get it (not all of it, but some amount); this is, after all, satire and social commentary. So if postmodernism and the contemporary art section of your local museum is not your bag, then you are still probably in the target audience for Schizopolis, but it will likely be a miss. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the 90s era, Office Space and Short Cuts, then Schizopolis may just be your kind of movie.

Movies like Lost Highway, American Beauty and other high-profile, big-budget productions have been praised for their original takes, but in fact it was "Schizopolis" that explored those possibilities first. I find it refreshing and inexplicably underrated. The film is a very funny and bizarre look into the creative mind of its author, Steven Soderbergh. Press conferences on horse urination, marital dissolution, dysfunctional families, work, love, death, identity, the hilarious (and tragic) absurdity of life– everything is scrutinized here under a mask of randomness which makes everything unpredictable and crazy funny. "Schizopolis" gleefully delves into the absurd and blends it with satire in a most original social commentary, mocking all conventions and confinements. This type of humor is my kind. For fans of Kafka, Eugene Ionesco and Urmuz, Samuel Beckett, Kurt Vonnegut or David Lynch, this will be a blast. On a third viewing, all this "mess" makes perfect sense, and it's beautiful. "Sneeze!"

I had passed over this title at the rental place several times and the week I decided to get through the entire Bergman Scenes from a Marriage TV version, I figured I'd need something lighter to turn off my brain for a while (I don't actually watch television). The box looked like perhaps it might be good, sadly, it was not, and after 45 minutes or so, I found my mind wandering.Just because a film juxtaposes bizarre images and ironic situations with ironic reactions does not mean that the film is saying anything concrete or penetrating any depths of human understanding.For example, one listens to the music which is a sort of modern counterpoint as it begins, which, as a musician, caught my attention. Sadly, the counterpoint that could have been interesting relied on that over used cliché, a female making noises of "enthusiasm" which can be found in lots of commercial piped music you find on your commercial radio stations today. It is not edgy. Nor is this movie.They try to do a similar thing with the film itself, make a counterpoint of irony and situations, however, it fails. One reason is that they are trying to make the film seem like a vignette film visually and with the pacing, yet it is not. They do not compensate this lack of cohesion, which is fine, with anything substantial to make the format work.I'm going to go read a book instead.

The first time I saw this movie, I wasn't really sure what to think. It is very strange and bizarre and quirky. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you're a Steven Soderbergh fan, I would check it out. Don't let the hard to follow story deter you from finishing this crazy film. And if you rent it, watch it at least twice before returning it, because you will understand it much more the second time through. Schizopolis is full of schizophrenia, so that's what you should expect. I think it's good in it's own way... rather artsy, in a poignant and ambiguous way.