Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is far and away the most unique and original movie I have ever seen. There is no close second place. Steven Soderbergh wrote, starred in, and directed this little-known masterpiece, and I am now a loyal fan. The caution on the box perhaps best summarizes the film: "Warning: All attempts at synopsizing the film have ended in failure and hospitalization." This is truth in advertising if I have ever seen it. Think of "Schizopolis" as a narcissistic, paranoid blend of equal parts "Head," "1984," "Monty Python's Flying Circus," and "Unarius."
The film is absolutely impossible to categorize. It occurs in three principal acts, but they are all circular and the plots entangle themselves in the end in an almost Seinfeldesque manner. Steven Soderbergh stars as both Fletcher Munson and Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. Munson is a curiously self-absorbed speechwriter for New Age guru (and founder of "Eventualism") T. Azimuth Schwitters, while Korchek, a dentist with a Muzak fixation dominates act two by having an affair with Munson's disenchanted wife from act one. Throughout all this, local exterminator (and celebrity) Elmo Oxygen uses very unconventional pillow talk to seduce housewives while plotting against Schwitters. Eddie Jemison, noteworthy as "Nameless Numberhead Man," is the perfect comic foil for Munson.
Although you will need to watch this movie several times to even scratch the surface of the nuances it contains, several themes are apparent, most notably the satirical approach to contemporary society which is infused throughout the film in many ways, most notably in the dialogue. When Munson greets his wife after work he says "Generic greeting," to which she replies "Generic greeting returned." Later in the film several other dialogue issues occur with Soderbergh's characters speaking in Japanese, French, and Italian seemingly at random and to great comic effect.
From the outset, this film is highly segmented (much like an episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus") and confrontational. There is even an explicit warning in the beginning which says "If you don't understand this film, it's your fault and not ours." This type of in-your-face humor is very uncommon and I simply loved it. The film is extremely difficult to follow if you are approaching it like a conventional movie with a well developed plot and characters, but if you can deal with the exceptional stream-of-consciousness, non sequitur humor that Soderbergh uses here, "Schizopolis" will become one of your favorites, too.
I highly recommend this film.
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Fletcher Munson has a doppelgänger in dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. In his only starring performance to date, acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven) inhabits both roles: Munson, onanistic corporate drone and speechwriter for New Age guru T. Azimuth Schwitters, and the swinging Korchek, Muzak enthusiast and lover to Munson's disenchanted wife. Meanwhile, mad exterminator and part-time celebrity prima donna Elmo Oxygen seduces local housewives in secret code and plots against Schwitters. Placing the onus squarely on the viewer ("If you don't understand this film, it's your fault and not ours"), writer/director/editor/cameraman Soderbergh presents a deranged comedy of confused identity, doublespeak, and white-knuckled corporate intrigue, confirming his status as one of America's most daring and unpredictable filmmakers.
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