are you a fan of steven soderbergh? yes? well then have you ever seen or let alone heard of schizopolis? neither had i but he made it and criterion released it and you should get it and watch it. i did. a little context for the film first: schizopois was a film made by soderbergh with no budget or crew or hollywood influence or anything resembling hollywood production values. he made this film as a response to his fatigue in life which included a failed marriage and the utter destain he had working within the hollywood system. with that in mind when you watch this film you can't fault any of it's lack of production values or whatnots to much as that was the point of the film and for a film that is made this way it is remarkably well made which is not surprising since it is the very talented soderbergh making it. now this film is very hard to grasp and i don't think i got everything in what it is about. i think it is a satire on modern day (well 90's now) life and on corporate structure and on filmmaking in general. weird things happen, strange scenes occur,things never get explained; it's all really hard to grasp at once. i feel as though one point tying to be made is that in films, sometimes dialogue is meaningless and it's all about the actions of the actors. to prove this point certain characters and scenes have the actors speaking nonsense words but you still no exactly what they mean by they way they say these words and their actions on the screen. i would say a little about the plot but i'm having trouble just trying to piece together a sentence that can aptly explain even a fraction of this movie. so lets talk about how funny it is instead. right from the opening this film is a laugh riot. i laughed out loud several times and that was only in the opening monologue. it never lets up and it pretty much makes you laugh the whole way through. i think the humour (at least most of it) is built upon the fact that the audience has a certain knowledge of cinema and corporate lifestyles which is what makes it so funny. i think if the audience doesn't have that knowledge they might just smirk a bit here and there rather than laugh out loud like i did. maybe not though? this is a very hard movie to write about, to review, to discuss, to do anything but recommend. and by recommend i mean i do recommend it but not everyone will like it and not everyone will get it. if anything in the above paragraphs resonate with you as a filmmaker then yeah, you sure should watch this. if not, then maybe you should stay away, i don't think soderbergh would mind. fuelled by soderbergh's usual topnotch editing, deliciously subversive humour and immense originality this strange, odd and ultimately weird film is not only highly entertaining but is strangely comforting and acts as a lesson in which you learn that budgets and effects and hollywood tinkering are not what makes a movie good. umm... i think i said all i can. not sure i was very clear but neither was the movie so i guess they work well together... production design: 8 out of 10 cinematography: 8 out of 10 re-playability: 8 out of 10 originality: 10 out of 10 costumes: 8 out of 10 directing: 9 out of 10 editing: 9 out of 10 acting: 8 out of 10 music: 8 out of 10 script: 8 out of 10 84/100