Bubble

Saw the oddest film last night; Steven Soderburgh’s Bubble (2005). Basically the story of three workers in a doll factory in a poor and depressed region. A murder takes place and it gets solved. Its a difficult film in that the acting and plot development is so realistic that it can’t help but be dull as porridge. But the backgrounds are beautiful in an odd way; they are unenhanced, utterly natural and therefore rather powerful and evocative. What kept me glued to the screen was the feeling of watching an anti-movie. You get a sense of how artificial and overly dramatic even “realistic” movies are. This felt so fresh, in fact, something like a first film though of course, Soderburgh has quite the career already behind him. The writer, Coleman Hough, collaborated with him on Soderburgh’s Full Frontal as well (haven’t seen that but it looks interesting) and a movie called Schizopolis.