Soderbergh's best, most instinctive filmmaking in years.
Bubble (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:71
Rotten:29
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: This rigorously stripped down, seemingly mundane little film still manages to be engrossing and creepy.
Theatrical Release:Jan 27, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $70,664
Synopsis: With BUBBLE, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh proves that one doesn't need a huge Hollywood budget and larger-than-life actors to craft an affecting motion picture. Following his... With BUBBLE, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh proves that one doesn't need a huge Hollywood budget and larger-than-life actors to craft an affecting motion picture. Following his star-studded spectacle OCEAN'S TWELVE, Soderbergh returns to the small-scale roots of his breakout hit SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE and his no-budget romp, SCHIZOPOLIS. The result is a genre-bending exercise that is a truly original cinematic experience. Set in and around a doll factory on the Ohio/West Virginia border, the film tells the story of Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) and Kyle (Dustin James Ashley), coworkers who have formed an unlikely friendship. But when the pretty Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins) arrives, hidden layers of emotion begin to surface, culminating in an unspeakable tragedy. Like a gifted documentarian, Soderbergh uses his nonprofessional cast to present a slice of everyday American life that is unflinchingly, achingly honest. Combined with Coleman Hough's more traditionally crafted plot, BUBBLE becomes something wholly inventive. Shot on digital video by Soderbergh, and featuring a score from former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard, BUBBLE resonates long after the credits have rolled. At only 72 minutes, the film nonetheless casts a strangely haunting spell. This is the first of several low-budget digital video projects that Soderbergh plans to shoot all across America. [More]
Starring: Debbie Doebereiner, Misty Dawn Wilkins, Omar Cowan, Laurie Lee
Starring: Debbie Doebereiner, Misty Dawn Wilkins, Omar Cowan, Laurie Lee, Kyle Smith, Dustin James Ashley
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Screenwriter: Coleman Hough
Producer: Gregory Jacobs
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
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Reviews for Bubble
Manages to be an intriguing, grimly entertaining, strangely haunting little slice of heartland noir.
Thrifty but also skimpy at 73 minutes, Soderbergh's movie ambitiously focuses on movie-rare Americans ... but never wonders what makes them tick.
What's unclear at the end, unfortunately, is why Soderbergh really bothered with this one.
Bubble is likely to be remembered more for its method of manufacture and release than for any inherent qualities of its own.
An embarrassment to all concerned, the film was written, directed and produced by Soderbergh for reasons that are not readily apparent.
There's an honesty in what Soderbergh's camera has captured that, while not real in the strictest sense of the term, is nevertheless true-to-life.
Tests the idea that the mundane becomes ominous if studied in enough detail.
Versatile director Steven Soderbergh leaves the bright lights of Las Vegas far behind for this quiet, stark tale of friendship and murder in a small Midwestern town.
The first-time performances create a naturalistic style that's pure in its shallowness.
A low-key drama set in a working-class Midwest town that zeroes in on the dangers inherent in jealousy - a strange brew of hostility and attachment.
Soderbergh has made an experiment worth seeing, but how much do you want to bet his actors have richer lives than the characters they're playing, even if those lives look just as ordinary?
Sincere performances--under the director's sympathetic eye--allow humanity to overshadow the machinery of plot.
Feels harsh but not false, thanks largely to its dedication to the creation of an authentic pitiable and insular world.
Despite its refreshingly straightforward style and compelling performers, the movie feels encased in an invisible, filmy membrane of its own. Soderbergh keeps his characters on one side of the wall and his audience on the other.
[Steven Soderbergh] is back to basics and this is a refreshing and daring thing to do.
a thoroughly engrossing character study of the blue collar Heartland that plays as if Junebug's Phil Morrison had directed a non-musical likeness of Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark.
Soderbergh's sure-handed work here is a breath of fresh air, shattering cliches to tell a deceptively simple story from Middle America
Latest News for Bubble
July 20, 2007:
Catalina Sandina Morena Joins Soderbergh's Che Films
Did you know that Steven Soderbergh was making a movie about Che Guevara? Starring Benicio Del Toro in the title role? Yeah, me too. But somehow I missed the news that he was... More...
November 28, 2006:
RTIndie: "Little Miss Sunshine," "Half Nelson" Lead Indie Spirit Award Noms
It's time again to celebrate the best that indie-land has to offer. The Spirit Award nominees are out, with "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Half Nelson" leading... More...
July 26, 2006:
Magnolia Digs Into the Crayon Box
You probably know Magnolia Pictures as the distributor of foreign/arthouse fare like "District B13," "Bubble," and "Capturing the Friedmans" -- but... More...
January 26, 2006:
Critical Consensus: Annapolis and Momma Disappoint, While Nanny Casts an Innocuous Spell
Annapolis, the renowned naval military school, is an institution steeped in history; unfortunately, the movie can lay claim to that as well. Starring James Franco as a new... More...
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