staggeringly clueless
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
[Bubble takes] a concept that could have been the art house version of a sideshow and turns it into something exciting and real.
Sincere performances--under the director's sympathetic eye--allow humanity to overshadow the machinery of plot.
Soderbergh and screenwriter Coleman Hough aren't interested in creating a coy whodunit so much as evoking the deeper, less romantic mysteries of people -- and it's riveting.
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.
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.
Manages to be an intriguing, grimly entertaining, strangely haunting little slice of heartland noir.
A picture that belies its ostensibly prosaic feel to give a touch of offbeat poetry to these deceptively humdrum lives.
Soderbergh set out to make a movie about shallow people, but wound up delivering a shallow movie.
An odd little movie and a good one, worthy for what it is and potentially groundbreaking for how it's being made available.
The characters are so closely observed and played with such exacting accuracy and conviction that Bubble becomes quietly, inexorably, hypnotic.
Only 73 minutes long, Bubble is a short, sharp shock, a movie in which every scene means something.
Ultimately, it's Bubble's flatness that lingers and leaves your sympathies frozen.
Though modestly engaging, it is far more notable for the circumstances surrounding the film than for its rather bland story.
While Bubble may be read as an admirable attempt to wrestle reality television away from the hacks, the story is so flat and transparent in the telling, so empty of psychological mystery and depth, it skates dangerously close to condescension.
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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