Bubble (2006)

Too much of everything

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Roger Ebert called this film a "masterpiece". I value his opinion, but I have to disagree in this case.I would call Bubble a game experiment. Director Soderbergh uses non-actors, and films them in their own environs. He gives us a story that involves little action, comedy or drama. Then he sits back and waits to see if we might be entertained or provoked by the work.Bubble is kind of like a whodunit, but it is not one. It is kind of like a love triangle, but it is not one. Soderbergh's main characters lead lives of muffled surrender in an economically depressed small-town area (played by Belpre, OH and Parkersburg, WV--areas I know well). Another character moves into the area, representing an outside viewpoint and a modicum of gumption. You can practically hear the town and its people oxidizing. The new girl, Rose, is someone who hopes to escape the area. But none of the characters are people you would want to know. So how much can we care about what happens to them? The story must be about the situation and its economic underpinnings, but the story diverts us from that viewpoint, also.You might wonder why it's called "Bubble". The main characters work in a doll factory. As the final credits roll, we see some defective doll heads, with bubbles in the rubber. Without giving any of the plot away, this might suggest that the story is about defects within individuals' psyches.In the end, I think Soderbergh's noble experiment fell flat. There is not enough here to interest the average viewer.

To call Bubble odd would be an understatement. To call Bubble a bad film would be a false statement. To call Bubble an offbeat yet enthralling experience would be a perfectly accurate statement. Bubble is set in a poor run-down town in Ohio. The town's economy thrives only off of a doll factory where we meet three people who work there. Martha and Kyle have been friends for a long time, both barely making ends meat, yet still getting along. Their relationship is shaken when Rose, a young pretty woman, gets a job at the factory. Questions get seriously raised when Rose is murdered in her apartment. An investigation then begins to find Rose's killer and strange and disturbing things are revealed about the people within this secluded ramshackle town.Bubble is directed by the always interesting Steven Soderbergh. By 2005, when this film was released, Soderbergh had already been an Oscar winner for five years after being nominated twice in the same year for Traffic and Erin Brokovich. The reason I bring this up is because it makes Bubble all the more peculiar. Bubble is the ultimate indie film. The entire cast was composed of unprofessional actors, a lot of the dialouge was improvised, and many of the sets were the actual homes of the actors in the film. I would love to know why Soderbergh decided to go backwards in filmmaking like he did, but the result of this choice was a fascinating film.It is the feel of calm mundaneness that makes Bubble so different and yet so head scratchingly good. The dialouge is all very natural speech and the conversations in the first half of the film are all just about normal things and it feels more like real people than movies that try so hard to pull this effect off. It is almost frightening how real some of the conversations and interactions are in this film. There are those simple moments where you realize the speech sounds just like you if you were in that scenario. At times I found myself questioning whether this was fiction or if Soderbergh had set up a tri-pod in these peoples houses and let them go about their business. I can't imagine how boring this film sounds when I describe it like this, but I swear it is not a boring film. The first half of the film has a sort of offbeat tension that carries throughout all of the little conversations and what is so exciting is how you can feel, deep down, that something is going to go wrong soon, and your curiosity takes over and you just can't wait to see where this film will go.When it does start to pick up, it doesn't let up. It keeps with the same type of monotone quietness, but suspense and tension unfolds beautifully after Rose is murdered. I don't know that the second half of this film would have been nearly as enthralling if not for the mundane first half that introduced us into a world that feels so real that the events that fuel the meat of this story are all the more gripping. Bubble boasts an incredible uniqueness in its storytelling and it is in a style that has been lost to the flash and grandeur of Hollywood. We have seen this basic type of story before, there is no denying that. But the incredible thing about it is that you believe this story more than any over suspenseful and over dramatic form of this plot. You buy into these characters in such a bizarre way. You aren't entirely sure why you are so gripped by this film, but you can't help but deny just how much you care about what is going on.Bubble is such a strange and perplexing film. It can only really be taken at face value, but its face value has a lot to offer. It tells an enthralling story in an incredibly unique and believable way. The way the pieces of this film come together in their quiet, dull, yet not anticlimactic, way is indescribable. This film could not have been made differently or it would have just been another unbelievable and boring plot line, but with Soderbergh's talent for capturing a story in such a unique light, he makes Bubble an incredible film.

This chilling film about life at the margins is pitch-perfect. Many of the scenes are reminiscent of Alec Soth's brilliant, compelling photographs of America today, where people wander through their lives, listless and unfocused, seemingly stranded, struggling to stay afloat. Yet rather than feeling repulsed, we relate to their vulnerability and loneliness: They are us. In many ways this is a photographer's movie. It also reminded me of Zoe Strauss' "America", and of Sarah Stolfa's "The Regulars". Yet Coleman Hough's words take these images to another level. Her story is a dark reminder of what poverty and hopelessness do to us; the damage done, both spiritually and materially, by a life with no future, no dreams, a life smothered in worries. "Bubble" reminds me of a movie made during the Great Depression, William Wellman's "Wild Boys of the Road". Capitalism benefits a few, very well, and it destroys most of us, very effectively and efficiently.

A really good movie makes you think. However, while BUBBLE certainly made me think, I'm not sure if it's good or not. The story is simple, direct, and void of shock or surprise. The strength of the film lies in the believability of the actors, the atmosphere (creepy doll factory...'nuff said), and the simplicity of the cinematography. I suppose the fact that I still have it on my mind several days after watching it should be a vote in it's favor, but what bothers me is that it didn't make me question anything nor did it present a challenge to me as a viewer. Instead, the indecision over the movie was simply...did I like it?I just don't know. Hence my middle-of-the-road vote.