What Is It? (2005)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Crispin Glover

Writer:

Crispin Glover (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Being the adventures of a young man whose principle interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home. As tormented by an hubristic, racist inner psyche.

Plot:

What Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes. |

Plot Keywords:

Sadism | Low Budget Film | Wheelchair | Avant Garde | Underground Film

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Michael Blevis	...	The young man
Rikky Wittman	...	The minstrel's nemesis
John Insinna	...	The young man's outer sanctum friend and inner santum choking victim
Kelly Swiderski	...	Inner sanctum concubine and outer sanctum snail collector
Lisa Fusco	...	The young man's fantasy girl
Crispin Glover	...	Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man's inner psyche
Fairuza Balk	...	Snail (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robin Adams	...	Inner sanctum concubine and outer sanctum girl who recognizes burning
Cheryl Brown	...	Outer Sanctum Mocking tormentor and walkie-talkie grabbing woman that cries later
Tom Carroll	...	Grave digger and mocking tormentor
Lynn Conley	...	The minstrel's concubine, mocking tormentor and ultimate outer sanctum victor
Zoryna Dreams	...	Monkey woman
Ivonna Earnest	...	Baby Elephant
Scott Farley	...	Floating cloud minstrel double
Mary P. Hayes	...	The young man's mother
Kiva	...	Monkey woman
Muffy	...	Monkey woman
Karin Odell	...	Monkey woman
Adam Parfrey	...	The minstrel
Carlos Richardson	...	The young man's alter ego
Steven C. Stewart	...	Dueling Demi-God Auteur and the young man's uber ego
Eric Yates	...	Inner sanctum Puppet show audience member and outer sanctum / inner sanctum victim

Directed by
Crispin Glover

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Crispin Glover		writer (as Crispin Hellion Glover)

Produced by
Matt Devlen	....	producer
Crispin Glover	....	producer (as Crispin Hellion Glover)
Ryan Page	....	co-producer
Michael Pallagi	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Wyatt Troll		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Crispin Glover

Casting by
Kim Davis

Art Direction by
Floyd Albee

Set Decoration by
Cindy Epping
Mike Hardy

Art Department
David Brothers	....	sets

Sound Department
Molly Fitzjarrald	....	assistant sound editor
Erika Gieschen	....	boom operator
Jonah Goldstein	....	sound editor
Tim Hays	....	sound mixer
Erin Michael Rettig	....	sound re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Crispin Glover	....	director of photography: additional photography
Scott Henriksen	....	director of photography: additional photography
Scott Peterson	....	director of photography: additional photography
Billy Bob Williams	....	director of photography: additional photography

Editorial Department
Craig Eustis	....	assistant editor
Aidan Stanford	....	film color timer

Other crew
David Brothers	....	special story advisor
Damon Fecht	....	consultant: Reel Revival LLC
David Hinnebusch	....	production assistant
Shawn Paper	....	special technical advisor
Shawn Paper	....	story editing advisor
Christopher Vogler	....	special story advisor

Thanks
Chris McDaniel	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Volcanic Eruptions

Distributors

• Volcanic Eruptions (2005) (USA) (theatrical)

Runtime:

82 min | USA:72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Volcanic Eruptions

Trivia:

Crispin Glover's directorial debut.

Quotes:

Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man's inner psyche: Time for the puppet show!

Movie Connections:

References Back to the Future (1985)

Soundtrack:

Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)

The title sums it up: What is this movie?

What Is It? is a mish-mash of bizarre recurring motifs (snails, Shirley Temple, swastikas, and overtly racist music, among others) unfettered by any sort of narrative or plot or character development. The whole thing struck me as self-consciously "freak show," and I don't mean only the unusual casting decisions. It has the feel of a bad acid trip, far beyond any level of drug use one might attribute to Hunter S. Thompson or William S. Burroughs. The only movie to which I can compare it is Eraserhead (my second-least-favorite film of all time), which was by intent much more depressing, but I still found What Is It? a total waste of my time. It's one thing to give me a peek into the inner workings of someone else's mind -- even someone else's chemically altered consciousness -- but quite another to just throw weird visuals at me purely for the sake of weirdness.