Schizopolis (1996)

Fletcher Munson, the lethargic employee of a pseudo-religious self help company, and his doppelganger, the friendly but dull dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh (uncredited)

Stars:

Steven Soderbergh, Miles Hardy, Scott Allen

Cast

Credited cast:
Miles Hardy	...	Baseball player

Storyline

Fletcher Munson is a lethargic, passive worker for a Scientology-like self-help corporation called Eventualism. After the death of a colleague, he is promoted to the job of writing speeches for T. Azimuth Schwitters, the founder and head of the group. He uses this as an excuse to be emotionally and romantically distant from his wife, who, he discovers, is having an affair with his doppelganger, a dentist named Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. As Munson fumbles with the speech and Korchek becomes obsessed with a new patient, a psychotic exterminator named Elmo Oxygen goes around the town seducing lonely wives and taking photographs of his genitals.

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Plot Keywords:

doppelganger | black comedy | absurdism | satire | experimental film | 

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Taglines:

Come early! Come often!

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Mystery

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese Italian French

Release Date:

9 April 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$250,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$10,580, 9 April 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

.406 Production, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby (Mono)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was released without beginning or end credits, except for a single frame of copyright information at the end of the film.

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Goofs

The word "circumcised" is misspelled on Elmo's truck.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Man: And action.
Filmmaker: Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, this may seem an unusual procedure speaking to you before the picture begins but we have an unusual subject.
Filmmaker: [instructs the cameraman] Turn.
[camera zooms closer]
Filmmaker: When I say that this is the most important motion picture you will ever attend, my motivation is not financial gain but a firm belief that the delicate fabric that holds all of us together will be ripped apart unless every man, woman and child in this country sees this film ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits for "Schizopolis," which do not include any cast or crew names, appear to occupy one single frame of film.

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Connections

Spoofs The Ten Commandments (1956)

User Reviews

"Caution: This film makes wide turns. Following too close may result in injury."

I will echo a comment that someone made about -The Big Lebowski- (my #1 favorite comedy followed by this delightful mess). "Warning: this film transmits on a strictly limited wavelength." If you don't catch this curveball, you're likely to be bored. I won't say that if you don't like it on first viewing, then you're never going to like it. In my case, certain movies get more enjoyable on repeat viewings even after receiving a ho-hum response the first time around. This is one of those movies. With a narrative more fractured than your average David Lynch film, there are connections between one scene and another that jump out and take notice only on repeat viewings, sort of like "portals" from one part of the movie to another. Music that plays, pictures shown on the wall, one-sided phone conversations, that sort of thing. Aside from the already-limited-wavelength humor, these amplify the laugh factor. This is a movie destined for some kind of limited cult-following someday, but keeping to a murmur level when you're standing next to an air conditioner. The Criterion DVD has some good features and outtakes, like the "Maximum Busy Muscle" segment extolling the virtues of all products vinyl.

Update Nov. '06. Re-watching this almost on a whim, and it all comes together (such as it is) even more. This is truly hilarious, a comedy masterpiece reveling in all its many absurdities, which come one after the other at a highly accelerated rate. I'm upping my vote from 9 to 10.

"You will learn something from me here today." --Elmo Oxygen (Noooo!!! Oooogghghgh!!)