Schizopolis

Released Oct 13, 1996

1h 39m

Comedy

List

65%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A man (Steven Soderbergh) works for the unpleasant guru of a Scientology-like movement.

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Gill S

Zany, layered, and surreal. Somewhat outdated in appearance, but still a film I hold dear.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

11/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

At the beginning of Schizopolis, Steven Soderbergh introduces the movie saying if you don't understand the movie, it's your fault not his. The movie proceeds with a kind of a plot (loosely defined) with plenty of non-sequiturs sprinkled throughout. One of my favorite scenes in all cinema is Soderbergh, the actor, standing alone in front of a men's room mirror and contorting his rubbery face in all manner of ways. It has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and it's hilarious. There's more where that comes from and somehow most of it works. It feels like the movie Soderbergh wanted to make for his own amusement, and the audience is just incidental. Johnny C sez check it out if you're not too literal-minded.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Schizopolis is piled with layers of amusement for the id, ego, and superego. People earn their liberal arts degrees in order to be able to watch and understand this film. Some of it is outright funny (like a man with no pants running around) or weird funny (e.g. an exterminator milkman that talks like the $10,000 Pyramid on Mars), but much of it you have got to get it to get it (not all of it, but some amount); this is, after all, satire and social commentary. So if postmodernism and the contemporary art section of your local museum is not your bag, then you are still probably in the target audience for Schizopolis, but it will likely be a miss. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the 90s era, Office Space and Short Cuts, then Schizopolis may just be your kind of movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's fun. Not necessarily because of it's deeper underlying meanings or anything, but that because at the end of the day it seems like a film someone made just to make. It's entertaining to watch Steven Soderbergh just let loose, even if the end result is a little inconsistent and occasionally tedious.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I like this much better than most other Soderbergh movies. It's hard to watch, but at least it's unique. It somehow manages to be both bland and utterly outlandish.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Made me laugh, a lot. The satire is a little obvious (it's, like, we're speaking different languages, think about it, maaaaaaan), but the jokes are first-rate, and Soderbergh the actor has great comic timing and delivery.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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Steven Soderbergh

Director

Steven Soderbergh

Fletcher Munson

Betsy Brantley

Mrs. Munson

David Jensen

Elmo Oxygen

John Hardy

Producer

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Janet Maslin

New York Times

Exasperating as it is, Schizopolis has a deliberateness almost interesting enough to offset its sophomoric streak.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 20, 2003

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

Schizopolis represents a minor act of self-indulgence on the part of the sometimes eccentric Steven Soderbergh but results in major tedium for the viewer.

Rated: 2/5

Feb 14, 2001

Full Review

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

It's fresh, unexpected and goofy. It's not a smart career move, just a film that its director wanted to make for some crazy reason, and he made it.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Jason Shawhan

Nashville Scene

Despite Schizopolis' comedic diversions and periodic self-deconstructions, what sticks out the most about this film is how similar it is to David Lynch's Lost Highway, which was made at the same time.

Sep 8, 2021

Full Review

Daniel Barnes

Dare Daniel

Intensely aware of and yet utterly freed from cinematic conventions of storytelling and style, Schizopolis is like the product of Luis Bunuel and Richard Lester collaborating on a Tex Avery cartoon adapted from a Franz Kafka novel.

Rated: 5/5

Mar 25, 2020

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Though funny and observant at times, it still comes across as a strained juvenile guerilla movie whose bizarre antics never caught fire.

Rated: C+

Jul 4, 2011

Full Review

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Synopsis

A man (Steven Soderbergh) works for the unpleasant guru of a Scientology-like movement.

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 13, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 12, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $6.6K
Runtime: 1h 39m

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