Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One

Now Playing

1h 9m

Drama

List

88%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

76%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

It's 1968, and director William Greaves begins filming a movie scene in Central Park: an argument between a couple. At the same time, a documentary crew films the crew filming the movie. Meanwhile, a third crew films the filming of the two films. As Greaves plays the role of clueless artist, and on-set conditions deteriorate, his collaborators mutiny. The result is a head-spinning landmark of experimental film that playfully smears the line between fiction and reality, art and artifice.

Read More

Read Less

Now in Theaters

Now Playing

Buy Tickets

In Theaters

Max

Watch Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One with a subscription on Max.

A.O. Scott

New York Times

Delighted with the artifices of filmmaking, Mr. Greaves is also after the truth - about human interactions, about cinematic image-making, and also, slyly and unmistakably, about race.

Jun 6, 2020

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

One of the greatest movies about moviemaking.

Mar 6, 2017

Full Review

Noel Murray

AV Club

Ironically, what keeps Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One from being insufferable is that its artifice is so spectacular.

Rated: A-

Jan 6, 2007

Full Review

Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

This is one of the most radical pieces of filmmaking in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Mar 2, 2023

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Boulder Weekly

As brief as it is dense-a movie you'll chew on for years to come.

Rated: 4.5/5

Dec 17, 2020

Full Review

Frances Maurer

Film Inquiry

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm stands in homage to the unanticipated and the experimental, unraveling the form of cinema and documentary with its unique and delightful construction.

Dec 3, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Simon T

Chaotic documentary about the filming of a chaotic low budget experimental semi-improvised dialogue in Central Park. Imagine Frederick Wiseman had shot This is Spinal Tap: this is completely different. Many of the crew seem to be intelligently aware of the shortcomings of the project, but their director's ego seems to convince them to hang in there. For some reason there's a part two.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/09/24

Full Review

Audience Member

This incomparably unique hybrid documentary deconstructs the filmmaking process, layer by layer and to the nth degree, while creating drama and discord through subtle nudges and overt orchestrations by director/puppetmaster William Greaves. I'd ask anyone to name a film that provides a similar experience (aside from Take 2.5 which I will now be seeking out as well) as I found this to be such a one-off and so incredibly refreshing once I had a better idea of what was going on. 8.5/10 TLDR: Cameras filming cameras, filming cameras, filming screen tests.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

dave s

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One is an odd little experimental film, a documentary of a documentary of a film shoot in New York's Central Park. Filmmaker William Greaves seems to knowingly torment his crew and actors with ineptitude and a general lack of guidance, resulting in frustration and bewilderment from his unwitting victims. Playing a bit like an episode of Candid Camera, it's an entertaining look at the potential mayhem of a film shoot, reminiscent of Truffaut's Day for Night or Fellini's 8 ½. It's sort of fun to watch once you figure out the angle that Greaves is taking, but the last five minutes or so seems out of place.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Though successful within the film industry as a maker of films about the black experience, Greaves was creatively restless. In-between other, more concrete gigs, he would quietly break off to go shoot portions of the first Symbiopsychotaxiplasm experiment. This was him indulging an itch unscratched in his documentary career; to create an intellectually challenging piece about philosophical ideas and behavioral observations. In that sense, the film succeeds, though in these post-post-postmodern times, the film-within-a-film-within-a-film-within-a-film concept is unable to pack the heady wallop it once did.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If on some fundamental level great art is characteristically "about" or is an exploration of or perhaps simply takes up its particular artistic nature and creative frame as a subject or concern in its own right, then this acephalic and ouroboric documentary about a documentary exploring a documentary is great great great art.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

adam b

An ambitious and original film that I really did thoroughly enjoy although I don't recommend this film to the average person.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

William Greaves

Director

Patricia Ree Gilbert

Self

Don Fellows

Self

Jonathan Gordon

Self

William Greaves

Self

Susan Anspach

Self

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

View more photos

Synopsis

It's 1968, and director William Greaves begins filming a movie scene in Central Park: an argument between a couple. At the same time, a documentary crew films the crew filming the movie. Meanwhile, a third crew films the filming of the two films. As Greaves plays the role of clueless artist, and on-set conditions deteriorate, his collaborators mutiny. The result is a head-spinning landmark of experimental film that playfully smears the line between fiction and reality, art and artifice.

Director: William Greaves
Screenwriter: William Greaves
Production Co: Take One
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 15, 2020
Runtime: 1h 9m

Most Popular at Home Now