Steven Soderbergh's new film, "Bubble," is a complete turn around from his work on "Oceans 11" and its sequel. If you expected a flashy movie with big stars and special effects, well... I hate to burst your "Bubble."
The movie follows two small town co-workers, Kyle and Martha ( Dustin James Ashley and Debbie Doebereiner, respectively), as they work at a doll factory. It's easy to see they have some sort of bond. Whether the bond is because they are really friends or out of necessity -- other characters are sparse -- is not made clear. A temporary employee, Rose (Misty Dawn Wilkins), is hired at the doll factory and there's automatic attraction between her and Kyle. By her facial expression, Martha doesn't like the situation.
All three become lunch buddies and the conversation goes from the jobs they've held in the past to family topics. Rose comes out pretty quickly and starts asking Martha for favors, and Martha's nice enough to oblige. The two women head to a rather large home that Rose is supposed to clean. Instead she takes a bath, shocking Martha. Later on it's revealed that Rose has sticky fingers. A gold watch that was in that house ends up on her wrist.
The next favor that Rose asks of Martha is to baby-sit her two-year-old daughter while she goes on a date with Kyle. The night ends with Rose stealing money from Kyle without him knowing it, her ex-boyfriend accuses her of stealing from him and she ultimately gets murdered. The rest of the movie focuses on who could have killed Rose, although by that time in the movie it's quite predictable.
Is there really a way for a movie to be too indie? Soderbergh seems to achieve this feat. The production is obviously low budget, yet is filmed in high-definition.
The actors are all unknowns who probably haven't acted before. The lack of characters is a bit weird -- the entire doll factory is being run by seven people at most -- and there's barely any dialogue. The audience sees what is occurring in each scene, but nothing is being said. Plus "Bubble" seemed to drag on while in reality it was relatively short at only 73 minutes.
The real question is what does the film's title mean? It's baffling as to why Soderbergh chose to name the movie "Bubble." The only bubble it could possibly refer to is the world that these characters live in. They have no real aspirations besides working and earning money, therefore living in a bubble.
The trailer gave nothing away about "Bubble," a marketing ploy obviously. However, the trailer is possibly the most disturbing, and best, part of the movie as it runs during the credits. The focus is on the baby dolls, particularly the heads and the body parts not put together. If Soderbergh's trying to horrify his audience with these images, it works. No blood, no guts or no gore; just plastic baby heads.
"Bubble" opens Friday, Jan. 27 at the Landmark's Downer Theater.
Originally from Des Plaines, Ill., Heather moved to Milwaukee to earn a B.A. in journalism from Marquette University. With a tongue-twisting last name like Leszczewicz, it's best to go into a career where people don't need to say your name often.
However, she's still sticking to some of her Illinoisan ways (she won't reform when it comes to things like pop, water fountain or ATM), though she's grown to enjoy her time in the Brew City.
Although her journalism career is still budding, Heather has had the chance for some once-in-a-lifetime interviews with celebrities like actor Vince Vaughn and actress Charlize Theron, director Cameron Crowe and singers Ben Kweller and Isaac Hanson of '90s brother boy band Hanson.
Heather's a self-proclaimed workaholic but loves her entertainment. She's a real television and movie fanatic, book nerd, music junkie, coffee addict and pop culture aficionado.
