Movie Review: Bubble

Bubble (2006) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Written by Coleman Hough

Starring Debbie Doebereiner, Dustin James Ashley, Misty Dawn Wilkins

Release Date January 27th, 2006 

Published January 27th, 2006 

Steven Soderbergh, the multiple-times Oscar nominee and preeminent auteur has launched a new career as a film entrepreneur. With the help of millionaire Mark Cuban, Soderbergh is attempting to change the way movies are distributed to the masses. The idea? Day and date releasing. His latest film, the low budget indie Bubble, has been released to theaters, TV and DVD all in less than a week.

Whether this experiment will work is debatable. What is not debatable is that Bubble is an intriguing little experiment in its own right. The small town murder mystery starring non-professional actors and shot on location by Soderbergh with a single camera is a hypnotic, disturbing little flick about small town artifice.

Martha's (Debbie Doebereiner) life consists of routine actions. She awakens early every morning to fix breakfast for her father. She then picks up her co-worker Kyle (Dustin James Ashley) and drives to work at a toy factory, where she paints faces on dolls as Kyle makes the doll heads. The two have lunch together, but there is little more to the relationship than work. Kyle is much younger than Martha and, while he seems to appreciate her help, he does not consider her his best friend as she does him.

Martha's routine is upset when a new girl begins working at the factory. Her name is Rose and when she gravitates to Kyle, the only other worker in the factory that is her age, she upsets the delicate balance. Soon Rose is imposing on Martha for rides to her second job as a house cleaner--where she bathes in clients homes and often steals anything that is not nailed down.

When Rose and Kyle begin dating, Rose further imposes on the always-helpful Martha by enlisting her to babysit her two-year-old daughter. To describe further would be to describe too much. At a slight 73 minutes, Bubble does not have much plot to describe without going to far. I can only tell you that the film becomes a murder mystery in the third act.

Soderbergh directed Bubble from a script by Coleman Hough and using non-professional actors all from the small town of Belpre, Ohio, where the film was shot. With his digital camera in hand, Soderbergh crafts a small town story that fits the films title. These characters exist in a small town bubble that will be recognizable to many audience members. From the trailer park to the suburbs to the toy factory, this bubble of small town conformity is perfect until the murder bursts the calm--or seems to, temporarily.

The skill of Soderbergh in directing Bubble is to create a calm atmosphere that is lazy yet hypnotic. You cannot help but be sucked in to the films elegiac pace and whisper-quiet storytelling that only temporarily, with the murder and the introduction of a by the numbers police detective, played by real-life detective Decker Moody, comes out of its trance like state of observance.

The look of the film, shot on digital video with Soderbergh acting as his own cinematographer, is reminiscent of Gus Van Zant's similarly low-budget digital feature Elephant. Not only do both films share the digital aesthetic both films are also about small town quiet disturbed by violence. Both take a relaxed, observant view of the action in the film. Rarely does either film rise to the crescendos of the violence that take place in the film, choosing instead to merely watch and record.

This passivity plagued Elephant and made the film's story of a school shooting, similar to the Columbine massacre, less impactful. However, the passivity of Bubble is effective for Soderbergh's story. The lethargy that surrounds the characters in Bubble is part of their reality and Soderbergh enhances it by adopting it into his shooting and editing styles and in Robert Pollard's excellent acoustic guitar score.

How a movie as slow and observant as Bubble will connect with mainstream audiences used to slam-bang dramatics and MTV-paced editing is anyones guess. But audiences willing to be absorbed into this tiny world of small town boredom and routine will find their patience rewarded with a film that offers a trancelike trip into seemingly real lives undone by passions they did not know they had.

Bubble is no small-town-exposed feature. This is not American Beauty, which posited that all suburban homes were covered for some sort of depravity. Bubble observes a small town filled with people who have accepted their lot in life and seek only the minor comforts that small towns provide, a good bar, a decent paying job and someone you can talk to. It is when those small comforts are upended that something dramatic happens.

While I disagree with Soderbergh's new business ideals, I must applaud his artistry. Bubble is a fascinating little indie feature made with the skill and precision of a master director. In fact, had Soderbergh not saddled the film with the burden of his new business model, he may have found a larger audience and more attention for such an accomplished work. As it is, I can only encourage you to seek out Bubble where you can find it.