Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 37, Ed. 1 Friday, January 27, 2006 Page: 37 of 68
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B
BUBBLE
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Debbie Doebereiner, Misty
Dawn Wilkins and Omar Cowan
Opens today at Landmark's Magnolia
1 hr. i'inlfn R
New talent
bursts forth
Soderbergh !s high-def experiment
paves way for low-budget indie fare
By Steve Warren Contributing Film Critic
Every weekend in hundreds, maybe thou-
sands of cities, independent filmmakers are busy
and armed with video cameras and computers. In
the vast majority of cases, their work will be seen
by no more than a handful of people, and the
filmmakers will never be able to give up their
day jobs to pursue their dream. It's not just a mat-
ter of talent — the cream doesn't always rise to
the top.
Steven Soderbergh obviously misses those
days. And until he runs out of numbers for
"Oceans" movies, he'll have the money and the
clout to return to them whenever he wants.
"Bubble" finds him in an experimental mood
bringing professional expertise to a high-defini-
tion video shoot with non-professional actors on
the Ohio-West Virginia border.
Either Soderbergh is more of a
genius than we give him credit
for or he's luckier than the hero
of "Match Point," because
"Bubble" is good enough to
compete with the big boys.
A solid screenplay by
Coleman Hough is a good starting point, but it's
brought to amazing life through the lead actress,
Debbie Doebereiner, who in real life manages a
KFC franchise in West Virginia.
In "Bubble," she's Martha, a fat, lonely
woman who works in a doll factory and cares for
her aged father.
Mildly depressed but easygoing, Martha
hangs out with Kyle (Dustin James Ashley), a
co-worker who's young enough to be her son. In
fact, she's probably older than his mother (Laurie
Lee), with whom he lives out of economic neces-
sity. There's nothing sexual between them, but
Martha feels a certain possessiveness toward
Kyle.
That's threatened when the plant, having a
big order to fill, hires an extra worker, Rose
(Misty Dawn Wilkins), a single mother with a 2-
year-old daughter. One Friday night, Martha
baby-sits while Rose goes out with Kyle. When
Rose comes home, she gets a visit from her
baby's father, Jake (Kyle Smith), who angrily
accuses her of stealing his money and weed.
As the networks say during sweeps, "One of
these people will die tonight."
These unprofessional actors are playing char-
acters who are both very simple and very compli-
cated. "Bubble" floats along for minutes at a time
with nothing happening out of the ordinary. Then
it will pop with something unexpected, whether
it's a murder, a robbery or just an odd turn of
phrase.
The reference will be wasted on most, but
Debbie Doebereiner is the new Shirley Stoler,
although she looks at least as much like Divine in
"Hairspray" as Stoler in "The Honeymoon
Killers." If she's back frying chicken, it's a waste
of a good natural talent.
Her co-stars aren't in the same league —
Ashley should study diction if he wants to pursue
acting — but they've given their director the nat-
uralness he was after. (Decker Moody, who plays
a police detective, really is a police detective.) It
BABY, YOU'RE A STAR: Debbie Doebereiner, who plays
Martha, a lonely factory worker, was discovered while work-
ing at a KFC drive-thru window.
maybe too soon to call Soderbergh the American
Pasolini but this is a good start.
Oftentimes, the cinematography is so excel-
lent, one suspects the few really clunky shots are
intentional to preserve the film's
indie cred.
There's no question
"Bubble" is a film you should
see. But because it's being
released simultaneously in the-
aters and on home video and
pay-cable, you have to decide
where and how you want to see it. It doesn't have
the big stars or special effects that drive many
people to theaters — especially when they would
have to wait three to six months to see a film
elsewhere. But it does look good on a big, wide
screen, not like some shot-on-video films that
blow up all grainy.
Bottom line: If you're standing in line at the
multiplex and still haven't made up your mind,
"Bubble" is better than most of the films on offer
there.
•gSoagnotta
BUBBLE
AIQINIR
sieve* soietgeicH
'BUBBLE' SHAKES UP HOLLYWOOD
"Bubble" is
produced by 2929
Entertain-ment,
the Dallas- and Los
A n g e I e s - b a s e d
company by owned
by Mark Cuban
and longtime ally
Todd Wagner. On
Tuesday, the off-
beat film will be
available for sale
on DVD. "Bubble,"
hits the big screen
at Landmark's
Magnolia theater
(also owned by Cuban) today. And as of today, the
film is also available on HDNet a video-on
demand service also owned by Cuban.
This marketing strategy, known as "day-and
date," clashes with the prevailing method of
timed releases. Normally four months separate a
film's theatrical debut and its DVD sale ($29.98,
Magnolia).
As part of a partnership with 2929, the day
and-date approach for "Bubble" will be duplicat
ed for five more Soderbergh films. Some say
Cuban's revolutionary approach will be the death
knell for Hollywood and the theater experience.
Cuban, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks, com-
pares the approach to the NBA, in which sold-out
games are also aired live on television.
^ $
RALPH NATASHA VANESSA LYNN IIIROYIKI
FIENNES RICHARDSON REDGRAVE REDGRAVE SANADA
Kfc "TWO THUMBS UP!"
-EBERT & ROEPER
"A DEEPLY EVOCATIVE FILM,
W BEAUTIFULLY DONE."
wfc -Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
THE WHITE COUNTESS
pg-i:
HE SONY PICTURES CLASSICS"
©2005 SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.
NOW
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Lovers at Inwood
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01.27.06 I dallas voice I 37
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 37, Ed. 1 Friday, January 27, 2006, newspaper, January 27, 2006; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238893/m1/37/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.