Steven Soderbergh is a gigantic prick and Bubble proves it. The movie was shot in Parkersville, West Virginia using ordinary, everyday folks plucked off the streets of this small city in place of professional actors. Rather than predetermining the natures of each of the three main characters in the script, Soderbergh actually used the personalities, daily lives, and stories of his Parkersville ‘actors’ to fill out the film.

The effect was exploitation a la archaic-circus-freak variety. The plot is supposed to be written such that the viewer is lead to question their assumptions about the characters, and about small-town life in general. Rather, I was left to question Soderbergh’s morality. How condescending for him to march into some unsuspecting community as the ‘Big Hollywood Director’ come to make a film about their ‘cute little American town’ with their ‘cute little lives’. Bubble was obviously a desperate attempt by Soderbergh to try and take a page out of Mike Leigh’s book. The difference is that Mike Leigh makes successful films about ordinary, everyday life and people, without the patronizingly superior tone of a dickhead.

I’m not even going to dignify this movie with a rating.