Steven Soderbergh’s “Getting Away With It” is in the spirit of his brilliant (and little seen) Schizopolis — a hodgepodge of jokes, philosophy, ephemera and esoterica. The bulk of the book is a transcript of a rambling conversation between SS and Richard Lester. They discuss Lester’s work, Soderbergh’s work, cinema in general and, at length, concepts of God and evolutionary science. Intercut with this is Soderbergh’s journal from 1997 and he zips from festival to festival showing Schizopolis and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as developing big budget studio scripts that never get made. Meta-commentary in the form of footnotes add a humorous touch. Some in-depth knowledge of cinema history may be a prerequisite — Lester and Soderbergh get pretty heavy with their references and they don’t slow down.
My Schizopolis review from 2003:
363) Schizopolis (1996), Steven Soderbergh, A
Nose army! (If Monty Python wasn’t trying to be funny — but was anyway — it would be like “Schizopolis.” What’s staggering is how much of a story there actually is hidden in this madness. Like the gag opening says, you really do have to see this more than once! This is mad genius at work and, despite tongue forcefully placed in cheek, it works on a much deeper level. This is also a very sad movie.) Jigsaw.