MUBI

This is a comment on “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2” but it is not listed independently on Mubi. “Take 2 1/2” continues the experimental meditation on the creative process of film making by not only creating a wholly new experience, but revisiting Take 1, 35 years later in a new context. In Take 1, the crew’s mutiny introduced the conflict and questions that make the film so astounding. What is art? What is the purpose of art? Who controls it? And can the creator ever stake claim to what ultimately becomes of his creation? Out of creation, comes the struggle for power, control and meaning. What marks Take 2 1/2 (and in turn provides a similar conflict) is the overt awareness of these questions. Whereas in one, these questions were stumbled upon, in 2 1/2, everyone has seen and somewhat understands the impact of 1. They know the deal. And thus, the exploration for meaning, becomes an even fiercer competition, each voice determined to be the one that “gets” it, that gives meaning, that takes control. The power struggle becomes one less of uprising, and more of politics. Steve Buscemi provides a celebrity’s touch of legitimacy. No longer do we have a crew of inexperienced struggling artists searching for truth, but a stage of “artists” determined to control.
The genius is that the creative control fluidly shifts not only between the actors, directors, producers and crew, but also the viewer, making the film one of the more engrossing, collaborative experiences you will ever have from the comfort of your own couch. Any attempt to assign meaning to the process is an attempt to exert creative control over the end product. As such, this review is as much a part of the movie as anything on the DVD. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. 5 out of 5 stars.

This may very well be the most important film ever made. At first you might think you are watching a group of Manhattan intellectuals carousing about Central Park with a bunch of film equipment, filming each other in the process of documenting the filming of a highly charged scene, the focus of the film you are watching meandering through the various perspectives. The director, William Greaves, seems to have utterly lost his mind, and you never quite know whether he is acting, directing, or lost in another reality completely. Perhaps all of these filmmakers are acting out as dynamic elements in a grand experiment, a Glass Bead Game of sorts? Or has everyone taken LSD and discovered new and interesting uses for their film equipment? From the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, to an examination of power structure dynamics, in the realm of filmmaking as well as in the world at large, there are many themes at work in this psychosocial experiment framed by the camera, Greaves, and you the viewer as a “film.” As the film proceeds, the reality of the situation begins to break down under the skillful direction of Greaves and we, along with the filmmakers themselves, are forced to ask such questions as: what is art and how is it defined by the framework within which it is presented? What is a documentary? What is fiction? This last dichotomy, and many others, dissolves before your eyes as you witness the symbiopsychotaxiplasm unfolding on the screen. Do not miss this film – you will be thinking about it and all the ideas it invokes for days, weeks, even years after it ends. If you can figure out exactly if and when it ends that is.