--- title: "Bubble: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/bubble/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/bubble" critics_score: 65 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Bubble (2006): what the critics said Critics' score 65 from 11 reviews: 6 positive, 3 mixed, 2 negative. With only 3 reviews in so far, the early word on Bubble is respectful rather than warm. The praise clusters around Soderbergh’s non-professional local cast, which critics find brings an awkward, convincing realism to the story of jealousy and murder in a depressed doll-factory town, and around the high-definition video, which The New Yorker credits with sharp, deep-focus images that give weight to the characters’ trapped lives. The reservations are about temperature: Film Comment finds the mix of neorealism and tabloid sensationalism disconcerting, and Variety, reviewing from a festival, calls the tale likeable but unexciting. The spread is narrow, with nobody yet dismissing it. ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 7 September 2005. Festival review. The critic praises the strong storyline, dramatic structure, and the eccentric DV camerawork and non-professional performances in this low-budget tragic love triangle set in small-town Ohio. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/bubble/4024239.article) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 October 2005. Festival review. The critic finds the film completely gripping in its unassuming ordinariness, a leftfield psychological drama shot on HD video with non-professional actors that offers a ringside seat to a real story from real life. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2005/oct/26/londonfilmfestival2005.londonfilmfestival) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 October 2005. The critic hails it as one of the finest American films of the year, commending Soderbergh's dispassionate yet compassionate gaze and the film's fresh realism. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/bubble) ## The New Yorker — David Denby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 6 February 2006. The film is strange and off-putting but far from nothing, offering a crabby, unyielding vision of an America suffocating in banality through its story of work, jealousy, and murder in a depressed factory town. It impresses with its use of high-definition digital video for sharp, deep-focus imagery that gives weight to the characters' trapped lives. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/home-and-abroad) ## Film Comment — Amy Taubin Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). The film is a disconcerting mix of neo-neorealism and tabloid sensationalism rather than the expected quickie genre exercise. Soderbergh's use of non-professional local actors brings verisimilitude and emotional blockages that refresh the familiar narrative. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/bubble-review/) ## Variety — Deborah Young Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 3 September 2005. Festival review. Soderbergh uses a non-pro cast to deftly sketch the dullness of a mid-American burg, where an unmotivated murder unveils a frightening moral vacuum amid the empty-pocket atmosphere of doll factory workers. The likeable if unexciting little tale has sly humor and commentary, with the three principals well cast and the understated direction complemented by low-key realism. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/bubble-1200523526/) ## IndieWire — twhalliii Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 21 September 2005. Festival review. The critic finds the film unrequited in its emotional impact despite Soderbergh's experimental approach with non-professional actors. The review highlights the film's focus on working-class life and simmering tensions but notes a lack of deeper connection. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general/the-2005-new-york-film-festival-unrequited-steven-soderberghs-bubble-227884/) ## The Times — Howard Swains Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 28 October 2005. Festival review. The reviewer notes that the measured portrayal of blue-collar routines recalls fine European cinema but finds the film not especially good overall, as the non-professional cast and video approach ultimately fail to make the fictional story sing despite some reluctant applause for confounding expectations. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/article/bubble-7gb7xw3vwbq) ## Slant Magazine — Keith Uhlich Fi1m's normalised score 10/100 (inferred from the text). 20 September 2005. The critic finds the film an empty, contemptuous exercise in Soderbergh's post-Limey mode, essentially a backwoods remake of Vera Drake that renders its working-class characters vague and its dialogue stilted. He singles out the artificial, affected rhythms of the non-professional cast and the soulless doll-factory setting as emblematic of its failures. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/bubble/) ## Collider — Matthew Mosley Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 19 August 2022. The critic praises Bubble as a fascinating, restrained minimalist experiment that ranks among Soderbergh’s best films for its authentic depiction of working-class life. They single out the nonprofessional cast’s believable, documentary-like performances and the stripped-down HD camerawork as key strengths. [Read the review](https://collider.com/steven-soderbergh-bubble-movie-subverts-hollywood-glamour/) ## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff Rating B+. 5 February 2013. The critic calls Bubble one of Soderbergh’s most unheralded successes, a nimble small-town character study that turns into a micro-thriller and is mesmerizing, warm, and re-watchable. They single out the nonprofessional lead performance by Debbie Doebereiner (discovered at a KFC drive-through) as hypnotic and central to its success. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/steven-soderbergh-essential-films-retrospective-20130205/4/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/bubble.md