Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½

Name: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2005-01-20
Duration: 99 min
Rating: 7.0
Cast: William Greaves, Steve Buscemi, Audrey Heningham, Shannon Baker, Jonathan Gordon

2005·Documentary·1h 39m

7.0

★

A movie about making movies about making movies. In 1968, William Greaves shot several pairs of actors in a scene in which a woman confronts her husband and ends their relationship. In "Take 2 1/2," Greaves starts with 1968 takes of one of these pairs of actors plus footage of the crew discussing the film's progress. Then, 35 years later, Greaves brings back to Central Park those actors and some of the original crew (plus others) to film a reunion of the characters Alice and Freddie. We watch scenes of these characters and discussions among the actors and crew. Greaves explores and dramatizes the dialectic in the creative process.

Directed by William Greaves

IMDB

N/A

Cast

William Greaves

Self

Steve Buscemi

Self

Jonathan Gordon

Self

Marcia Karp

Psychodramatist

Louise Archambault Greaves

Self

Crew

William Greaves

Director

William Greaves

Writer

Terence Macartney-Filgate

Director of Photography

Stevan Larner

Director of Photography

Steve Buscemi

Executive Producer

Steven Soderbergh

Executive Producer

William Greaves

Producer

Louise Archambault Greaves

Co-Producer

Popular Reviews

12 reviews

Jack Sinclair

4.8★ · 01/28/26

It’s a damn shame they couldn’t capture the magic of the first but that’s the point of Take 1, this is much more self aware because it just is. The strongest part is seeing the extra footage from 68 and the initial footage of the screening in 2005 made me think that perhaps we would see a continuation but perhaps in trying to bring this film into the mainstream, perhaps taking it to distribution companies and having a film crew tag along etc. but even then I guess it would still be too self aware, perhaps an original idea that is based on the pure moment is something you can’t ask for twice and maybe that’s what this film is just reminding us of, in a way its comparison against Take 1 makes Take 1 more special.

John Flame

5.0★ · 06/28/25

Feels very similar to listening to the B-sides of a masterpiece album. Moments of greatness that are bogged down by the weight of the original.

When everyone’s in on the joke, it’s no longer funny. With that being said, Steve Buscemi is an incredible cam op.

David

4.7★ · 04/30/24

Would have been better if Steve from blues clues was there

Lake Jones

8.0★ · 01/17/21

There’s something so poetic about Steve Buscemi being the reason this came to exist

Timothy Kandra

Rating is not intentional.