What Is It?
2005·Drama·1h 12m
7.0
★
The adventures of a young man whose principle interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home. As tormented by a hubristic, racist inner psyche.
Directed by Crispin Glover
experiment
nazi
down syndrome
IMDB
N/A
Cast
Crispin Glover
Dueling Demi-God Auteur / The Young Man's Inner Psyche and Id
Adam Parfrey
The Minstrel
Fairuza Balk
Screaming Snail / Insect / Monkey Girl (voice)
Crew
Crispin Glover
Director
Crispin Glover
Writer
Crispin Glover
Editor
Crispin Glover
Producer
Crispin Glover
Music Supervisor
Crispin Glover
Additional Photography
David Lynch
Thanks
Mark Mothersbaugh
Thanks
Nicolas Cage
Thanks
Christopher Coppola
Thanks
Bruce Glover
Thanks
Werner Herzog
Thanks
Popular Reviews
2 reviews
Jay
1.0★ · 10/10/25
Words cannot describe the enthralling experience of “What Is It?” written, directed, produced, edited and starring Crispin Glover, who I used to believe was somewhat a sane man. After watching this I now believe he is beyond insane. Never in my life has a movie captivated me quite like this.
This movie, if I can even call it that, is unlike any other movie I have seen. Everything about this movie is up in the air. Normally movies do have storylines and structure. This is seemingly beyond that. I had no idea what was going on, and began latching onto anything that referenced something I recognised (like a character imagining himself black face wearing a Michael Jackson t shirt proclaiming he is the King of Pop himself) so I could be sure this was made by Humans and that it took place in something resembling the planet Earth.
I tried to figure out what was going on, but to no avail. I gave up.
This movie, if I can even call it that, is unlike any other movie I have seen. Everything about this movie is up in the air. Normally movies do have storylines and structure. This is seemingly beyond that. I had no idea what was going on, and began latching onto anything that referenced something I recognised (like a character imagining himself black face wearing a Michael Jackson t shirt proclaiming he is the King of Pop himself) so I could be sure this was made by Humans and that it took place in something resembling the planet Earth.
I tried to figure out what was going on, but to no avail. I gave up.
Words cannot describe the enthralling experience of “What Is It?” written, directed, produced, edited and starring Crispin Glover, who I used to believe was somewhat a sane man. After watching this I now believe he is beyond insane. Never in my life has a movie captivated me quite like this.
This movie, if I can even call it that, is unlike any other movie I have seen. Everything about this movie is up in the air. Normally movies do have storylines and structure. This is seemingly beyond that. I had no idea what was going on, and began latching onto anything that referenced something I recognised (like a character imagining himself black face wearing a Michael Jackson t shirt proclaiming he is the King of Pop himself) so I could be sure this was made by Humans and that it took place in something resembling the planet Earth.
I tried to figure out what was going on, but to no avail. I gave up.
This movie, if I can even call it that, is unlike any other movie I have seen. Everything about this movie is up in the air. Normally movies do have storylines and structure. This is seemingly beyond that. I had no idea what was going on, and began latching onto anything that referenced something I recognised (like a character imagining himself black face wearing a Michael Jackson t shirt proclaiming he is the King of Pop himself) so I could be sure this was made by Humans and that it took place in something resembling the planet Earth.
I tried to figure out what was going on, but to no avail. I gave up.
Lucía
0.6★ · 08/01/25