An experience to be talked about

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 1998)

I saw CUBE last night in downtown San Jose at an Art House theater.
My observations: At the end of the movie, no one clapped, no one booed. There was a pause as everyone contemplated what they had just witnessed.
I think that the Art House atmosphere added to the movie. If I had seen it in some be 20plex I think that would have detracted from the experience. I also don't think your typical 20plex moviegoer will get it.
As I left the theater I felt I had seen something special but I initially didn't know why. I went alone (wife hates sci-fi) and drove home contemplating the effect the movie had on me. As a typical American moviegoer, I tend to expect a beginning, middle and end. I expect clear good guy bad guy identifiers. I expect closure at the end of the movie. Does the lack of these things make the movie bad? I think I just learned that it doesn't. I felt uneasy during the movie, but I believe that was its purpose.
I spent this morning reading as much as I could about the movie on the net and in old papers that I purposely waited until I had seen the movie to read.
It seems to boil down to the fact that I think it takes a special awareness to realize what this movie says to you. If you get it or realize that there is something to get but can't quite put your hands on it then you will still say WOW that was something to think about. If you expect some typical sci-fi with all the expected plot lines and don't want nor can appreciate some of the cerebral intricacies of a story within a story, of purposely unanswered questions, of having to actually think, then you will hate it.