How does someone drift into the condition known as schizophrenia? Revolution No. 9 is an attempt to provide a picture of the transformation from sanity to psychosis. The film is divided into nine parts, each beginning with a numbered title. James Jackson (played by Michael Risley) and Kim Kelly (played by Adrienne Shelly) are sweethearts, to be married in six months. James completed college with a 3.9 grade point average, is an on-line arts magazine writer, but lives in a dump, whereas Kim is a cocktail waitress. One day, Kim’s nephew (played by Jase Blankfort) sends James email that he feels has subliminal messages via a television commercial for Revolution #9 perfume. The messages, James believes, are part of a plot to control (deconstruct) his mind. Although Kim tries to help him as he begins to act strangely, and James agrees to meet a psychotherapist, he later objects, and he will not take the prescribed medicine. James tries to contact Kim’s nephew, but her brother objects. James has a confrontational meeting with the director of the Revolution #9 commercial (played by Spalding Gray), but that goes badly. Perhaps the most interesting part of the film is the commitment hearing, in which James’s court-appointed attorney tries to avoid having a magistrate commit him to a psychiatric facility, but James’s weird remarks at the hearing result in an order for a two-week commitment. Ultimately, James escapes. In the end, he is standing on top of a building on the verge of suicide. Directed by Tim McCann, Revolution No. 9 could not have been made without knowledge of the development of schizophrenia and of the way in which commitment hearings are conducted. Unfortunately, however, the film does not underscore the fact that medicines nowadays can bring a schizophrenic to a level of manageable sanity. MH