What Is It?

What Is It? is a 2005 American surrealist film written, edited, co-produced and directed by Crispin Glover and starring Glover, Steven C. Stewart and the voice of Fairuza Balk.

What Is It? is the first entry in a planned trilogy directed by Glover, followed by It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine. (2007) and continued with It Is Mine.

Synopsis
The "adventures" of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home, who is tormented by a hubristic, racist inner psyche.

Production
Production of the film started in 1996 as a short film that was to be used as a proof of concept for the as of yet unproduced third film in Glover's It trilogy, It Is Mine. After completing the filming of the initial short, Glover decided to turn it into a feature-length film and filmed an additional eight days over two years. Although the edit was picture locked around three years after the initial shoot, post-production lingered on for six more years due to a technical error related to the SMPTE timecode and also because of Glover focusing on the production of the second film of the trilogy, It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine. (2007), which started filming in 2001 to accommodate the declining health of the film's lead actor and writer, Steven C. Stewart.

The majority of actors who appear in the film have Down Syndrome, but Glover has stated they are not necessarily portraying characters with Down Syndrome and the film is not about Down Syndrome. Featuring taboo content and imagery, Glover sees the themes of the film relating to his "psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 30 or more years in filmmaking. Specifically, in that anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarily excised, or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed."

Release
The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and played at several other film festivals. Aside from this, it has only been shown at independent theatres, typically accompanied by a question-and-answer session, a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different profusely illustrated books as a slideshow, and a meet-and-greet/book signing with Glover.

Reception
The film had received a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.