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| Full
Frontal
Directed By: Steven
Soderbergh Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| Writer-director Steven Soderbergh follows up Ocean's 11 with the low-budget 'Full Frontal', his first digitally shot film. Touted as an unofficial sequel to his 1989 hit sex, lies, and videotape, this arty film-within-a-film (which was shot in just 18 days) revolves around seven people with little in common whose lives collide. Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, David Duchovny, Brad Pitt (cameoing as himself), David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, and Terence Stamp are reason enough to see the film, which is billed as a "movie about movies for people who love movies." [TRAILER] I'd give "Full Frontal" an honest two shrugs up. It's mildly entertaining, barely worth seeing, and ultimately unimportant. h I understand the point of the film. Honestly, after about five minutes, who won't see the point? Steven Soderbergh, director extraordinaire, has reached into his bag of tricks to give us an up close and personal examination of Hollywood and romance a la "Sex Lies and Videotape." "Full Frontal," however, has none of the power or weight of "Videotape." It is a film that stretches to appear authentic and, by the end, its superficiality becomes apparent. Maybe it's the star power of the cast or the redundant messages, but something aboul "Full Frontal" seems, well, contrived. The story is a mosaic of several people's lives. There is the married couple Lee (Catherine Keener) and Carl (David Hyde Pierce), who are on the verge of splitting up. Lee is a Human Resources VP at a major company and takes out her pain and insecurities on those she fires. Carl works at an adult magazine and finds his personality blurring into his work. Lee's sister, Linda (Mary McCormack), is a masseiouse, and a rather aimless individual. She has no one to love, is looking forward to meeting in person someone she has begun a relationship with on the internet, and goes from massage to massage trying to tread water. That internet lover is Ed (Enrico Colantoni), another aimless person who we mostly see in rehearsels for a play he wrote, "The Sound and the Fuhrer." It's an intimate, hilarious portrayel of a conflicted Hitler. To contrast each of these stories, there are Catherine (Julia Roberts) and Nicholas (Blair Underwood), Hollywood reporter and Hollywood star. And then, to catch the audience off guard, Soderbergh has a simulataneous side story of Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood playing Catherine and Nicholas. So, in one moment, we'll see Roberts as Catherine in the fictionalized love story. But in the next, we see the real-life Roberts preparing for her role. Describing this film, I feel as if it should have been better than it is. Many of these characters are unique and fascinating. If for nothing else, "Full Frontal" deserves credit as a cynical examination of the Hollywood lifestyle and the pretentious nature of the Hollywood product. But it's not. "Full Frontal" is form over feeling, an experience apparently made more because it sounded cool than that anyone had a real passion to do it. As we learn about these characters, there are delightful moments of introspection and realization. It is when they start opening their mouths about relationships that I started to roll my eyes. No one really has anything interesting to say. Only Lee and Carl really come to a discernable conclusion that is worth the time of getting to know them. The film's last few minutes must also be noted, as Soderbergh debunks even his own efforts. I get the joke about the artificiality of film, but it comes off as almost a finger to his audience, erasing any empathy the film might have earned. "Full Frontal" is filmed in both grainy digital film and glorious 35 mm, looking dirty when it supposedly shows us the "real world," and perfect when we're witnessing things in the Hollywood realm. Once again, a great trick that never really adds to the experience. We watch "Full Frontal" with the promise of intelligent revelations or clever insights. Nothing comes close to realizing that premise. Instead, we get an insider's perspective on the lives of people about as interesting as any of us, and nothing is added by the way the film is constructed or the way the story is told. So I'm left with one obvious question: Soderbergh, why did you make this film anyway? 
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