Search - Full Frontal on DVD

Mix "Sex, Lies, And Videotape" With "Schizopolis"; Add Big S

Robert I. Hedges | 07/12/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Steven Soderbergh is one of the most creative directors working today. Although I don't like everything he has done, some of his work is truly brilliant ("Schizopolis" is a personal favorite), while some is mainstream and less intriguing. All of it is interesting to try to understand, and in that regard "Full Frontal" is no exception. Soderbergh views "Full Frontal" as a more contemporary "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" and is one of his more personal ventures into the world of low budget filmmaking (the budget was two million dollars). When Soderbergh does something with a small budget, the creativity is normally inversely high, and the originality factor is definitely present here.

The film features a non-linear plot, where differing stories involving interconnected pairs of people explore modern Hollywood life. The creative "movie within a movie" concept is used to good effect, but must be carefully watched to ensure that you understand whether you are seeing the actors or the characters they are portraying. To assist with this understanding, Soderbergh has provided the viewer with several subtle clues that truly reveal the hand of a master craftsman. The film within a film ("Rendezvous") is shot on film, has brilliant color, has music and sound effects, while the rest of the movie is shot in a more documentary style on a digital camera, done with natural light (and was made to look even grainier in postproduction, as revealed in the commentary), has no sound effects, and no background music.

The interactions between the characters were very interesting to watch and were sometimes nonsensical (as random dialogue between two people tend to be when background information is not present). I was especially fond of the characters played by David Hyde Pierce and Blair Underwood, and found their characterizations most natural. I think Julia Roberts was adequate in her role, but perhaps not as suited to the more improvisational nature of this type of film. I found Catherine Keener's character pointedly annoying, and while that served the ultimate goal of the film, I found it to be difficult to endure. (I did enjoy the multiple games of catch with a beach ball globe while she grilled various people to name all the countries in Africa, though.) Nicky Katt was amazing as a truly wretched art house Hitler in a production of "The Sound and the Fuhrer", which I suppose counts as a play within a movie revealing extra complexity. (If you ever wanted to imagine Hitler on a date or in therapy accompanied by avant-garde dancing Nazis, this is a must see.) I was also delighted with the dog owned by David Hyde Pierce that had eaten six hash-laced brownies; rarely has an animal been so perfect in a role.

The writing by Coleman Hough (with help from Soderbergh and the actors) is frequently full of unexpected gems like "I have confused my personality quirks with standards", but they are so subtly played that they tend to slip by unless the viewer is watching intently. That characterizes the entire film: it contains a lot of good material, but requires extreme attention to detail to understand it all.

The DVD features many extras, most of which are excellent (although the "Director's Spy Cam" feature is a complete bust). The commentary with Soderbergh and Hough is especially enlightening, as is the interview with Soderbergh. The "In-Character Interviews" were interesting, and served as an excellent outlet for improvisation; some are more successful than others. While the interview with David Hyde Pierce was excellent, the interview with Julia Roberts was tepid at best, and the interview with Blair Underwood was excruciating. For people genuinely interested in filmmaking, Soderbergh's comments are always enlightening, and I found them the most enjoyable part of the DVD, and therein a problem resides. If the commentary is the most interesting part of the DVD, then perhaps the material is not among his most brilliant, and in this case I think that's partially fair. The issue is that much of the material is strong, but some isn't and tends toward boring; I especially found that to be true with the characters of Keener and David Duchovny, who came across as not only self-absorbed, but totally unlikable as well. Their roles were ill-defined and I kept waiting for them to reveal their integral importance to the plot and to explain why I should find them to be worthy of attention; with a bit of an exception from Keener at the end, I never found them to be sympathetic characters, nor did I find them to be as compelling as the remainder of the cast.

On balance, I find this movie more worthy of study from the point of view of how it was made and why various choices were made in its production rather than as an organic piece of entertainment. People familiar with Soderbergh's big budget pictures will likely not find this to their liking (although in addition to Roberts, there is a cameo with Brad Pitt; Pitt fans should watch the film to the very end) while fans of indie and Soderbergh's lower budget films (especially "Schizopolis") will be much more open to the quirky charms of "Full Frontal"."