Full Frontal

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".

this movie is entertaining and the dvd does it justice. no extraordinary features wowed me, but they were as insightful as you'd expect from the makers of a creative flick like this. david hyde pierce is always a pleasure. here, he taught me the use of drinking from the bottle. no, that's actually a lame thing to say. drinking blood, though, that's a riot.

I bailed out after an hour, when no discernable plot had developed.Maybe it has a great ending, but I say it's a dramatic flaw if the audience walks out halfway through.Low quality video, not that it matters to me, but it might to you.

Never had a problem getting what i ordered.

The reason I purchased this movie and the only reason it's tolerable is because David Duchovny is in it. I am a loyal fan of Mr. Duchovny. I own all his movies as well as the complete X-Files series. Throughout the entire movie, I kept waiting for something to happen. I figured out, at the very beginning, that it was a story-within-a-story, story-within-a-story, story-within-a-story which was very confusing. The grainy quality of the "real" story made it seem amateurish. I was disappointed that David Duchovny only had about four scenes. He made the most of his few scenes, however,even though they were at the very end. What I didn't expect was his character's death from auto-erotic asphixiation. If the point of the movie is that Hollywood celebrity-types lead boring, pointless, empty lives, it lived up to its expectations. The "f" word was used too many times. Whoever wrote the dialogue has a very limited vocabulary.

This film proves that a good story (not a large budget) makes a good film. I heard it was made for $2 million and grossed a total of $2 million in theatrical release. I found the story refreshing in the way it wanders. The nuances will be even more poignant if you live in Los Angeles but they have broad appeal. I especially liked the psycho HR director played by Katherine Keener. Enjoy !

Good

I could only watch about 30 minutes of this movie before I had to abandon it. The characters were not believable to me and the acting was somewhat stilted. The interaction between Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood was just painful to watch.

actually I've not even got to the end of this one and that rarely happens....just not my cup of tea...sorry Julia not one of your best.....

I only bought this DVD because I like David Hyde Pierce. It was cheap and there appeared to be a good cast... so I thought why not?I barely managed to sit through it. The film is trying to be far cleverer than it actually is. I don't like the hand held cameras. They add nothing to the film. The script is terrible... if there actually is a script at all! The characters are annoying... especially the Julia Roberts character. All in all I found it disjointed, confusing and above all else....extremely boring.

I love this film although it isn't to everyone's taste but I think it's great fun because its a film within a film within a film and so on...

Dragged its heels before the final inevitable scene

Journaliste au Los Angeles Magazine, Carl Bright cherche à placer ses scénarios auprès des studios et croit savoir pourquoi sa femme, Lee, n'est pas heureuse. Celle-ci, responsable des ressources humaines dans une grande entreprise, se défoule en renvoyant des employés.Linda, la soeur de Lee, est masseuse dans un hôtel. Elle craint de ne jamais rencontrer le prince charmant. Calvin, vedette d'une célèbre série télévisée, fait ses débuts au cinéma en incarnant Nicholas, le partenaire d'une grande star, dans un film que produit Gus.Tout ce petit monde, y compris un comédien qui interprète Hitler dans une pièce de théâtre, va tout faire pour se rendre dans un grand hôtel de Beverly Hills pour fêter le quarantième anniversaire de Gus. Cette soirée va prendre une tournure inattendue...