Feature
Review | Full Frontal
Written by: Brian
Orndorf
Rated: 5/10
Steven Soderbergh has had quite the last couple of years. He's won
an Oscar, found an unspeakable amount of success with "Erin
Brockovich," "Traffic," and "Ocean's Eleven,"
and convinced a major studio to back a remake of a “Solaris,“ a
sexed-up psychological space thriller due this holiday season. But
Soderbergh pines for the days when it was just him, the actors and his
camera. "Full Frontal" sets out to capture that feeling
again, regardless of whether or not the audience is invited in on the
fun...
Shot over the course of two weeks and for two million dollars,
"Full Frontal" is simply a story about one day in the life
of Hollywood. We meet Calvin (Blair Underwood), a highly successful
actor who spends the day being interviewed by Francesca (Julia
Roberts), but aren't they both actors? We see Alice (Catherine
Keener), a human resources executive, go through the daily grind of
interviews, while her mind drifts to her lover, and the impending
dismissal of her husband, Carl (David Hyde Pierce), who just lost his
job and also mistakenly left out hash brownies for the family dog to
eat. Alice's sister, Linda (Mary McCormack) is a masseuse, who's just
been subjected to a humiliating session with a demanding film producer
(David Duchovny), and is nervous about meeting her internet boyfriend,
Ed (Enrico Colantoni) for the first time. Ed himself is a playwright
behind a Hitler play getting ready for its first performance with a
temperamental actor (Nicky Katt, insufferable as always), and a city
that could care less.
As the title suggests, "Full Frontal" is about people who
expose themselves emotionally to others. Yet, I would like to think of
the film as more of an elaborate acting exercise that doesn't add up
to much, but is passably engrossing nonetheless. "Full
Frontal" can be viewed as Soderbergh's throat-clearing film
before he heads back to the world of big budgets and wide releases.
It's a picture that appears to resonate only with Soderbergh, and the
thrill of this mostly digital-video-shot film isn't contagious nor
valuable. "Full Frontal" is fascinating to watch from a
purely theatrical standpoint, but as a Hollywood razzing, it's
strictly leftovers. And as a Soderbergh film, it makes magnificent pap
like "Ocean's Eleven" seem all the more proficient.
I do give credit to Soderbergh for not making the Hollywood satire
unbearable, as is usually the case. There is a distinct smattering of
both love and contempt for the city and the industry that drives it,
but Soderbergh never wallows in the mire. The tone in "Full
Frontal" is more playful than bitter, a choice that works best
for this picture.
The key to "Full Frontal" is the actors, and as
instructed by Soderbergh, they have a healthy sense of exuberance with
this so-called "experimental" film. Consisting of mostly
improvisational dialog and locations, the talent is skilled enough to
carry scenes without losing the poker face that this is, essentially,
a film made up as they went. Nobody in this large, sprawling cast
breaks new ground, but they're given a chance to perform for
themselves, and the results, especially for Underwood, Pierce, and
McCormack, are revitalizing. Julia Roberts, easily the
"name" of the cast, gives an adequate performance here. But
outside of a gimmicky and self-serving actor tantrum scene, there's
nothing much from Roberts, or the cast, that we haven't seen before.
Well, besides a David Duchovny erection, which is actually the film's
most inspired moment.
For Soderbergh purists only, "Full Frontal" might not
even satisfy them. A film within a film within a film, the picture
doesn't have the focus I've come to expect from the filmmaker. And
while I could watch the actors work their characters all day, I still
wish they were in another film that had more structure for their
complicated lives to play out in.
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