Full Frontal - 08/10/02

Here's the plot summary on IMDB:

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."

Here are the rules that actors where given.

Now you start to get a clearer picture of what Soderbergh and writer Coleman Hough were trying to accomplish - more of an ensemble piece about the idea of Hollywood, actors and every day relationships.

One of the first things I'd heard about this film was that it was to be Julia Roberts first nude scene. This was not the case. My friend Celia (who I saw the film with) said she'd heard the film was about the porn industry. I think that the random marketing tactics and rumors were to get more of a buzz going on the film... because ensemble pieces at $10 a pop just don't cut it anymore. I'm thinking along the lines of Robert Altman's last three or four films, none of which I've enjoyed.

The first thing we start this film off with are the cast - a great cast of actors including Blair Underwood (Gattaca, Rules of Engagement), Julia Roberts (come on...), David Hyde Pierce (of Frasier fame, along with The Fisher King, Nixon and Wolf), Catherine Keener (Out of Sight, 8MM, Death to Smoochy and the soon to be released Simone), Mary McCormack (K-Pax), David Duchovny (come on...), Enrico Colantoni (who did an incredible job in Galaxy Quest) and Nicky Katt (Dazed and Confused, Strange Days, The Limey, Insomnia), who I think is one of the best young actors out there.

We get three other cameos, from Brad Pitt, David Fincher and Terence Stamp. When Terence Stamp came on the screen I about pissed myself, because he's just reprising his role of Wilson from The Limey. I thought that was too funny.

With this characters and actors, what I took away from the film is that Hollywood personalities aren't interested in who they're hurting. This is the case in regards to Calvin and Lee's relationship. I won't give away too much, but here's a little bit to help out.

SPOILER Lee and Carl are married, and are having some problems. Carl thinks his wife finds him boring - and subsequently, in the beginning, we find out that Lee is going to leave Carl... she leaves him a note.

Throughout the day, Lee deals with some clients of hers... we get the sense that she is a PR person in a firm, or a psychologist... something having to do with people in her firm... hell, maybe she runs it... but she treats people very harshly, asking them to do things that she shouldn't be doing... and you get the sense that she's not all there.

Carl is trying to be a good husband, and he loves his wife... he's very open (too open, sometimes) and at the middle point of the film, he gets fired... which adds to his self esteem woes... and now he knows his wife is going to leave him, because he's useless.

In my eyes, Lee is the main character. Her sister, Linda, is someone whose longest relationship has been 3 months... and she's met someone over the internet, and she's to fly to Tuscon to meet up with him, and she's hedging her bets on this one guy. Lee doesn't approve, but doesn't know why. She and Calvin are having an affair, and she's beginning to love Calvin, who promptly dumps her because he 'found someone else'. He did... but I also think that Calvin, since he's a Hollywood personality, believes he's not bound by the same rules of respect and comfort that relationships deserve. Especially one with a married woman.

So... Lee is losing her mind. Her friend Gus (Duchovny) is having a party for his 40th birthday... Calvin and Gus know and work with each other... Linda was invited... Lee was trying to set up Linda with Gus... I'm getting into a sticky plot point problem here, because I don't want to give too much away... but suffice it to say that Lee is trying to control her own life and Linda's... and at the end, everything falls apart.

Lee, upon coming home to find Carl talking with a house-call vet, overhears him talking about how much he loves his wife, and how he hopes that everything works out because not only does he love her, but he really likes her as well.

For me, the entire movie was waiting for this point... that the fake personaes in films, with their perfect smiles, perfect skin, perfect lives... they're no match for real love, which is what Carl has for his wife.

END SPOILER This is a round-a-bout wrap-up of what I thought the film was about... but Soderbergh and Hough have shown us, in the beginning, a story inside a larger story. They aren't trying to sneak anything by you... they are both working to show you real and fake - and how the fake tries to sneak up on you in real life... when it's never really there.

The more I think about it, the more I dug this film. It's an unofficial companion to sex, lies and videotape... but it works solidly on its own. I was never bored, and I was very much looking forward to the end of the film, to the conclusion of Carl and Lee.

I should mention that this film was shot entirely with a Canon XL-1 - the top of the line in digital cameras. This was a point of pride with both Soderbergh and Canon, and I think it's worth mentioning. Also that the entire film was edited using a Mac (which there was additional product placement). I think that, as an experiment, this film went over fairly well. It's hard to justify asking an audience to accept an experiment... this one didn't do a bad job.

Here's the Official Site.