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Full Frontal review
:. Director: Steven Soderbergh
:. Starring: David Duchovny, Catherine Keener
:. Running Time: 1:40
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: USA
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In Full Frontal, Steven Soderbergh exposes the Hollywood microcosm through an ironic and experimental lens.
For 24 hours the film follows the life of some Hollywood/LA players, including a movie star (Julia Roberts), a wacky VP of human resources (Catherine Keener), her masseuse sister (Mary Mac Cormack) and writer husband (David Hyde Pierce) as well as playwright/actor (Enrico Colantoni) among others. All these characters are linked to movie producer Gus (David Duchovny) whose birthday bash is that evening.
Full Frontal features three levels of reality: a Hollywood satire (in grainy tones), a film starring Julia Roberts and the film within the film being shot. While the approach here is clearly experimental, contrary to rumors, this is an unpretentious work. The transitions between these three levels of reality never try to trick the audience, using different styles of photography for each level-a process Soderbergh already used in Traffic. Real life scenes are shot in blurry and grainy digital tones, reflecting the lack of happiness and dirty mind games of the characters. To the contrary, the film within the film is shot in a glossy photography symbolizing the glamour and happy themes of mainstream cinema—here a Julia Roberts vehicle à la Notting Hill. It also shows how different actors can be from the characters they play.
The picture is neither praise for independent filmmaking nor an attack against mainstream cinema. It's just an amusing comedy where a director pokes fun at his working environment and peers. Soderbergh proves to the world he still has the heart of an indie filmmaker but also shows an affection for the characters and the industry he satires. At the same time, this affection can also be viewed as a lack of neutrality—he is now a major player in Hollywood—what might explain that Full Frontal doesn't have the bite of the likes of The Player and Swimming with Sharks. The experimental approach and the light caricature of industry players are also reminiscent of Timecode, a film with which it even shares the same L.A. geographical location. The Anniversary Party is another film that comes to mind but the script defuses the event the film is built around with a great twist of irony.
Full Frontal provides a good dose of fun through its ensemble of oddball characters and by having big Hollywood names caricature themselves. While Julia Roberts is here to create some hype and represent movie stars, Catherine Keener steals the show with her disjointed character. TV actors such as David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) and Enrico Colantoni (Just Shoot Me) have great comedic timing while David Duchovny, once again, doesn't pass up the opportunity to make fun of his image—he is actually the only one who goes full frontal. The head of Miramax, a friend of Soderbergh's, is also shown as vulgar and ignorant (a hint about studio execs?) while boring and pretentious plays aren't spared either.
At the end, when the camera pulls back showing the actual shooting of the film, the message is clear. Don't be fooled by the three levels of reality in Full Frontal. The supposedly real level is as fake as the film within the film and what you are watching is just a movie, not a documentary. A director is just a master of illusion and whatever realistic approach you use—here the digital camera and the use of rules might refer to Dogma—everything is fake and a movie should never be considered as a representation of reality.
Fred Thom
 Che
Solaris
Ocean's Eleven
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