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Full Frontal VHS/DVD Miramax 2003
Look, I love Steven Soderbergh. His Oscar speech a few years back actually made me cry with pride for being one of the creative people. I rented Erin Brockovich (despite loathing Julia Roberts) after I learned that he directed it. But Full Frontal, his latest film to make it to video, is just… well… unpleasant. I don’t have any doubt at all that Soderbergh achieved exactly what he wanted to achieve: a low-budget, high-concept exploration of utterly banal, shallow, and self-centered Hollywood types who seem only to exist in a sort of borderland where nothing ever happens. Their conversation skills are completely lacking. Their social and sexual encounters with each other are all too real, filled with verbal fumbles, tooth-grinding silences, and self-important proclamations that make me wish I could reach into the screen and hit them. The thing is: yes, it feels very real, but it’s not interesting. It’s almost like you took the real-life counterparts of the characters of Best of Show, devoid of any comic overstatements, and then watched them stand self-consciously in line at a supermarket for an hour and a half. Even when there is finally some minor action at the end of the movie, it somehow manages to be banal, and the characters are so completely middle of the road - impossible to love or hate - that I didn’t care for a second what happens to them. And if your main motivation is the sight of David Duchovny’s winkie, don’t bother: it is neither glorious, nor on full display, and there isn’t the least possibility of arousal in the scene where it appears. You’ll have to rent Red Shoe Diaries for that. True realism in filmmaking is an interesting experiment, and much of value was learned here: the camerawork (filmed mostly in digital video), non-linear storytelling (the film within the film within the film idea is cute, especially Brad Pitt’s self mockery), and character development is exquisite, when viewed out of context. And the acting here is superb and often surprisingly real, especially that of Catherine Keener, and the way-understated David Hyde Pierce - their characters are completely three dimensional, even if they are also completely uninteresting and vaguely loathsome people. On some level, I’m glad this experiment was conducted. I just hope that the results can be used to tell a story that is even a little compelling next time. - Michael Houghton
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