July 20, 2003
Full Frontal
Full Frontal (2002)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Coleman Hough
Starring: David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, David Hyde Pierce
Director Steven Soderbergh said that if he was going to make a movie as fun and audience-ready as Ocean's 11, he had to do something challenging and "indie." Which brings us to the strange experiment that is Full Frontal.
It's hard to categorize, harder to explain, and even more difficult to understand. It is indeed an experiment, shot for a paltry 2 million dollars, largely on digital, handheld video cameras. Soderbergh in his dvd interview says maybe someone braver than he would have the courage to make this movie for 90 million dollars. The movie, and the message, whatever it may be, would have suffered with more money. It would have gotten in the way of this excursion.
Not very many directors today would have the courage to even take on something like this for 2 million dollars, when their careers and reputations are always on the line. Luckily, Soderbergh, who made his first mark with Sex, Lies & Videotape (he calls this the "karmic sequel to that film), does not adhere to the hollywood formula. I can't say I liked the movie, but I most certainly didn't dislike it. It was fascinating for what it was?an artistic experiment for all the world to see.
The dvd contains feature commentary by Soderbergh and screenwriter Coleman Hough, in-character cast interviews, deleted scenes, and the aforementioned interview with Soderbergh. None of these shed much light on the story within the film (in fact Hough often commented on the unfamiliarity of some of the scenes she had written), instead focusing on the filming & writing process.
Grade: B-
Posted by Queuetipp at July 20, 2003 11:47 PM
