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Full Frontal (2002)
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Reviews Counted:139
Fresh:51
Rotten:88
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: An confusing movie made worse by the poor camera work.
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Director Steven Soderbergh follows up his highly impressive string of big budget smashes (ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, OCEAN'S ELEVEN) with this self-proclaimed "companion piece" to 1989's hugely... Director Steven Soderbergh follows up his highly impressive string of big budget smashes (ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, OCEAN'S ELEVEN) with this self-proclaimed "companion piece" to 1989's hugely influential SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE. Written by New York-based playwright Coleman Hough, FULL FRONTAL concerns a day in the life of a series of confused, depressed, and neurotic Los Angeles residents. Ed (Enrico Colantoni) is a writer with a script currently in production and a play that is about to open. Ivan's writing partner Carl (David Hyde Pierce) is married to Lee (Catherine Keener), an unhappy Human Resources VP. Lee is having an affair with superstar actor Calvin (Blair Underwood), who is costarring with Francesca (Julia Roberts) in Carl and Ed's film. Lee's sister Linda (Mary McCormack) is a masseuse who is looking forward to an upcoming weekend rendezvous with a stranger she met on the Internet. That man just so happens to be Ed. Using this dizzying framework to explore the dysfunctional characters who inhabit the entertainment industry, FULL FRONTAL also works as a bold technical experiment. Incorporating muddy digital video (to capture "real life") mixed with 35mm film (to capture "the movie within the movie"), Soderbergh shows that even with an Oscar on the shelf, he's still an indie-minded director at heart. [More]
Starring: Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Catherine Keener, David Duchovny
Starring: Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Catherine Keener, David Duchovny, David Hyde Pierce, Nicky Katt, Mary McCormack, Enrico Colantoni, Brad Pitt, David Fincher
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Screenwriter: Coleman Hough
Producer: Scott Kramer, Gregory Jacobs
Studio: Miramax Films
Reviews for Full Frontal
Somewhere under the layers of pretentiousness and in-jokes and cleverness and reflexivity and artsiness and talk, there is probably a film lurking. I didn't find it.
The whole thing comes off as a bunch of rich actors slumming it for kicks in a faux low-budget flick.
While it does beat watching paint dry, at least watching paint dry gives you a sense of something having been accomplished.
The story is so unmoored and the characters so ill-defined that the overall effect is vacuous.
Little more than a Dogme 95 film with Julia Roberts looking like a baboon.
A raw, emotional tapestry that may have benefited from the no-nonsense atmosphere Soderbergh provided, but I doubt that.
What may have been a nice diversion from the norm in Hollywood ends up as dull trip into the lives of ordinary, self-involved Angelenos.
Soderbergh should be ashamed of himself for trying to pass this off as entertainment.
I will be the first to admit that it is a film that most people will not like, and should probably stay away from.
Beneath the cracked indie surface of Soderbergh's early films there was always a cunning commercial instinct.
a pretentious, shapeless, often boring jumble of a film that is pretending to be a spontaneous, improvised work of art made against the mainstream Hollywood machine.
Latest News for Full Frontal
July 20, 2007:
Catalina Sandina Morena Joins Soderbergh's Che Films
Did you know that Steven Soderbergh was making a movie about Che Guevara? Starring Benicio Del Toro in the title role? Yeah, me too. But somehow I missed the news that he was... More...
June 21, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Frequent background funnyman Steve Carell has stolen scenes in "Anchorman," "Bruce Almighty," and "Bewitched" -- which means it's high time the guy... More...
July 24, 2002:
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February 06, 2002:
Without the distractions of big-budget moviemaking, Soderbergh could focus intensely on dramatic work with his actors, which is fitting for such a dramatically intense movie. ![]()
More...
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