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Full Frontal
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // February 11, 2003
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Given his successful films over recent years ("Ocean's Eleven", "Traffic", "Erin Brockovich"), it's fairly understandable that director Steven Soderberg might want to try something low-budget, experimental and certainly, far different than the big-budget pictures that he's helmed. "Full Frontal", unfortunately, is a bit too experimental - both in the way that its drama is ineffective and the choices in terms of filming make the picture look thrown together.
The film starts off with a film called "Rendezvous", where Calvin (Blair Underwood) is being interviewed by Francesca (Julia Roberts). The film is written by Carl (David Hyde Pierce), and produced by Gus (David Duchovny). Carl's unhappily married to Lee (Catherine Keener), and has a sister who's an unhappy massage therapist who's heading off to meet a theater director (Enrico Colantoni) she met on the internet. The theater director is preparing a play called "The Sound and the Fuhrer", which stars an irritable actor (Nicky Katt). Most of these characters are headed towards producer Gus (David Duchovny)'s birthday party.
After sitting through "Full Frontal", I'm still unsure of what the film's point was supposed to be. The film bounces from one character to another, never really picking up steam or seeming as if it knows where it's actually headed. Interestingly enough, "Rendezvous" is shot in 35mm film, which makes these scenes almost pleasant to watch in comparison with the rest of the film, which is shot with what appears to be a cheap digital video camera - heavy grain is apparent throughout, the picture looks terribly soft at times and Soderberg (who's also the cinematographer, as per usual on his films) doesn't seem to have nearly the skill in handling the camera as he usually does. I can understand that Soderberg wanted to visually show the differences between the real world and the film, but the digital video scenes could certainly have looked smoother and still "different".
Looking at the film as simply a series of episodes, I began to warm up to it slightly. Issues with the visuals and situations aside, the performances here are actually quite good, with Catherine Keener's cold executive clearly the strongest of the leads. Roberts offers a bitter snap to her dialogue that she should think about bringing out more often. Blair Underwood is excellent, as is David Hyde Pierce.
"Frontal" is clearly about Soderberg taking a risk, which only cost $2m and 18 days. As an acting exercise, the film works, but I didn't find that interesting enough. There are some interesting ideas and concepts about reality and work and relationships falling apart, but the film never really ties them together into a cohesive story. There's also one or two too many characters, when the film would have been best to narrow its focus. Cameos by David Fincher and Brad Pitt are amusing, but don't really add a whole lot. There's also an unfunny moment where director Soderberg makes a cameo, only to have his face blocked out by a black box. The film uses voice-over an awful lot, which started to become irritating and often almost as tiring as watching the digital video images.
I almost wish Soderberg would have concentrated on actually making a small, straightforward picture instead of focusing on being "innovative". I'm still unsure if the digital video was necessary (admittedly, I'm not a fan of DV, although some films have made better use of it than others), as some have made better-looking pictures in the same amount of time and less budget (see Ed Burns' "Sidewalk of New York"). While Soderberg is clearly one of the finest directors working today and one able to craft both great comedies and dramas, it's difficult to see what he saw in these stories - the characters are fairly decent, but the story remains rather messy and other films have explored Hollywood types with greater insight and humor. While I liked elements of "Full Frontal", this experiment could have been more involving had more of a story been constructed.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Full Frontal" is presented by Miramax in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film's look is often so-so on purpose, as the digital video scenes appear noticably soft and show fairly heavy grain at times. The 35mm scenes certainly appear crisper and cleaner, with fine definition and no noticable softness.
Edge enhancement is only occasionally visible, but only in slight amounts. A few traces of compression artifacts were also seen. On the intentional side, slight-to-heavy grain is present throughout much of the film. The print used is in fine condition otherwise, with no apparent wear. Colors vary throughout; they look decent at times, but throughout most of the digital-video scenes, they appear smeary and off. Flesh tones also can appear unflattering, as well. While this certainly isn't a great-looking picture (unlike Soderberg's other films), this seems to be an accurate presentation of what the director intended for the look of this picture.
SOUND: "Full Frontal" is presented by Miramax in Dolby Digital 5.1. While the soundtrack may be 5.1, the presentation generally seemed like mono, as this film is entirely dialogue-focused, with pretty much nothing else. Dialogue remains clear and clean throughout.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Steven Soderberg and writer Coleman Hough. The commentary starts off with a rather odd statement, as Soderberg states that he's "not exactly sure what people want from these things." As this is probably the director's 5th or 6th commentary (along with the fact that some of his previous tracks have been rated as some of the best commentaries out there), I'd think that he has a fine idea of what is expected from an audio commentary. As I browsed through this track, Soderberg once again proves that he's one of the better directors out there when it comes to providing a discussion of his work that's both entertaining and insightful. While this track isn't as amusing or energetic as some of his prior tracks (see "The Limey" and "Ocean's 11"), his commentary here does cover all the bases, such as working with the actors, analysis of the story and the production issues involved with trying to shoot a movie with a lot of stars in 18 days. Hough certainly does have some ideas about the film to offer throughout the track, although she doesn't get as involved with the track as the writers that have joined Soderberg on other commentaries in the past.
Deleted Scenes: This section offers 17 minutes of deleted footage, with optional commentary from screenwriter Coleman Hough. The scenes that I browsed through offered some highlights, but nothing that seemed to be entertaining or interesting enough to add back in the film. The screenwriter's commentary does provide some basic insight as to the history of the scene, although it would have been nice to have Soderberg's input as to exactly why these scenes were deleted.
A Conversation with Steven Soderberg: This 7 minute featurette has Soderberg discussing his intentions behind making "Full Frontal" and what he was trying for with the film. The director also provides some discussion of how the story began to grow, form and change.
Also: Rounding out the package are: a few minutes of the director's "Spy Cam" footage, additional "in-character" interviews, the film's theatrical trailer and a featurette on the strict rules (bring your own food, drive yourself, etc.) which the actors involved in the production had to follow.
Final Thoughts: I felt aspects of "Full Frontal" worked well, but the film never seemed to be able to get its concepts together. While it functioned well as an actor's exercise - there's some very nice performances here - that alone wasn't enough to keep me involved. I'd lightly recommend this as a rental for those seeking something different or hardcore fans of the director (although those expecting something remotely similar to the director's prior films will be dissapointed). Miramax's DVD edition provides audio/video quality that are not very pleasing, but seem to be intentional. There's quite a few supplemental features here, as well, most of them interesting.
Given his successful films over recent years ("Ocean's Eleven", "Traffic", "Erin Brockovich"), it's fairly understandable that director Steven Soderberg might want to try something low-budget, experimental and certainly, far different than the big-budget pictures that he's helmed. "Full Frontal", unfortunately, is a bit too experimental - both in the way that its drama is ineffective and the choices in terms of filming make the picture look thrown together.
The film starts off with a film called "Rendezvous", where Calvin (Blair Underwood) is being interviewed by Francesca (Julia Roberts). The film is written by Carl (David Hyde Pierce), and produced by Gus (David Duchovny). Carl's unhappily married to Lee (Catherine Keener), and has a sister who's an unhappy massage therapist who's heading off to meet a theater director (Enrico Colantoni) she met on the internet. The theater director is preparing a play called "The Sound and the Fuhrer", which stars an irritable actor (Nicky Katt). Most of these characters are headed towards producer Gus (David Duchovny)'s birthday party.
After sitting through "Full Frontal", I'm still unsure of what the film's point was supposed to be. The film bounces from one character to another, never really picking up steam or seeming as if it knows where it's actually headed. Interestingly enough, "Rendezvous" is shot in 35mm film, which makes these scenes almost pleasant to watch in comparison with the rest of the film, which is shot with what appears to be a cheap digital video camera - heavy grain is apparent throughout, the picture looks terribly soft at times and Soderberg (who's also the cinematographer, as per usual on his films) doesn't seem to have nearly the skill in handling the camera as he usually does. I can understand that Soderberg wanted to visually show the differences between the real world and the film, but the digital video scenes could certainly have looked smoother and still "different".
Looking at the film as simply a series of episodes, I began to warm up to it slightly. Issues with the visuals and situations aside, the performances here are actually quite good, with Catherine Keener's cold executive clearly the strongest of the leads. Roberts offers a bitter snap to her dialogue that she should think about bringing out more often. Blair Underwood is excellent, as is David Hyde Pierce.
"Frontal" is clearly about Soderberg taking a risk, which only cost $2m and 18 days. As an acting exercise, the film works, but I didn't find that interesting enough. There are some interesting ideas and concepts about reality and work and relationships falling apart, but the film never really ties them together into a cohesive story. There's also one or two too many characters, when the film would have been best to narrow its focus. Cameos by David Fincher and Brad Pitt are amusing, but don't really add a whole lot. There's also an unfunny moment where director Soderberg makes a cameo, only to have his face blocked out by a black box. The film uses voice-over an awful lot, which started to become irritating and often almost as tiring as watching the digital video images.
I almost wish Soderberg would have concentrated on actually making a small, straightforward picture instead of focusing on being "innovative". I'm still unsure if the digital video was necessary (admittedly, I'm not a fan of DV, although some films have made better use of it than others), as some have made better-looking pictures in the same amount of time and less budget (see Ed Burns' "Sidewalk of New York"). While Soderberg is clearly one of the finest directors working today and one able to craft both great comedies and dramas, it's difficult to see what he saw in these stories - the characters are fairly decent, but the story remains rather messy and other films have explored Hollywood types with greater insight and humor. While I liked elements of "Full Frontal", this experiment could have been more involving had more of a story been constructed.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Full Frontal" is presented by Miramax in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film's look is often so-so on purpose, as the digital video scenes appear noticably soft and show fairly heavy grain at times. The 35mm scenes certainly appear crisper and cleaner, with fine definition and no noticable softness.
Edge enhancement is only occasionally visible, but only in slight amounts. A few traces of compression artifacts were also seen. On the intentional side, slight-to-heavy grain is present throughout much of the film. The print used is in fine condition otherwise, with no apparent wear. Colors vary throughout; they look decent at times, but throughout most of the digital-video scenes, they appear smeary and off. Flesh tones also can appear unflattering, as well. While this certainly isn't a great-looking picture (unlike Soderberg's other films), this seems to be an accurate presentation of what the director intended for the look of this picture.
SOUND: "Full Frontal" is presented by Miramax in Dolby Digital 5.1. While the soundtrack may be 5.1, the presentation generally seemed like mono, as this film is entirely dialogue-focused, with pretty much nothing else. Dialogue remains clear and clean throughout.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Steven Soderberg and writer Coleman Hough. The commentary starts off with a rather odd statement, as Soderberg states that he's "not exactly sure what people want from these things." As this is probably the director's 5th or 6th commentary (along with the fact that some of his previous tracks have been rated as some of the best commentaries out there), I'd think that he has a fine idea of what is expected from an audio commentary. As I browsed through this track, Soderberg once again proves that he's one of the better directors out there when it comes to providing a discussion of his work that's both entertaining and insightful. While this track isn't as amusing or energetic as some of his prior tracks (see "The Limey" and "Ocean's 11"), his commentary here does cover all the bases, such as working with the actors, analysis of the story and the production issues involved with trying to shoot a movie with a lot of stars in 18 days. Hough certainly does have some ideas about the film to offer throughout the track, although she doesn't get as involved with the track as the writers that have joined Soderberg on other commentaries in the past.
Deleted Scenes: This section offers 17 minutes of deleted footage, with optional commentary from screenwriter Coleman Hough. The scenes that I browsed through offered some highlights, but nothing that seemed to be entertaining or interesting enough to add back in the film. The screenwriter's commentary does provide some basic insight as to the history of the scene, although it would have been nice to have Soderberg's input as to exactly why these scenes were deleted.
A Conversation with Steven Soderberg: This 7 minute featurette has Soderberg discussing his intentions behind making "Full Frontal" and what he was trying for with the film. The director also provides some discussion of how the story began to grow, form and change.
Also: Rounding out the package are: a few minutes of the director's "Spy Cam" footage, additional "in-character" interviews, the film's theatrical trailer and a featurette on the strict rules (bring your own food, drive yourself, etc.) which the actors involved in the production had to follow.
Final Thoughts: I felt aspects of "Full Frontal" worked well, but the film never seemed to be able to get its concepts together. While it functioned well as an actor's exercise - there's some very nice performances here - that alone wasn't enough to keep me involved. I'd lightly recommend this as a rental for those seeking something different or hardcore fans of the director (although those expecting something remotely similar to the director's prior films will be dissapointed). Miramax's DVD edition provides audio/video quality that are not very pleasing, but seem to be intentional. There's quite a few supplemental features here, as well, most of them interesting.
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