Question:
Steven Soderbergh, after aquiring the power in Hollywood, and respect of many high caliber actors, goes on and makes this home video "indie" looking film about nothing. There was a "search" for a title with some kind of prize started by the director through a few magazines in US, after he had to change it from "How to escape a hotel fire" or something like that, after Sept. 11th, and went with Full Frontal but honestly you can name it anything and it won't matter, other than this particular title is more or less apropriate in representing the movie as a truthful portrait of these people's lives. It's just a bunch of characters vaguely related during Friday in Los Angeles, California as the title card reads, with a bit of "action" spilling into Saturday.
It's full of cameos/small roles by Brad Pitt, Harvey Weinstein, and a bunch of others I won't reveal. Those wishing to see more of the lately abducted David Duchovny shouldn't hope for much more than one, but excellent scene with his maseuse.
Nicky Katt stands out as always as "Hitler", you'll be laughing most of the time watching him.
The widely known fact that most of the actors dressed themselves adds to my personal appreciativeness (is that a word) of the sexy looking Catherine Keener, wearing, as always, her suits, and being wicked torturing the about to be fired employees in her office.
It was also fun hearing the audience divide in half during one of the cameos by Terence Stamp with just one line, to those who saw the Limey, and those who went "uhh wha?" :p
Anyway, the movie within a movie is shot in regular "high quality" film, yet the "real" behind the scenes life, which is 90% of the movie, is shot in grainy home camcorder style, and the movie really is about nothing and only has a few interesting points which should be obvious to the viewer for him/her to enjoy the jokes. Even better if you live in LA.
So, this movie is for Hurlyburly/Anniversary Party, and Sex, Lies kind of Soderbergh fans only.
Looks a good film although i've only seen that very vague teaser/trailer.
Been a fan of Soderbergh since Out Of Sight which made me check out The Limey (great flick), looking forward to seeing Sex, Lies ... as i think that's out on R2 soon.
But after a few high profile films it'll be interesting to see what he does with this lower budget film, especially as it looks very character driven which i think he's particularly good at capturing on film (or video in this case).
Nice review Lenny.
Just want to bump this as i got it today and plan on watching it over the w/e.
Any other views on it? I'm a big Soddy fan but i know it's nothing like his mainstream (OOS, Traffic, O11 etc) output. Just interested to see what he can do outside of the Hollywood system (post O11, Solaris etc) now he is regarded as a bigshot director.
I picked the R1 Full Frontal up on play.com the other day, and watched it a couple of nights ago, and it's great. Loose, very funny, surprising and very well put together - if a little poised at times. It feels like a West Coast Woody Allen movie, if that makes any sense.
Lots of movie references, cameos, Soderbergh in-jokes (Schizopolis is called to mind more than once) make it a lot of fun, but the real joy is in the acting and the structure. David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener and Mary McCormak are all brilliant, and the surrounding performances from the likes of Nicky Katt and David Duchovny are lots of fun. Julia Roberts (who should only be allowed to make films with SS) and Blair Underwood are great too - but they have slightly different roles to the rest of the cast. I won't spoil that one...
Soderbergh once again demonstrates that when it comes to structure, he has an innate sense of how far to push the envelope for mainstream audiences. Solaris, Traffic and even Ocean's 11 played with time and location in very interesting ways, and it's refreshing that Soderbergh can ply the same sensibilities into a low-key, indie-ish comedy.
Originally posted by Lenny Nero
It was also fun hearing the audience divide in half during one of the cameos by Terence Stamp with just one line, to those who saw the Limey, and those who went "uhh wha?" :p
:thumbs:
I'm not sure what i made of this film. it's def my least faveourite Soderbergh film but it did have some plus points, namely the cast and some great cameos. It was fun to watch the characters but the story was just so over the place that i found it a little hard to get into.
Def a film worthy of repeated viewing. Soderbergh has a talent for incorporating involving performances from his cast and what with the large-ish cast here it made for varied viewing. However those going in thinking it's an OOS or O11 type movie will be left feeling mightily cheated i feel as it's not as accesible on those levels.
Still worth a look if you're a fan of the director.
It's full of cameos/small roles by Brad Pitt, Harvey Weinstein, and a bunch of others I won't reveal. Those wishing to see more of the lately abducted David Duchovny shouldn't hope for much more than one, but excellent scene with his maseuse.
Nicky Katt stands out as always as "Hitler", you'll be laughing most of the time watching him.
The widely known fact that most of the actors dressed themselves adds to my personal appreciativeness (is that a word) of the sexy looking Catherine Keener, wearing, as always, her suits, and being wicked torturing the about to be fired employees in her office.
It was also fun hearing the audience divide in half during one of the cameos by Terence Stamp with just one line, to those who saw the Limey, and those who went "uhh wha?" :p
Anyway, the movie within a movie is shot in regular "high quality" film, yet the "real" behind the scenes life, which is 90% of the movie, is shot in grainy home camcorder style, and the movie really is about nothing and only has a few interesting points which should be obvious to the viewer for him/her to enjoy the jokes. Even better if you live in LA.
So, this movie is for Hurlyburly/Anniversary Party, and Sex, Lies kind of Soderbergh fans only.
Answers:
Looks a good film although i've only seen that very vague teaser/trailer.
Been a fan of Soderbergh since Out Of Sight which made me check out The Limey (great flick), looking forward to seeing Sex, Lies ... as i think that's out on R2 soon.
But after a few high profile films it'll be interesting to see what he does with this lower budget film, especially as it looks very character driven which i think he's particularly good at capturing on film (or video in this case).
Nice review Lenny.
Answers:
Just want to bump this as i got it today and plan on watching it over the w/e.
Any other views on it? I'm a big Soddy fan but i know it's nothing like his mainstream (OOS, Traffic, O11 etc) output. Just interested to see what he can do outside of the Hollywood system (post O11, Solaris etc) now he is regarded as a bigshot director.
Answers:
I picked the R1 Full Frontal up on play.com the other day, and watched it a couple of nights ago, and it's great. Loose, very funny, surprising and very well put together - if a little poised at times. It feels like a West Coast Woody Allen movie, if that makes any sense.
Lots of movie references, cameos, Soderbergh in-jokes (Schizopolis is called to mind more than once) make it a lot of fun, but the real joy is in the acting and the structure. David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener and Mary McCormak are all brilliant, and the surrounding performances from the likes of Nicky Katt and David Duchovny are lots of fun. Julia Roberts (who should only be allowed to make films with SS) and Blair Underwood are great too - but they have slightly different roles to the rest of the cast. I won't spoil that one...
Soderbergh once again demonstrates that when it comes to structure, he has an innate sense of how far to push the envelope for mainstream audiences. Solaris, Traffic and even Ocean's 11 played with time and location in very interesting ways, and it's refreshing that Soderbergh can ply the same sensibilities into a low-key, indie-ish comedy.
Answers:
Originally posted by Lenny Nero
It was also fun hearing the audience divide in half during one of the cameos by Terence Stamp with just one line, to those who saw the Limey, and those who went "uhh wha?" :p
:thumbs:
Answers:
I'm not sure what i made of this film. it's def my least faveourite Soderbergh film but it did have some plus points, namely the cast and some great cameos. It was fun to watch the characters but the story was just so over the place that i found it a little hard to get into.
Def a film worthy of repeated viewing. Soderbergh has a talent for incorporating involving performances from his cast and what with the large-ish cast here it made for varied viewing. However those going in thinking it's an OOS or O11 type movie will be left feeling mightily cheated i feel as it's not as accesible on those levels.
Still worth a look if you're a fan of the director.
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