Post by The Narrator Returns on Nov 30, 2013 18:14:42 GMT -6
It says something about the power Steven Soderbergh held in 2002 that he could get something like Full Frontal made. On a studio’s dime, no less. He had already won an Oscar for Traffic, and he proved himself to be a fantastic commercial director with Erin Brockovich and Ocean’s Eleven. So maybe Miramax trusted him when he came to them with the idea for the film, a wildly noncommercial film about the lives of several people in Hollywood, intercut with scenes from a movie-within-the-movie about a romance between a journalist and a man making a movie. Got all that? Unsurprisingly, Full Frontal failed to set the box office on fire, and critics were confused and irritated with it. Roger Ebert was so scathing about the movie that he included his review in his book Your Movie Sucks. But is it worth a second look?
The film opens with interviews with some of the film’s main players. Then, we witness the opening of the movie-within-a-movie Rendezvous, which lets you know how vapid and Hollywood it is with the credits sequence, where the most overwrought musical cue imaginable is used. We then get to the meat of the film, as we’re introduced to some of our main characters, starting with David Hyde Pierce and Catherine Keener’s unhappily married couple of Carl and Lee. Then, we meet Arty (Enrico Colantoni), a writer who co-wrote Rendezvous with Carl, and who’s working on a play about Hitler’s personal life (hilariously tited The Sound and the Führer) with a very temperamental actor in the lead (Nicky Katt, who steals every scene that he’s in). Arty is also about to meet Linda (Mary McCormack), Lee’s sister who works as a masseuse and has been led to believe Arty is a young artist from Tucson. But ultimately, she falls for Hollywood producer Gus (David Duchovny), whose birthday party attracts all of these characters together. In Rendezvous, an actor named Nicholas (Blair Underwood, also playing Nicholas, the actor playing Nicholas) is interviewed by journalist Catherine (Julia Roberts, also playing actress Francesca Davis) while he shoots a buddy-cop movie with Brad Pitt and David Fincher directing (in true Fincher style, an ordinary dialogue scene takes 49 takes to perfect). Oh, and I nearly forgot that Rendezvous is also a sequel to The Limey. Got all that?
Full Frontal is, at its heart, a film about personal relationships, and how they mix with art. There are bits in Carl’s life which are mentioned in Rendezvous, but they’re done in a far less interesting manner. The red letter that Lee writes him is a genuine expression of remorse and emotion. The red letter which appears in <i>Rendezvous</i> is only a banal plot device. When Carl’s neighbor comes out and picks up the trash dressed like a vampire, that’s interesting. When Nicholas brings up that he had a neighbor who always dressed like a vampire, it barely registers. Art imitates life, but generally very badly. And compare how Soderbergh shoots Rendezvous in comparison to the real-life sequences. Rendezvous has the very pretty sheen of 35mm to fall back on, while the real-life sequences are shot on what might be the worst possible digital video sources, with skill that suggests entries to America’s Funniest Home Videos. It’s as if Soderbergh was daring the audience to prefer the pretty, yet boring movie scenes with the interesting, but ugly real-life parts. It’s not a perfect film by any means, and it can be challenging for some and downright annoying for others. But if you are willing, it will bring many rewards and riches.
Grade: B
Lester Scale: Really Fascinating Film That Gets Better With Age
The Soderbergh Players: Lots of them this time around. David Hyde Pierce had previously auditioned for the role of Graham in sex, lies, and videotape (which would have been interesting to see). Catherine Keener previously had a role in Out of Sight as Jack Foley’s ex-wife (with some really awesome pants). Nicky Katt had previously been the funniest thing in The Limey, and naturally, he was the funniest thing in this movie as well. Julia Roberts had won an Oscar thanks to Soderbergh helming Erin Brockovich, and she repaid the favor by appearing in Ocean’s Eleven and this (as well as the later Ocean’s Twelve). Brad Pitt also appeared in Ocean’s Eleven, but he would return for both of the following Ocean’s movies. Mary McCormack would later appear as a lobbyist working at James Carville and Mary Matalin’s Washington firm in Soderbergh’s HBO series K Street. Terence Stamp not only appears here, he reprises his role as Wilson from The Limey in it. As it turns out, the plane Nicholas and Catherine take is the same plane Wilson was on in the final moments of the movie. He’s even delivering the same dialogue he used with the passenger next to him! And Soderbergh himself makes an appearance, as the director of Rendezvous whose face is covered with a black bar. No word on whether or not DP “Sven Jürgens” is actually him.
Coleman Hough, the film’s writer, would later write Bubble for Soderbergh. And Sarah Flack, who edited it, was also the editor on The Limey and Schizopolis.
The film opens with interviews with some of the film’s main players. Then, we witness the opening of the movie-within-a-movie Rendezvous, which lets you know how vapid and Hollywood it is with the credits sequence, where the most overwrought musical cue imaginable is used. We then get to the meat of the film, as we’re introduced to some of our main characters, starting with David Hyde Pierce and Catherine Keener’s unhappily married couple of Carl and Lee. Then, we meet Arty (Enrico Colantoni), a writer who co-wrote Rendezvous with Carl, and who’s working on a play about Hitler’s personal life (hilariously tited The Sound and the Führer) with a very temperamental actor in the lead (Nicky Katt, who steals every scene that he’s in). Arty is also about to meet Linda (Mary McCormack), Lee’s sister who works as a masseuse and has been led to believe Arty is a young artist from Tucson. But ultimately, she falls for Hollywood producer Gus (David Duchovny), whose birthday party attracts all of these characters together. In Rendezvous, an actor named Nicholas (Blair Underwood, also playing Nicholas, the actor playing Nicholas) is interviewed by journalist Catherine (Julia Roberts, also playing actress Francesca Davis) while he shoots a buddy-cop movie with Brad Pitt and David Fincher directing (in true Fincher style, an ordinary dialogue scene takes 49 takes to perfect). Oh, and I nearly forgot that Rendezvous is also a sequel to The Limey. Got all that?
Full Frontal is, at its heart, a film about personal relationships, and how they mix with art. There are bits in Carl’s life which are mentioned in Rendezvous, but they’re done in a far less interesting manner. The red letter that Lee writes him is a genuine expression of remorse and emotion. The red letter which appears in <i>Rendezvous</i> is only a banal plot device. When Carl’s neighbor comes out and picks up the trash dressed like a vampire, that’s interesting. When Nicholas brings up that he had a neighbor who always dressed like a vampire, it barely registers. Art imitates life, but generally very badly. And compare how Soderbergh shoots Rendezvous in comparison to the real-life sequences. Rendezvous has the very pretty sheen of 35mm to fall back on, while the real-life sequences are shot on what might be the worst possible digital video sources, with skill that suggests entries to America’s Funniest Home Videos. It’s as if Soderbergh was daring the audience to prefer the pretty, yet boring movie scenes with the interesting, but ugly real-life parts. It’s not a perfect film by any means, and it can be challenging for some and downright annoying for others. But if you are willing, it will bring many rewards and riches.
Grade: B
Lester Scale: Really Fascinating Film That Gets Better With Age
The Soderbergh Players: Lots of them this time around. David Hyde Pierce had previously auditioned for the role of Graham in sex, lies, and videotape (which would have been interesting to see). Catherine Keener previously had a role in Out of Sight as Jack Foley’s ex-wife (with some really awesome pants). Nicky Katt had previously been the funniest thing in The Limey, and naturally, he was the funniest thing in this movie as well. Julia Roberts had won an Oscar thanks to Soderbergh helming Erin Brockovich, and she repaid the favor by appearing in Ocean’s Eleven and this (as well as the later Ocean’s Twelve). Brad Pitt also appeared in Ocean’s Eleven, but he would return for both of the following Ocean’s movies. Mary McCormack would later appear as a lobbyist working at James Carville and Mary Matalin’s Washington firm in Soderbergh’s HBO series K Street. Terence Stamp not only appears here, he reprises his role as Wilson from The Limey in it. As it turns out, the plane Nicholas and Catherine take is the same plane Wilson was on in the final moments of the movie. He’s even delivering the same dialogue he used with the passenger next to him! And Soderbergh himself makes an appearance, as the director of Rendezvous whose face is covered with a black bar. No word on whether or not DP “Sven Jürgens” is actually him.
Coleman Hough, the film’s writer, would later write Bubble for Soderbergh. And Sarah Flack, who edited it, was also the editor on The Limey and Schizopolis.
