Full Frontal
Fresh off his directorial wonder Traffic and his crowd-pleaser Ocean's Eleven, Steven Soderbergh decided to experiment a little. The result is the digital-camera film Full Frontal. Meant to be a follow-up to his great film "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," this follows a group of people attached in one way or another to a Hollywood film being produced and shot. The stars come out in full force for this one. Julia Roberts. Catherine Keener. Blair Underwood. David Hyde-Pierce. David Duchovny. Mary McCormack. Even Brad Pitt in a cameo. All followed strict rules to keep costs way down including no trailers, the task of dressing themselves, being forced to stay in character at all times, etc.

The result is disappointing. First of all, it's nice for Soderbergh to embrace the digital revolution, but his camerawork here is shoddy at best. His use of natural light over conventional light is a bad decision with dim shots and sunny shots wreaking havoc on our eyes. There are shots where he decides to go out-of-focus while dialogue is heard. This is done for reasons I'm still not sure about. Then there's the story. What does it all mean? There's too much stuff going on, all connected in one way or another, to figure things out. What results when you leave is a bad headache and a confused mind. 1 star