DVD: Full Frontal (2011)

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.