Enjoyable low-budget Soderbergh oddity

It\'s confusing, it\'s irritating, but it is the work of one of the most talented and successful directors working in the world today.

Steven Soderbergh has had major successes with Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Oceans 11 and just as he made the nutty Schizopolis in between The Underneath and Out Of Sight he periodically returns to low budget affairs this time it\'s an oddity called Full Frontal. This ensemble piece has film stars Calvin, Blair Underwood and Francesca, Julia Roberts as stars of a film within the film, in which there are cameos by Brad Pitt and David Fincher. Then there\'s human resources terror Lee, Catherine Keener, unsatisfactorily married to writer Carl, David Hyde Pierce, whose just been given the sack from his day job on a magazine. Lee\'s sister Linda, Mary McCormack, is a masseuse who\'s heading for an internet date in Tucson with theatre director Ed, Enrico Colantoni. The film takes place just a little over 24 hours in Los Angeles. Most of the characters are planning to go that night to the 40th birthday party of bigshot movie producer Gus, David Duchovny. The film is shot on digital video except for the film within the film which looks like a film should. Most critics have dismissed this curiosity of Soderberg\'s but I must admit to enjoying it. It\'s confusing, it\'s irritating, but it is the work of one of the most talented and successful directors working in the world today. Was it an attempt to return to the purist roots of his original success, Sex, Lies and Videotape. Was it an attempt to shake off the machinery of Hollywood? Perhaps a bit of both.