Full Frontal Details

Life as art appears to be the driving principle behind this self-indulgent celebration of Hollywood egos. Built on Dogme 95-style foundations — with actors doing their own hair and make-up and relinquishing their traditional on-set privileges — director Steven Soderbergh's apparent attempt to get back to his grittier roots isn't nearly as clever as he thinks it is. The basic scenario is a day in the life of LA's beautiful people; those featured are potential guests at the 40th birthday bash of movie producer Gus (David Duchovny). Taking advantage of his current hot status, Soderbergh has assembled a glittering cast of friends — including Julia Roberts and Catherine Keener — who ramble their way through a plethora of human emotions, captured on grainy digital video for that extra touch of pretension. Ultimately, everyone involved seems to think they're doing something so profound that they've forgotten to be entertaining — or even interesting.

Shot mainly on digital video, this is a low-budget jeu d'esprit done as an experiment or relaxation; it should have stayed as a home movie.