Movies.com took in a screening this week and offers this report: Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh follows his one-two commercial hit punch (Traffic, Ocean's Eleven) with the experimental Full Frontal.

The result, judging from a consensus of critics and audience reaction, is a mixed mess. Though at times it's fascinating, at other times it's annoying (too many voiceovers don't help). It's droll and dull in equal measure. The story jumps back and forth, and even side to side, so often, and the emotions shift so suddenly (it's cheesy, then deadly serious, then silly), that it's difficult to care about any of the neurotic, self-absorbed characters.

Mostly, though, it's a tease, from the title itself (well, not entirely) to the end credits. The final shot will fool more than a few people.

Hollywood types are likely to enjoy it more than others since it takes place in Los Angeles and revolves around the movie industry. Soderbergh, as is becoming typical, is the film's cinematographer, and he utilizes various types of cameras, film stock, and angles to give us the sense that we're watching a voyeuristic docudrama.

It has minor elements that will remind viewers of The Player and Short Cuts — though it's nowhere near as good as those movies — but it's more like a blend of Neil LaBute's Your Friends and Neighbors and Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Soderbergh's groundbreaking 1989 Sundance winner, which, according to the director, this is sort of intending to follow up.

Soderbergh gets good performances from the always-reliable, never-timid Catherine Keener (as an unconventional, unfaithful human resources vice president) and Nicky Katt (playing a theater actor portraying Hitler in The Sound and the Führer) but Julia Roberts' acting is forgettable.

Article courtesy of Daily Variety and transcribed by Alfornos