The Steven Soderbergh Appreciation Thread

A few of my favorite directors have already been covered in these appreciation thread deals, but I think it's just about time Steven Soderbergh gets his due, what with Che coming soon and all. Not gonna go all Holden Pike on you guys here, but I think Soderbergh deserves some first-class treatment, too, so here we go



With all due respect to John Cassavetes or John Waters or whomever else you want to throw out there, Steven Soderbergh is the king of independent filmmaking. A true pioneer of the medium, Soderbergh's one of the last great artists working in movies today. Bold, willing to take chances, uncompromising in his vision and remarkably versatile. He can perform nearly every role in film production, from behind the camera or in front of it. Just as comfortable and adept filming a big-budgeted blockbuster as he is an experimental art house lark, I guess you could say he's sold out a bit. But if Ocean's Eleven is selling out, is that really such a bad thing? And anyway, he'll invariably follow something like Ocean's Eleven with something weird and wonderful and he'll reaffirm everything his fans love about him. Every film he makes carries with it his own unique stamp and yet they're all surprising and different from one another and that, I think is his greatest strength. Soderbergh doesn't cling to one genre as a safety net the way so many other filmmakers do; his specialty is that he has no specialty. His style is that his style is always changing, constantly adapting to the films he's making.

Actors love him. He's got an almost Altmanesque quality to him in that he's so respected within the industry, literally anyone would jump at the chance to work with him. George Clooney has starred in six of Soderbergh's movies to date and the two of them own the Section 8 Film Production company together which has churned out more than its fair share of compelling flicks over the past few years. He's got a lovely group of other actors that he uses in a reperatory capacity and he surrounds himself with the best possible crew, as well. Ex-Captain Beefheart drummer Cliff Martinez is a frequent collaborator, having composed the understated, pitch-perfect scores for nearly all his movies.

And, of course, he put indie films as we know them on the map and while it's conceivable that revolution could have happened without him, well, it didn't. It happened because of him. It all started in 1989 with sex, lies and videotape. Soderbergh supposedly wrote the film in eight days, having spent the previous few years bouncing around Hollywood as an editor-for-hire. sex, lies and videotape is remebered for the tremendous impact it had on the independent filmmaking movement and just overall making alternative movies like that more accesible to the masses. But lost in all that cultural signficance hubbub is the fact that sex, lies and videotape is a fantastic, richly comlex movie with four phenomenally affecting lead performances and a very tight script. A great debut, to be sure.

Over the course of the last two decades, Soderbergh has tried his hand at everything from biopics to a barrage of successful remakes to oscar-bait melodramathons and all the while he's managed to mix in the occasional spectacularly experimental and stylistically out-there audience-perplexer. Take Full Frontal, a French New Wave-inspired film, shot entirely on digital video back when nobody was shooting entire films on digital video. Or how about The Good German: A film noir throwback so convincing that, had it not been for the sex and violence, could easily pass for the real thing. And Schizopolis and Bubble and yeah - what else can I say? I've already mentioned his ability to work within a vast variety of genres, but, man, that really can't be said enough. The guy can literally do anything

Coming up next on his slate is obviously this Che movie which, if nothing else, should at least be interesting. Then he's got The Informant, starring Matt Damon, which is based on the true story of corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre. And then things get really interesting with The Girlfriend Experience, which is a film about a high-class call girl starring 20 year old hardcore porn sensation Sasha Grey.

Anywho, here's how I'd grade his stuff thus far...

sex, lies, and videotape, B+
Kafka, C+
King of the Hill, A-
The Underneath, A
Gray's Anatomy, B
Schizopolis, A
Out of Sight, A-
The Limey, A-
Erin Brockovich, B
Traffic, B
Ocean's Eleven, B+
Full Frontal, B+
Solaris, C
Ocean's Twelve, C-
Bubble, B-
The Good German, B
Ocean's Thirteen, B-



So, yeah, Soderbergh's the man. Probably cracks my top five favorites, but it's close. Share the love, MoFos

These are the only of his works that I've watched (so far):


5. Out Of Sight
A formula-looking pic, that goes beyond that description by trying not to be anything else but that. Wry dialogue & situations that are handled as though this was just everyday stuff.



4. Solaris
Not as good as the 1972 version (but let's be honest here, despite Steven Soderbergh being at the helm, this version stood almost no chance of replicating the masterpiece status that is Tarkovsky's) but still a solid & more streamlined remake that effectively modernizes the theme of it's original.




3. sex, lies & videotape
Sex, lies & videotape. Three great tastes that taste great together.



2. Ocean's 11
How hard is it to put George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Don Chido, Bernie Mac into a movie & not have it be cool?
(Actually it's not all that hard really. Just make it 2 sequels later, add Al Pacino into the mix, dump Julia Roberts & scrap together a story that barely makes any sense & wha la....
the death of a forced franchise. One that should've been left alone in the 1st. place.)
A great heist movie that really feels like a true update of the genre, supported by an incredible cast, including Elliott Gould & Carl Reiner, plus an under-rated performance (IMO, at least) by Don Cheadle.
A truly top quality escapist-fare film.




1. Traffic
Y'know, I've heard & read a couple of opinions & critiques of this movie that praised it for not pointing out any specific reason for the drug problem in this country, but I disagree.
When Michael Douglas' character, judge Robert Wakefield, explains that rather than continuely lecturing to their daughter not to do drugs, his wife & he were instead going to start listening to her,
I think that it hit it pretty good on point.

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Right now, all I'm wearing is a mustard-stained wife-beater T-shirt, no pants & a massive sombrero.

It's amazing, Swedie, how sometimes you sound like the second coming of Holden, and I'm talking about SOME of your ratings here, but other times, you're totally the opposite. It's interesting to me because I'm trying to determine if you have a split personality. I've pegged Holds as one half, but I can't figure out the other half yet.

sex, lies, and videotape, B-
Kafka, C+
King of the Hill, B
Underneath, C
Gray's Anatomy, B-
Schizopolis, C
Out of Sight, B
The Limey, B-
Erin Brockovich, B
Traffic, B
Ocean's Eleven, B
Solaris, B-
Ocean's Twelve, C+
The Good German, C+
Ocean's Thirteen, C+

I believe that King of the Hill is his best.

I'll admit that I missed a couple of his films, but that means I have something to look forward to.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Nah, if anything, I'm half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli

My favorite Soderbergh film right now is The Underneath. First of all, it has a very interesting cast and they all do great jobs. William Fichtner is funny, Peter Gallagher further shows why every movie in the early-mid 90's should have featured Peter Gallagher in some capacity and the whole thing is very nearly stolen by the lovely Alison Elliott. Whatever happened to her?

Anyway, The Underneath has at least two scenes that stand out in mind as being truly exceptional and unique in the history of film, it looks great and has one of those fantastic, understated Soderberghian scores I mentioned upthread. It's about as close to perfect as you're gonna get in modernizing a fifty year old noir in that it's slick in its minimalism but it's perfectly capable of screwing with your expectations, too. It has tricks and traps and distorted camera work and a surprise ending but it never cheats the audience and it never feels contrived or gimmicky, either.

The only thing holding it back from reaching my personal pantheon of great movies is that while it does cultivate a nice, deliberate pace throughout, it also does drag a little in spots. It actually all pays off in the end and it's a very satisfying movie, but I could see how someone could call it too slow or even just downright boring.

But I love it.

Good post Swedish Chef.

Personally, I can take or leave Soderbergh. I love sex, lies and videotape and Out of Sight but remain sizeably indifferent to Traffic and Erin Brockovich. Also, i've never really dug the Oceans franchise for the star vehicle that it is.

For me, John Cassavetes is the "king of independent filmmaking". With the remarkable Shadows (1959), he pioneered the development of American underground filmmaking. He would go on to make Faces (1968) and what is perhaps regarded as the great embodiment of his directorial vision, A Woman Under The Influence (1974). Not to mention The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Opening Night (1978) and Gloria (1980), which are all accomplished works in their own right.



A still from John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959)

What keeps bringing me back to Cassavetes is his assiduous relationship to the character. He liked the chemistry that emanated from improvisation; Cassavetes longed for a pervading sense of spontaneity from his actors. Throughout his career as director, Cassavetes concentrated on people, their feelings, their emotions, their relationships. Look at Shadows for example, a film about family issues but one that also confronts race and miscegenation. He never eschewed the sociological issues of the day, but he also never let them drown his obsession with people.

Anyway, i'll shut up now. I must apologise for crapping in a very good thread.

Hey, you can crap wherever you like, it's a free internet.

As far as Cassavetes goes, I've seen A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night. Those are all three good movies, but, for me, not the equal of my three favorite Soderbergh's. And it's obvious Cassavetes was instrumental in leading the charge for underground filmmaking, but independent cinema had its real coming out party in 1989 with sex, lies and videotape. "The King of Independent Filmmaking" is a pretty arbitrary and meaningless title and it could apply to a lot of people, I guess. Since this is The Steven Soderbergh Appreciation thread, though, I think hyperbole and exaggeration are fair game.

And while Cassavetes did have a propensity for creating unorthodox and complex characters, I think, while some of that credit rightly goes to the director, you can't say enough for actors like Gazzara, Rowlands, Cassavetes himself, Cassel, etc. Actually, I personally think Cassavetes was a much more interesting actor than he was a director. In terms of just directorial talent and the ability to translate a good story to film, Soderbergh's a head above Cassavetes in my book.

Good prose SC. Its a delight to read your posts.

I'll grudgingly admit that i'm not no Soderbergh afficianado. Bar the Oceans series, I can only claim to have seen 4 Soderbergh flicks; sex, lies and videotape, Out of Sight, Traffic and Erin Brockovich. I've just bunged King of the Hill on tape though, so i'll check that one out in the near future.

Soderbergh certainly produces more polished work than Cassavetes. You can certainly see with Cassavetes, how he pioneered cinema verite; a glancing look suggests its a documentary. Soderbergh's brand of independent filmmaking is different however, not neccessarily better or worse, but different. I feel Soderbergh still relies on the specificities of mainstream cinema in his films.

And what you say about Soderbergh not having a distinct visual style is quite shrewd. It is rare to find directors nowadays who aren't so trigger happy on the auteur stamp. I respect that; you often find that directors are so eager to input their trademarks that they lose faith in their storytelling convictions.

I actually think Soderbergh does have a fairly identifiable style; more in tone than anything else. It's not as noticeable as like Wes Anderson or whatnot, but when I'm watching a Soderbergh film, I know I'm watching a Soderbergh film. So he's got his own style and aesthetics, but it's not distracting and not overly obvious. And I don't mind when good director have calling cards or trademarks or whatever, either. I think they can work quite well for someone like, again, Wes Anderson.

You should see Schizopolis

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I love how he lenses some of his own projects. I have seen a fair amount of his stuff, with my favorites being Traffic and Solaris, at the mo. I think I am one of the few people that absolutely adored Solaris when I first saw it. The original is clearly the definitive version, but I hold the remake in high regard, as well.

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I'll check it out man. Thanks.