• It’s a minor revelation for me- first time seeing it since theater in 2007 when I liked it as an entertaining movie, but was largely oblivious to Soderbergh’s clear mise-en-scene brilliance on display–  it’s an art film masquerading as pop entertainment
  • A long tracking shot to open of Pitt on a job with another crew and quitting right at the most important time when he gets a call from Clooney
  • Few usages of both freeze frame and split screens- crisp and effective
  • The montage sequence introducing the hotel (by far the most important character in the film) is a thing of beauty—lighting as mise-en-scene everywhere—chandelier city
  • I’m 99% sure that Clooney reads Pacino his lines back from The Godfather to him: “What I want, what’s most important to me…”- nice touch
  • There’s a shot of Pitt with a window- frame within a frame
  • Wipe editing- keeps it brisk and paced despite being over 2hours— with the ensemble and fun narrative it moves nicely
  • The cast is loaded and talented- which makes me wonder (sorry) why we have so much for Eddie Izzard sucking the energy out of the room
  • On top of the genius-level lighting on display here- we have wall paper city in the hotel- stunning
  • It’s a huge bounce back after the disappointing Ocean’s twelve- which I think it suffers from not being in a casino– Soderbergh just has so much fun lighting and shooting clearly in casinos
  • Soderbergh’s trademark golden/yellow/orange hue here- Garcia is even shot in front of a fake “woman in gold” painting
  • A great scene at dusk on the strip of Pitt and Clooney talking about old Vegas
  • Plenty of flaws and problems—the Casey Affleck revolution in Mexico sequences don’t work—I’m not sure about how slapstick the Damon/Barkin aphrodisiac with his nose prosthetic scene gets—and I also hate the Oprah stuff with Pitt and Clooney
  • Another one is a terrible scene where Clooney rolls his eyes when Garcia says “I was born ready”— Soderbergh is just moving too fast I would guess and didn’t get another take. I’d be upset with him if I’m Clooney because he looks hack
  • Soderbergh’s color scheme even leans from his gold/yellow/orange to red with the Hotel, Barkin’s dress and some of the lighting scheme
  • The fireworks montage to close with Sinatra’s “This Town” is fitting—nice touch back to the Bellagio closing of the first film
  • HR- top 10 of the year worthy film- strongest of the series.