Soderbergh. It seems unlikely that Soderbergh won’t have 20+ archiveable films when it’s all said and done (he’s at 15 as of 2019) and that’s remarkable for a contemporary auteur. This is 3 and 5 ahead of Linklater and Spike Lee who are Soderbergh’s contemporaries and both are also extremely prolific. The fact that Soderbergh almost always serves as high on DP (I’ll get to that more below in stylistic traits) makes it all that more impressive. He only has two top 500 films though and 4 films that are in the top 100 of their respective decade (which is low for someone with 15 archiveable films). But even his weaker work often includes moments of “style-plus” direction and overall I would categorize Soderbergh as “style-plus”—he’s certainly no curator or overseer of archiveable films. It’s a double-edged sword though with his productivity because I often wish he would slow down, take his time, and make another Traffic or Out of Sight. I read a quote somewhere the Soderbergh only evaluates things as one of two things: good, or bad. So through his eyes he makes a lot of good films. Done. Thank god that isn’t reality. Can you picture someone like Kubrick saying that? I don’t like when auteurs take 7 year between films or whatever but there has to be a middle ground.
Best film: Traffic. It would also be a candidate for most underrated at this point. For some reason, Traffic is far too often lost in the wake of other films in the fruitful period from 1999-2001. The way Soderbergh differentiates the Mexico sequence and the US sequences through lighting and the use of color is the highlight of his career. It is Soderbergh’s strength and ties so well to the formal and narrative structure. Stunning work.
total archiveable films: 15
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 2 (Traffic, Out of Sight)
top 100 films of the decade: 4 (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean’s Thirteen)
most overrated: none— really too bad here and a bad look for the critics—Soderbergh actually doesn’t have a single film in the TSPDT consensus top 1000.
most underrated: Ocean’s Thirteen
- 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 of 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
- 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
gem I want to spotlight: Haywire
- It’s an interesting mixture of gorgeous photography and lighting (soderbergh), a very chill score (david holmes who also worked with soderbergh to create great atmospheric score for oceans 11 and out of sight) and heavy duty action sequences led by Gina Carano as protagonist
- She’s a newcomer and soderbergh is right to put her with veterans like mcgregor, michael douglas, banderas and bill Paxton and also in a couple good scenes with the talented michael fassbender and channing tatum
- Soderbergh’s harsh gorgeous yellow is used early (interrogation/meeting room in like 3 scene) and often. Highlights include a gorgeous escalator at the airport, a white/yellow wine glass in foreground and a reflection (yellow of course) in the window of a night shoot where they are looking off into the distance at two men opening a building door (with a yellow light inside)—really special shots
- Sort of reminds me of like an early godard experiment (maybe alphaville)—it’s a little sloppy- but very charming and even has a b-movie black and white sequence intertwined for nearly no reason at some point
- Style as style—it’s a very slim story
- Soderbergh even lights a parking lot beautifully
- The narrative device of carano telling the story (in flashback) to Michael Angarano doesn’t work at all
- See pic above- a gorgeous day for night blue night shootout sequence
- The word “shit” both opens and ends the film—but the ending, despite the bookends, feels a little truncated.
stylistic innovations/traits: Prolific and visually stylized is a rare combination amongst auteurs. Soderbergh’s main claim to fame is his trademark lighting (like say Fincher’s is). It’s beautiful work. He’s an undeniably talented DP (on his own films) with a distinctive look. Films that seem to fly at us every year with talented ensemble casts (he has a knack for discovering talent as well –they worked elsewhere but he helped launch Clooney, Channing Tatum, Riley Keough). His films often implore freeze-frames edits a la Truffaut (none better than Out of Sight) and split-screen work. Soderbergh edits it fiercely at a great pace most often (perfect for the genre Ocean’s films—wipe edits used a bit ther)e. Often, the lighting isn’t just light- it’s part of the mise-en-scene and is a physical structure and part of the background décor in so many scenes (like Welles). Of his 15 archiveable films he’s the DP (under pseudonym Peter Andrews) for 11 of them and the editor (under pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard) for 9 of them. Despite being an top 100 all-time auteur with 15 archiveable films he’s frustrating because he might be capable of making better films if he slowed down). Many of his films have great chill jazz scores from David Holmes (6 films).
top 10
- Traffic
- Out of Sight
- Ocean’s Thirteen
- Sex, Lies, and Videotape
- Ocean’s Eleven
- The Limey
- Haywire
- Contagion
- Behind the Candelabra
- Magic Mike
By year and grades
| 1989- Sex, Lies, and Videotape | |
| 1993- King of the Hill | R |
| 1998- Out of Sight | MS |
| 1999- The Limey | R |
| 2000- Erin Brockovich | R |
| 2000- Traffic | MP |
| 2001- Ocean’s Eleven | R |
| 2007- Ocean’s Thirteen | HR |
| 2009- The Informant | R |
| 2011- Contagion | R |
| 2011- Haywire | R |
| 2012- Magic Mike | R |
| 2013- Behind the Candelabra | R |
| 2013- Side Effects | R |
| 2017- Logan Lucky | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
[…] 87. Steven Soderbergh […]
Did you see Let Them All Talk(2020)starring Meryl Streep directed by Steven Soderbergh?
@Malith- I have not yet
Do you think it’s possible Out of Sight is a MP?
@Zane- certainly- I should start keeping track but every year there are at least a handful of films I’ve seen before, sometimes a long time ago, that I have been underrating
What’s the most accessible Soderberg film to start with?
I’d start with Out of Sight. It’s just so unbelievably fun and you can’t really have a much better time watching a movie. Even despite that, Soderbergh doesn’t forget the half of cinema that is art and his ability is on total display. Freeze frames, elliptical editing, strong cinematography and usage of mise-en-scene, with incredible performances from George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez to boot. An absolute gem of a film that is sadly often forgotten in the wave that swept over cinema in the late 90s and early 00s.
@Azman– yep- Out of Sight is a great place to start. If not there maybe Ocean’s 11– it is a fun heist film
Lot of fun that movie. I watched it in November as my second Soderbergh – I had seen Unsane when it came out in early 2018 and I don’t remember it being anything exceptional – and liked it. It’s not great cinema but it is a great time. Julia Roberts is relatively flat however – a bit like Carey Mulligan in Inside Llewyn Davis except Mulligan is very talented and makes the role much better than it should be and Julia Robert’s, well, isn’t – and I’ve seen her twice in this and Closer and was left unimpressed with her on both occasions (Clive Owen blows her light-years off the screen in the second one).
Anyway, enough of what I didn’t like about the film, because that’s mostly it. Clooney and Pitt are both effective and there is tension between the three of them and Garcia collectively, Soderbergh uses his wide cast very well through effective editing between subplots, it moves fast, it’s very engaging, and Julia Roberts’ screen time is not much. Have not yet caught the sequels however.
@Drake what are your thoughts on Ocean’s Twelve? You don’t have it in the archives I can see. From what I’ve read online it gets plenty of hate and the reasons listed don’t seem too bad but it has more than a few defenders as well. Ocean’s Thirteen is a HR however and that’s enough for me; will definitely check that out sometime.
@Zane– I like Ocean’s Twelve– I could easily call it a recommend with another viewing and throw it in the archives. If you’ve seen 11, and plan on seeing 13 you might as well take a look but I don’t think you could call it essential Soderbergh
I started it and then had to leave because I was called in to work and got around 22 minutes in or so. I actually liked it visually but when I got back it was too late to start it again and I haven’t gotten back around to it yet; too many other essential films to check out first.
So I was reading Soderbergh’s page on TSPDT and saw a major discrepancy. Erin Brockovich is listed as the 1685th greatest film of all time and is the 353th greatest film of the 21st Century. Traffic is listed as the 2853rd greatest film of all time, but is the 341st greatest film of the 21st Century. So Traffic is worse than Erin Brockovich (which is wrong) as an all-time film, but as a 21st Century film it is better?
@Zane- good catch- I think Bill at TSPDT realized others saw the same thing and put this note on the 21st century list page
Please Note-: There is no correlation between this listing of the 21st Century’s Most Acclaimed Films and the 1,000 Greatest Films. You will note that the highest ranked 21st Century films within the 1,000 Greatest Films do not line-up with the rankings within this listing. The core difference is that this listing incorporates end-of-year ballots, whereas the 1,000 Greatest Films does not.
Do you intend on watching Let Them All Talk(2020) soon? I think it’s quite good.
@Anderson- I do intend to see it- I think I’ve seen all of Soderbergh’s films at this point- but I don’t have a slot for it soon unfortunately. Thanks for the recommendation.
I have seen 2 Soderbergh films. Erin Brokovich; and today I saw Out of Sight after Zane’s recommendation.
Soderbergh uses lighting extremely well, the acting is brilliant throughout and many of his shots are brilliantly framed. You already point of that he uses the freeze frame very well. Overall a well executed heist movie.
I agree (with you and Zane) its a great movie. It is sort of slowly paced (but also fast paced at the same time and certainly not boring- rather it is entertaining)with alot of great dialogue, cinematography, a slow burner maybe. So stylish as well.
Good film. I can’t add much because you’ve already pointed out many artistic aspects on this page.
I must also once again praise this blog/website because there are so many different kinds of recommendations and different cinephiles can get together and discuss/give recommendations as well!
Interesting that you’ve mentioned Fincher very briefly. I couldn’t put my finger on it at 1st – but there are some similarities between Soderberg & Fincher. As you mentioned with the lighting.
Kind of like cinematic cousins – from a distance. I’ve notice Soderbergh ( especially in his later work) share some of Fincher’s sterile, vogue like nature with his films. Exacting & extremely clean camera work, with specific florescent lighting. Both has this love for the innovative – technological aspects of filmmaking.
Of course, Soderberg still expresses himself through his experimental, independent style. While Fincher is a Hitchcock + Kubrick lovechild.
@Javon- Thank you for visiting the site and the comment here- very well said!
There is an issue with the Erin Brokovich page.
@Graham- thank you- should be fixed now
Have you seen The Knick? It’s a 20 episode show by Soderbergh. All 20 episodes are directed by him. It’s a period-medical drama. Clive Owen is excellent as the lead. You must check it out. It’s just television at it’s peak.
@M*A*S*H- I was able to catch The Knick. Parts of it (including the first episode) are excellent. Like pretty much all television though, it is often crippled by its length and the long cinematically quiet stretches. These stretches are worse than just about any film in the archives. So I think it is worthwhile, but certainly I lament that Soderbergh didn’t make it better/shorter.
@Drake- But do you agree that it’s still better than a lot of other shows. I mean it could easily be top 10 of the decade for instance. I found it better than (*puts on body armour*) Breaking Bad.
I personally think that The Knick is pretty excellent, but I would probably not have good arguments to put it against (what I think are 3 best tv shows of all time):
1. Breaking Bad
2. Twin Peaks
3. Mad Men
Or even The Sopranos, Lost, Dekalog ext.
@M*A*S*H- I would not be the one to ask on this one- I do not watch a lot of shows. There were at least 20 better movies in 2014 and 2015
“I read a quote somewhere the Soderbergh only evaluates things as one of two things: good, or bad. So through his eyes he makes a lot of good films. Done. Thank god that isn’t reality. Can you picture someone like Kubrick saying that?”
lol at the above quote just noticed
Watching Traffic (2000) now for the 1st time in years very impressive, definitely “good” ha
@James Trapp- haha. I have seen this somewhere before as well. This speaks volumes for Soderbergh
@Drake – he’s reading back what you wrote yourself in the opening to this page.
@Zane- thanks- my mistake- I see the comments in a different view here and there nearly 2000 pages on the website so I do not remember everything written.
Anyone seen his latest film Kimi (2022)?
@Matthew – yes, nothing groundbreaking but a quick and exciting film to put on. Soderbergh tackling the 70s paranoia subgenre with modern twists involving out technology. Some nice use of angles and a good performance.
Overall would you say it’s worth watching?
@Matthew – Yea I’d say so, it’s like 85 minutes so not a bit investment
@Matthew- worthy of the archives and worth seeing
Che?
@Josh- Just one viewing under my belt so far – and did not archive it – but would like another look at it. Do you have some thoughts on it?
Che part 1 is great. Easily one of Soderberghs best, super well directed with an amazing Benicio Del Toro performance. Part 2 was definitely a step down artistically. It went for a more handheld approach which I’m not usually a fan of. However part 1 I think is well worthy of the archives.
@Josh- Interesting – thanks for sharing
I was actually surprised this year after the bad reviews for his new film Mad Mike’s Last Dance(2023). What’s your thoughts on it? Sure. Soderbergh isn’t the director I look forward to the most when a new film is released. But he has a pretty good hit rate and almost all of the films he does are decent and lands in the archives every year basically.