The Films of Steven Soderbergh: Part 2
Rediscovered Auteur (1998-2008)
Soderbergh’s breakout success with sex, lies and videotape was practically forgotten a decade later, it seemed like he was going to toil away in obscurity before a return to form that brought him into the most lucrative and acclaimed period of his career. Out of Sight, the best of the Elmore Leonard adaptations made in the late nineties, introduced him to a collaboration with George Clooney that has yet to fizzle out, and made him an A-lister with the box-office bonanza that became the Ocean’s Eleven franchise. In 2001, became the first director to be nominated for an Oscar twice in the same year since 1939, winning for what is still considered his most accomplished and complex work, Traffic.
Out of Sight (1998)
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Albert Brooks, Dennis Farina, Luis Guzmán, Isaiah Washington, Nancy Allen, Keith Loneker, Catherine Keener, Viola Davis, Paul Calderón, Paul Soileau, Wendell B. Harris Jr., Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Sawyer
Ultra-cool tale of an ex-con bank robber (George Clooney) who falls in love with the FBI Agent (Jennifer Lopez) on his tail. Ving Rhames shines as Clooney’s partner in crime in this adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel, which features a great script by Scott Frank and classy cinematography, while Lopez gives what is still her best film performance and one that promised a career that was, for the most part never to be. Glamorous, tough, smart and sexy, she’s also mysterious and interesting in ways that she would insist on foregoing in later films and music videos.
The Limey (1999)
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Peter Fonda, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Amelia Heinle, Melissa George, William Lucking, Steve Heinze, Nancy Lenehan, Bill Duke, Michaela Gallo, Matthew Kimbrough, John Robotham
Terence Stamp plays a British ex-con who flies to Los Angeles to find out what happened to his estranged daughter after learning that she has died. Believing it to be more than just an accident, he teams up with Luis Guzmán and tracks down a hotshot record producer (Peter Fonda) with whom his daughter was living at the time of her death, and stops at nothing to learn the truth. Soderbergh uses a surreal editing style that involves repeated shots and elliptical sequences, doing so in a thorough and perfectly calculated way that keeps the film from ever being confusing. Lesley Ann Warren has a wonderful supporting role as one of the daughter’s friends, but this is Stamp’s show and he is superb in the lead.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger, Tracey Walter, Peter Coyote, Cherry Jones, Conchata Ferrell, Adilah Barnes, Scarlett Pomers, Michael Harney, Veanne Cox, Scotty Leavenworth, Gemmenne de la Peña, Gina Gallego, T. J. Thyne, Valente Rodriguez, Jamie Harrold, Erin Brockovich, Edward L. Masry, Joe Chrest
Fact-based biography of the woman who brought about the biggest personal lawsuit case in American legal history. Julia Roberts gives a career-best performance as a single mother who gets a job working for lawyer Albert Finney and, while going through files, stumbles across records of a case pertaining to nearby town residents who might have been poisoned by an oil company’s faulty dumping methods. The character is spirited and bawdy, always ready to throw down a sharp rant against anyone crossing her on the wrong day, but Soderbergh doesn’t make Brockovich’s colourful fashion sense or cynical sarcasm the object of a joke. Her inability to fit into the dull, polished legal world is actually her strength, and an important case of corporate greed run amok in a country that puts profit over people is treated seriously while holding on to a very healthy sense of humour. It goes down the easiest of Soderbergh’s films, made during the most fertile period of his career.
Traffic (2000)
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Jacob Vargas, Marisol Padilla Sánchez, Tomas Milian, Jose Yenque, Michael Douglas, Amy Irving, Erika Christensen, Topher Grace, D. W. Moffett, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Steven Bauer, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Clifton Collins Jr., Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán, Miguel Ferrer, Peter Riegert, Benjamin Bratt, Viola Davis, John Slattery, James Pickens Jr., Salma Hayek, Michael O’Neill, Yul Vazquez, Jack Conley, Eddie Velez, James Lew, Enrique Murciano, Carl Ciarfalio, Rick Avery, Majandra Delfino, Alec Roberts, Rena Sofer, Stacey Travis, Brandon Keener, Stephen Dunham, Margaret Travolta, Mike Siegel, Jsu Garcia, Kaizaad Navroze Kotwal, Governor Bill Weld, Senator Don Nickles, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Charles Grassley, David Bickford
The same years as his exceptional Erin Brockovich, Soderbergh outdid himself with this grand epic about the multi-tiered drug industry in the United States. The script by Stephen Gaghan seamlessly ties together three stories about innocent people caught up in the criminal world of narcotic abuse: Michael Douglas has recently been appointed as drug czar of the US government, only to find out, along with his wife (Amy Irving) that his daughter (Erika Christensen) is an addict; Benicio Del Toro is a Mexican cop who stumbles upon an operation that threatens his and his colleagues’ safety; Catherine Zeta-Jones is a wealthy, pregnant housewife who finds out her husband (Steven Bauer) is not the honest businessman she thought he was but one of the biggest drug smugglers on the continent. Uniformly impeccable performances by all whether leads or cameos, with Del Toro the best of them.
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Rating: BBBB.5
Cast: George Clooney, Bernie Mac, Brad Pitt, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Don Cheadle, Qin Shaobo, Carl Reiner, Matt Damon, Andy García, Julia Roberts, Scott L. Schwartz, Michael DeLano, Richard Reed, David & Larry Sontag
Of the three heist films to come out in 2001 (the other two being The Score and Heist), this is far and away the king. An all-star cast glides smoothly through Soderbergh’s perfectly-edited, beautifully shot remake of the 1960 Frank Sinatra hit, unmistakably modern but delightfully sporting a classy Vegas-Rat Pack feel that is impossible to resist. George Clooney is a thief fresh out of prison who decides to try and win back his ex-wife (Julia Roberts) by gathering eleven other robbery experts in various fields and ripping off three casinos belonging to her new boyfriend (Andy Garcia); naturally, he insists that it’s all about the money, but cohort Brad Pitt knows better. Pitt is excellent as the right-hand man, a smooth operator who puts the whole group together and helps him lead them through a successful robbery in one of the most complex security systems ever seen on film. Though Clooney’s suave style is what heads up the entire operation, it is Pitt’s strength that the film really leans on for support, and he outdoes himself with immeasurable ease.
Full Frontal (2002)
Rating: BB
Cast: David Duchovny, Enrico Colantoni, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener, Mary McCormack, David Hyde Pierce, Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Jeff Garlin, David Alan Basche, Terence Stamp, David Fincher, Jerry Weintraub, Brad Pitt, Rainn Wilson, Eddie McClintock, Dina Waters and Sandra Oh, January Jones, Patrick Fischler
A group of characters spend their day in various complications until they are all (or most of them anyway) united at a Hollywood producer’s birthday party. A neurotic Human Resources manager (Catherine Keener) is ready to leave her magazine-writer husband (David Hyde Pierce) because of her affair with a sexy movie star (Blair Underwood). Her sister (Mary McCormack) is a massage therapist who has a pretty dangerous encounter with the birthday boy (David Duchovny), and is going on a blind date with a playwright (Enrico Colantoni) who has written Underwood’s latest film and is currently producing a play about Hitler (starring Nicky Katt). Meanwhile, we are treated to glimpses of Duchovny’s latest project, a dry romantic comedy starring Underwood and Julia Roberts, but none of these complications or added layers prevent the film from being a giant bore. The characters are overly familiar when they’re not being annoying, the dialogue is flavourless, and the film that Underwood and Roberts are making seems like it’s about as weak as the one we’re watching. There are a few good performances, though, particularly the magical Keener and a shockingly hilarious turn by the late Katt as an actor who really believes in his dedication to his craft.
Solaris (2002)
Rating: BBBB
Cast: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Viola Davis, Jeremy Davies, Ulrich Tukur, John Cho
George Clooney plays a psychiatrist who is summoned to a space station near a mysterious planet called Solaris, as it seems that a group of crew members on the station have gone buggy and in some cases met with messy ends. Upon his arrival he meets only a tiny skeleton crew (Viola Davis, Jeremy Davies) who are reluctant to talk about what has really happened to them, before he gets a real surprise: the sudden reappearance of his dead wife (Natascha McElhone). The titular planet is regenerating the former loved ones of the people on board, recreating them in complete flesh-and-blood forms that feel much more real than your average ghost; Clooney knows that this woman close to him isn’t the woman he lost years before, and yet he can’t seem to imagine going back to Earth without her. This fascinating, gorgeously designed romantic drama brings up fascinating questions about the cosmos and most appropriately doesn’t answer too many of them. Anyone in the mood for some thought-provoking science-fiction will be delighted by the strong emphasis on character, while those looking for an exciting space opera will not be as satisfied. Soderbergh has produced a lyrical, beautifully photographed tone poem that gives a strong futuristic feel without showing off a lot of junky technology, something more familiar in foreign science-fiction films like Godard’s Alphaville, Chris Marker’s La Jetée and, of course Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 version of this story, based on the 1961 novel by Stanislaw Lem.
Eros (2004)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh
Rating: BB.5
Cast: Gong Li, Chang Chen, Feng Tien, Luk Auntie, Jianjun Zhou, Robert Downey Jr., Alan Arkin, Ele Keats, Christopher Buchholz, Regina Nemni, Luisa Ranieri, Cecilia Luci, Karima Machehour
Three master filmmakers are asked to contribute a short film on an erotic theme in this partially successful omnibus project. The first, “The Hand” by Wong Kar Wai, is the best of the three, a gorgeously shot romance about a tailor whose magnificent handjob from a beautiful call girl (Gong Li) turns into a years-long obsession. Wong’s fine eye for photographic detail and sensual character interplay also makes it the sexiest of the shorts. The middle piece, “Equilibrium” by Steven Soderbergh, is a brainy, somewhat baffling effort about Robert Downey Jr. as a patient explaining his erotic dreams to his analyst (Alan Arkin) who is distracted the entire time by something outside his window; the result is intelligent but not deeply felt. The last, and worst, of the three, is an unfortunate misfire by Michelangelo Antonioni, “The Dangerous Thread of Things”, ending his magnificent career with a forgettable and badly acted short based on his own novel, in which Christopher Buchholz plays a man obsessed with two women.
Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
Rating: BBB.5
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Don Cheadle, Qin Shaobo, Carl Reiner, Julia Roberts, Eddie Izzard, Cherry Jones, Albert Finney, Jared Harris, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy García, Vincent Cassel, Michael DeLano, Bruce Willis, Topher Grace, Robbie Coltrane, Jeroen Krabbé, Candice Azzara
After having robbed Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel of over a hundred million dollars, the eleven slick thieves of the first film are visited by the casino’s owner, Andy Garcia, and told that if they don’t pay back the full amount, with interest, they will be killed. Now, ringleaders George Clooney and Brad Pitt have to come up with whatever money the group hasn’t spent since their big job, and they find the answer in Italy: a priceless Fabergé egg is making its way to a Roman museum and its value would cover them for sure. Unfortunately, the master thief of Europe (Vincent Cassel) has every intention of thwarting their every move, and Pitt’s Europol Agent ex-girlfriend (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is on their tail every step of the way. This doesn’t mean that these guys ever lose their cool, because no matter how many twists you see happen before your eyes, they’ll always hide the very best from you until the end. It’s a fun heist film, photographed just as beautifully as the first one and with the same amount of dry humour, but the story doesn’t zing as well as its predecessor and the heist itself isn’t as imaginative. The addition of Zeta-Jones is a marvelous one, as she really gets some good mileage out of her character, and Julia Roberts is a scream in the sequence where she is required to pretend to be Julia Roberts, but the rest of the team aren’t used enough and the story’s enjoyment level suffers for it. Still, you could do a lot worse, particularly for a money-minded sequel.
Bubble (2005)
The Good German (2006)
Rating: BB.5
Cast: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Tony Curran, Leland Orser, Jack Thompson, Robin Weigert, Ravil Isyanov, Dave Power, Christian Oliver, Don Pugsley, Dominic Comperatore
Underwhelming exercise in style has Soderbergh looking to make his own Casablanca, but only succeeds as far as the dreamy black-and-white photography. George Clooney, looking every inch the forties movie star, plays a reporter sent to a divided post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam peace conference, then ends up being thrust into a murder mystery when an acquaintance of his is pulled out of the river and is revealed to have been shot. The man in question was killed over information regarding a missing scientist, whose wife (Cate Blanchett in a magnificent, Dietrich-esque turn) is luckily an old girlfriend of Clooney’s and currently the flame of his driver (Tobey Maguire). Soderbergh goes in for film techniques of the period, the whole thing is shot on studio backlots, but the story is missing the urgency of the aforementioned Michael Curtiz classic or Foreign Correspondent, and as such pushes the proceedings into the background while the fancy camerawork takes the premiere role.
Building No. 7 (2006)
Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
Rating: BBB
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy García, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Eddie Izzard, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Carl Reiner, Eddie Jemison, Qin Shaobo, Elliott Gould, Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, Vincent Cassel, Bob Einstein, Olga Sosnovska, David Paymer, Angel Oquendo, Julian Sands, Jerry Weintraub
Elliott Gould gets screwed over by business partner Al Pacino and ends up near-comatose in bed after a heart attack. His friends, led by suave George Clooney, decide to get revenge on his behalf by setting up a heist at Pacino’s brand new casino, planning to destroy the man’s reputation, kill his business and take a few diamonds along the way. This third entry in the GQ magazine film photoshoot series by Soderbergh has a zippier plot than the second film, but at this point the whole thing feels like its just going through the motions to please audiences. Andy Garcia, returns, as does the entire cast from both movies save Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts, while Ellen Barkin joins the cast as Pacino’s right-hand lady. Gorgeously shot by Soderbergh (under his alias Peter Andrews) the film is super loads of fun even if it doesn’t contribute much to your personal development as a film-goer.
Che: Part One (2008)
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Santiago Cabrera, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond, Vladimir Cruz, Jorge Perugorría, Benjamín Benítez, Édgar Ramírez, Bruno Bichir, Armando Riesco, Néstor Rodulfo, Jsu Garcia, Elvira Mínguez, Alfredo De Quesada, Roberto Luis Santana, Sam Robards, Victor Rasuk, Kahlil Mendez, Marise Álvarez, Andrés Manuel Munar, Unax Ugalde, Othello Rensoli, Norman Santiago, Pedro Telemaco, Jay Potter, Stephen Mailer, Jon De Vries, Joksan Ramos, Javier Ortiz, Michael Countryman, Oscar Isaac
This mammoth historical epic attempts to capture not only the historical headlines made by Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in his short lifetime, but also the feeling of being in his company on a day-to-day basis. It also marks a turn in the director’s career, moving away from mass appeal to more challenging projects that would see him reclaim his place as an independent filmmaker with only occasional returns to popularity (like Magic Mike). The first half of this four hour examination of Guevera’s life takes our protagonist from a time not long after The Motorcycle Diaries ends, young and itching for change while living in Cuba, where he meets Fidel Castro and starts on the path to revolution. The film is all exciting battles and glorious warfare, sun-drenched beaches and heated personalities as this group of idealist dreamers turn a country on its ear and change its history forever. It’s a success thanks to Benicio Del Toro’s devilishly subtle performance in the title role, calling no attention to himself but putting across the magnificent gravity and charisma of a man who couldn’t help but make a name for himself in the world.
Che: Part Two (2008)
Rating: BBB
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Demián Bichir, Franka Potente, Gastón Pauls, Lou Diamond Phillips, Joaquim de Almeida, Yul Vazquez, Marc-André Grondin, Eduard Fernández, Cristian Mercado, Jordi Mollà, Pablo Durán, Óscar Jaenada, Rubén Ochandiano, Ezequiel Díaz, Carlos Acosta-Milian, Antonio de la Torre, Juan Carlos Vellido, Aaron Vega, Roberto San Martín, James D. Dever, Mark Umbers, Pedro Casablanc, Tomás del Estal, Giraldo Moisés, David Selvas, Enrique Arce, Cristhian Esquivel, Matt Damon
The biographical look at the revolutionary who made his name in the Cuban revolution is continued in this complete change of pace from Part One. Soderbergh even employs a different aspect ratio as he switches from the burning sun of the Caribbean island to the cold, mountainous regions of Bolivia, where Guevara is sent by Castro to mobilize the downtrodden natives to rise up against wealthy oligarchs and take back their country. Unfortunately, Bolivia is nothing like Cuba: poverty is not highly concentrated as it was on the tiny island, the pressure building to explosion. In this country, everything is remotely located and it takes very little for Che and his woefully underfunded people to get completely lost in the wilderness. Dry, subtly toned and often wordless, this second half probably won’t be audiences’ preferred chapter in Soderbergh’s epic but is still a strong piece of work: the naturalism really takes over as you start feeling yourself living this man’s life right alongside him, even though the details of his character are more easily lost in the background.