Is the work of Steven Soderbergh the most overrated thing ever?

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"i hate EB because it LOOKS LIKE more than it is" vs. "his movies are only good when he lets style = substance"

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Saturday, 13 September 2003 08:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Thank you, Salon:

George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh don't have much trouble getting the media's attention. The swooning and curiosity that's surrounded their quasi-fictional political show for HBO, "K Street," never fails to mention Clooney's charm, wit and sparkling grin, and to lavish praise on Soderbergh, glossing over self-indulgent flops "Solaris" and "Full Frontal," and ignoring his obvious embrace of his own celebrity despite humble, "Gosh I just hate this stuff" interviews to the contrary. A few signature leading-man looks from Clooney and a little self-deprecation from Soderbergh and these two are sophisticated, talented, swashbuckling guys just crazy enough to try something new, blurring the line between politics and Hollywood (what line?) and breaking down the barriers between reality and fiction (what barriers?).

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2003/09/15/k_street/index_np.html

― Girolamo Savonarola, Tuesday, 16 September 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooohh, they called Full Frontal self-indulgent!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoyed SL&V.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I really enjoyed Full Frontal, but now I can remember barely anything about it. The good thing about being self indulgent is that other people who are a bit like you might also be indulged.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

yes fuck that George Clooney for being so good-looking, and Soderbergh for not being contrite about his fame

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

i quite enjoyed 1999 but i don't remember anything about it

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Pete's thing about self indulgence makes a great quote.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:41 (twenty-two years ago)

i.e. those self-indulgent Medicis

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:45 (twenty-two years ago)

or strike that actually, i think that proves the opposite point. well you know what i mean anyway.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

K Street is awesome

― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked Full Frontal too, didn't love it, but I liked it. And yeah, of course it's self-indulgent. So?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I've enjoyed all of Soderbergh's films to some degree, but the fact that he's so venerated (except on this site) says more about the dearth of mainstream talent at the moment than it does about the quality of his movies. I found only Out of Sight and EB really worked for me, not as great cinema but as enjoyable soapy indlulgences.

On the other hand, Albert Finney's accent. Oy.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

well in the movie they settle instead of going to court, and EB gets a lot of money herself (two million out of 33 million?)

The first settlement was 500 mil, but that was supposed to be the first of many, in the film...

I just saw EB again last night, and the scene where Aaron Eckhart and Julia Roberts break up is so great. Her speech is so realistic, her delivery. Everything with Finney is hilarious (and I only noticed his accent once). There are some scenes that are overplayed--the brittle female lawyer bitch is too much. But the townspeople are portrayed with so much care that I'm totally baffled by the reaction here. Should movies never deal with small-town victims of corporations? These people are shown to be skeptical and smart. The scene with no sound, with the dad throwing rocks at the company at night--scenes like that put this movie WAY out of the realm of TV movie.

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Let me say as well that I like that movie a lot too.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

(sorry about the redundancies in that sentence)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

― Coat Hanger (c_hanger), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Ocean's Eleven was a complete mess, and I've got no idea how either The Limey or Confessions of a dangerous Mind ever got made. However, Traffic was great. I really think that the role of the director is generally overplayed when talking about films in which hundreds or thousands of people were involved. I mean, Traffic had a great script and centred on a a clear powerful theme, whereas the other two aforementioned films seem to have been made just for the sake of it.

― Coat Hanger (c_hanger), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

He didn't direct Confessions...

Traffic is probably my least favourite Soderbergh. Erin Brockovich kicks its ass.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Coo, imagine films being made just for the sake of it. As opposed to what?

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

THEMES!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

my favorite is "solaris" (ducks)

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i agree. i wasn't sure about it until i saw it again on DVD tho. i hope it is remade again by another director too.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm praying for a Michael Bay version.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Oceans Eleven is so totally entertaining I wanted to cheer.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

What's-his-name is going to be in the next one. Monica Belluci's husband. Vincent Cassell, I think that's right.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't blame anyone for hating Ocean's Eleven. It was, after all, about a bunch of guys having fun taking our money.

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

[[rimshot!]]

(Pete Scholtes can regularly be seen at www.complicatedfun.com.)

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

I'm reconsidering my opinions on Soderbergh based solely on the strength of Schizopolis and also slightly on the portrayal of his career as written in Biskind's new book Down and Dirty Pictures (however spurious said book's sources may be).

That said, I stand by my previous statement that Soderbergh 89-99 was better than 00-onwards, but I've decided to try to go through the entire oeuvre and see if a closer look yields anything worth reconsidering.

There.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 18 April 2004 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

trailer for oceans 12 is better than oceans 11.

― Miles Finch, Monday, 31 January 2005 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I really liked Kafka. I thought he did a good job bringing ideas from many of his books into one movie. Jeremy Irons was great as Franz.

Other than Sex, Lies and Videotape, which I also liked, I have not seen any of Soderbergh's other films.

― earlnash, Monday, 31 January 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Ocean's 12 was good, more fun and easygoing than the first one. I can't decide if his complete violation of the heist-movie/detective-movie rule (the scheme has to be something the audience could have figured out) is laziness or a formal experiment.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 31 January 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i like erin brokovich, traffic, sex lies and videotape, out of sight, and the limey. the others I don't care about at all. I remember really disliking schizopolis, which seemed like more of a phoney attempt at being taken seriously by cult-loving filmies than his other work.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway he's better than Alan Rudolph who I used to think of as kind of a similar director. they've definitely gone down seperate paths.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved The Limey, Oceans 11, and Gray's Anatomy. I liked Erin Brokovich, the Solaris remake, and Out of Sight. I was mostly ambivalent about Traffic, Kafka, and Sex Lies & Videotape. I greatly disliked Schizopolis.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i forgot about gray's anatomy. that was good also.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Schizopolis. It was what made me first take note of Mr.Soderbergh.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Sarah and Carey OTM, two years ago.

I haven't seen Out of Sight in a very, very long time, mainly because I have it on VHS and not on DVD, but I plan to rectify this very soon.

― Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Monday, 31 January 2005 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

I saw Schizopolis last night. It was good! It made both more and less sense than I expected it to.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

What I liked about Schizopolis is that in the process of telling a pretty simple core story (husband and wife grown apart emotionally, etc.) it throws out so many neat little ideas with such terrifying speed that it doesn't really matter that none of them really stick. Its wild and uneven, and fails over and over again, but the film as a whole still feels satisfying, conhesive in its own way.

― Augustine (Augustine Bearse), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

not looking forward to his che movie

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I still stand by my original assertion!

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

He's doing a Che movie?!?!? That's so not a good idea.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck a biopic!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

This will only work if they use the Che character from Evita.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

will it be a remake of "The Motorcycle Diaries" i wonder? he's the remake king.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

an evil king, i mean.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

what, no one liked his shot-for-shot Psycho remake? He's totally a hack, but even hacks make good movies on occasion (in this case I'd rate the Limey, Traffic. Out of Sight and Ocean's 11 were okay, but totally fluff, throwaway material. And I say this as someone who hates Elmore Leonard with a burning passion)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

what, no one liked his shot-for-shot Psycho remake?

Yeah, what was that guy thinking ripping off Gus Van Sant like that!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

the thought of soderbergh doing a shot-for-shot remake of van sant's shot-for-shot remake is cracking me up.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

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