The Essentials: The Films Of Steven Soderbergh

“Mosaic” (2018)
It wasn’t exactly surprising when it was announced that “Mosaic,” Steven Soderbergh’s return to prestige television after “The Knick,” would be a kind of unconventional choose-your-own-adventure murder mystery: why wouldn’t this restlessly prolific filmmaker dabble in such a niche subgenre, having explored practically every other mode of storytelling? “Mosaic,” while it never scales the Olympian heights of “The Knick,” which is still one of the all-time great T.V. dramas, is still quite a ride: it’s a chillier, more cerebral spin on Agatha Christie or “Knives Out”, with the iconic Sharon Stone sinking her teeth into the juicy part of contentious children’s book author Olivia Lake, surrounded by an ensemble that included Garrett Hedlund as a dippy Park City artist, Frederick Weller as a predatory con man, Paul Reubens being Paul Reubens, and Devin Ratray stealing the show as a kind-hearted local detective. Viewers could use the “Mosaic” app to get more interactive with the yarn being spun by Soderbergh and frequent screenwriter Ed Solomon, but this brittle, barbed whodunit also works like gangbusters on its own modest terms. [B] – NL

“Unsane” (2018)
“Unsane” is a truly messed-up B-movie shocker that straddles the line between a woman-in-hysteria melodrama and a cracked, semi-satirical reflection of the #MeToo movement. Soderbergh’s low-budget psycho-head trip is about a woman who’s been gaslit by everyone in her life, and tormented by a man against whom she feels powerless. The film’s central narrative preoccupation – the horror of bureaucracy – is of a piece with the likes of “Traffic,” “Contagion” and “Side Effects”. Soderbergh’s typically cool, detached cinematography is instead supplanted here by an almost Polanski-esque degree of invasiveness and voyeuristic sadism: the uneasy, perpetually roving camera often appears to be leering at the film’s star, Claire Foy, or glancing at her from a few yards away, as if from the perspective of a stalker. “Unsane” can feel like Soderbergh going back to film school just for the fuck of it, but in many ways, it’s also exactly what it’s supposed to be: a cheap, grisly $1.5 million experimental horror exercise laced with acid social commentary. [B-] – NL

“High-Flying Bird” (2019)
If there’s a throughline that runs through much of Steven Soderbergh’s filmography, it’s the act of hardworking, high-minded professionals taking a fighting stance against an organization that is both more powerful and more corrupt than they are. This is true of Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich taking on PG&E in Soderbergh’s nominal Oscar-winning drama; it’s also true of Danny Ocean and his pals sticking it to Al Pacino’s dick-swinging hotel tycoon in the underrated “Ocean’s 13.” “High-Flying Bird,” shot on an iPhone camera after “Unsane,” is another tremendous entry in the director’s Outsiders-vs.-the-World subgenre: it’s a witty, blissfully propulsive insider-sports drama, a more kinetic cousin to Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” that’s filled with lots of power plays, delicious, dizzying verbiage, and high-velocity star power. Anchored by a soulful performance from the great Andre Holland, here playing one of the director’s classic outside-the-establishment rebels, “High-Flying Bird” is very much about the fraught relationship of white spectators to African-American competitors; in that regard, it’s one of the more incisive movies this normally more cool-headed director has ever made. [A-] – NL

“The Laundromat” (2019)
“The Laundromat” is another one of Soderbergh’s devious, darkly comic doggy-paddles in the muddy waters of financial crime: a not-entirely-surprising development, considering the script was penned by regular Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns, also responsible for “The Informant!,” “Contagion,” and “Side Effects.” “The Laundromat” tells the story of the Panama Papers scandal, in which 11.5 million leaked financial documents exposed a veritable cesspool of corruption that indicted athletes, politicians, world leaders, and other wealthy 1%’ers, all of whom had quietly funneled their cash through a series of elusive off-shore bank accounts. This is dauntingly dry subject matter, but uninitiated viewers should know not to expect the “Traffic” treatment here: “The Laundromat” sees Soderbergh doing a largely successful Adam McKay imitation, with repeated instances of fourth-wall breaking, deglamorized movie stars playing cartoonishly decent middle-class Americans (or, in Gary Oldman’s case, a monstrous Panamanian lawyer with an accent that’s eerily reminiscent of Mike Myers’ SNL staple, Dieter), and a tone that’s sardonic, somehow, without being contemptuous. It’s certainly not the deepest movie the director has ever made, but it packs a tart, undeniable bite all the same. [B] – NL

“Let Them All Talk” (2020)
Perhaps only Steven Soderbergh could have convinced none other than Meryl Streep to take a journey with him and a cast that includes Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest, Lucas Hedges, and Gemma Chan on the Queen Mary II while more or less making up a movie as they go along. The resulting cinematic experiment is “Let Them All Talk,” and here, the director does just that, indulging his well-to-do characters in a series of jazzy, meditative conversations that are by turns meandering, enchanting, and emotionally revealing. “Let Them All Talk” can feel somewhat slight in the moment; look deeper, however, and viewers will be rewarded by Soderbergh’ characteristically rich attention to the tactile fissures of interpersonal drama that bubble up beneath this movie’s glossy, breezy surface. While it’s undeniably a novelty to see Soderbergh direct an affable, low-stakes gal’s comedy – the kind of thing Nancy Meyers might ordinarily have a crack at – the fact that the resulting lark is this wonderful should come as a surprise to no one. [B+] – NL

“No Sudden Move”
“No Sudden Move” is Steven Soderbergh’s most electrifying caper in some time: a frosty neo-noir by way of a domestic heist thriller that’s interested in unpacking the paradox of race relations and income inequality in the Midcentury U.S. The film is certainly the sum of its influences – which include hard-boiled classics like “The Big Combo” and “The Desperate Hours,” the films of Robert Siodmak and Nicholas Ray, and the pulp literature of Walter Mosley and Elmore Leonard – but it is also quite obviously a product of Soderbergh’s extraordinary brain. Our yarn unfolds in 1950’s Detroit, and begins, as so many tales of crime and punishment do, with some down-on-their-luck men agreeing to a dirty job. That would be Curt Goines (Don Cheadle), fresh out of prison and looking to reclaim a piece of stolen land, and Ronald Russo (a sneaky Benicio Del Toro, playing his character as if Tom Waits were a sozzled hired gun), a heavy drinker and racist with a face like Bogart. Both men are hired to “babysit” the terrified family of an accountant (David Harbour) while he retrieves a high-security document. Before long, a third, hotheaded gun is added to the mix (Kieran Culkin), a weapon is discharged, somebody dies, and two warring crime bosses have put a price on our hero’s heads. Soderbergh’s latest is a return to lowlife form that’s also a savage critique of American injustice: racial animus, neoliberal hypocrisy, and suburban malaise are all addressed here without the filmmaker ever tipping his hand into didacticism; in spite of his generally eggheaded tendencies as a storyteller, Soderbergh never once forgets that we came to this star-studded affair for a good time, not a long time. [A-] – NL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GRDLX3a-IE

– Oliver Lyttelton, Rodrigo Perez, Nicholas Laskin, Jessica Kiang, Drew Taylor, Kimber Myers,