George Clooney, butt naked, eating noodles. This must stop.
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris V. (Chris V), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
You wouldn't be complaining if it had been Julia Roberts.
― Wintermute (Wintermute), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris V. (Chris V), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
Julia Roberts...meh. Julia Louis-Drefyus in her birthday suit with a bowl of chicken soup and matzoh balls...now we're talking.
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nick A. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
How so?
― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
(i enjoyed it mainly bcz i discovered that my friend nic totally looks like julia roberts as she in in this movie, and i never noticed in real life: so basically for me it wz all abt how my friend nic worked her butt off in skanky too-tight clothes to win all these foax in a small US town lots of deserved money for being poisoned by THE MAN)
(probbly the best bit is, if i told nic she looks like JR in EB, she wd doubtless punch me in the mouth!!)
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
(the orig Traffik is great)
(and wasn't EB, well, a lie [ie company not found liable but settled and lawyers got all the money anyway or some such thing]?)
― g.cannon (gcannon), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
What Ilike about him is his workman like attitude to film-making.
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
haha in fargo it says "based on a true story" and ppl said "is it?" and they said "no" and ppl said "you can't do that!!" and they said "why not? it's fiction ie not true so that includes the phrase 'based on a true story'"
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
Pitch Black was great too. I hadn't noticed the connexion befor but that and Kafka have a lot in common. King Of The Hill is grebt.
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― g.cannon (gcannon), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― g.cannon (gcannon), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
I suspect Traffic will be unwatchable in a few decades. It's like Stanley Kramer + Alan Pakula.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 16:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
He ain't no Terry Gilliam though.
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Didn't have the heart to go see _Solaris_, myself.
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 19:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nick A. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 20:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Leee (Leee), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
Plus, the oldest of 'his last four movies' dates all the way back... to 2000.
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
I've never found much use for the term "hack," as it tends to caricature or obscure the specifics of the creative process. How do we know that Soderbergh doesn't work closely with his screenwriters? That he doesn't feel strongly about the material?
I do agree that the "one for them, one for me" pattern in his filmography is worrisome. I wonder if his films have suffered for his artifical dichotomy between compromise and experiment--"wonder" because I haven't seen the last two.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:43 (twenty-one years ago) link
― robin (robin), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― hstencil, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 21:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― john fail (cenotaph), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 22:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
I *did*. I was a movie critic back then, and I thought it was a hoax. Honestly, the idea that something quite that fake could be sent to Cannes, let alone be the talk of the place, could only be explained by it being a pratical joke. Did anybody listen? Am I still a movie critic? (Is Bush about to bomb Iraq for humanitarian reasons?)
― Nyarlathotep, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
Which, according to the interview he and Clooney did on the Charlie Rose show, is precisely how they ended up remaking Solaris. To his credit Soderbergh said that he could bring something new to the story, but that it wasn't his project from the get go.
― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
it's called THE LIMEY!! (= it isn't even remotely concerned with actual real british people you've met!)
also it's unfinished and oddly-paced in a way quite faithful to the films it's emulating (60s Point Blank-style revenge pictures, not film noir). What's great about soderbergh's genre work is also what i guess can be frustrating about it - its aesthetics are more meticulously "studied" than usual (and it's here where his film-geekiness really kicks in, not in the arty pictures nobody sees), which means you wind up getting his homage to what's good AND bad about the source material
i REALLY didn't get the fuss the "how dare you remake this venerable classic" contingent raised when Ocean's 11 came out - the original is exactly as shallow and silly as the remake is.
― jones (actual), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
bed for me i think
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 01:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
Solaris was a good waste of 2 hours but once again not something I'm gonna add to the stacks anytime soon.
I have apparently not seen any of his really good stuff. Maybe someday I will fix this.
― Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 02:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
As a cinematographer (under the nom de cam "Peter Andrews"), however, he is particularly good - those Mexico scenes in Traffic.
The Alan J. Pakula reference is OTM on at least one point - he stole the closing credits for Traffic from All the President's Men.
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 05:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 05:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
the way the end-credits appear in both traffic and EB (maybe in his other films too but i either haven't seen them or wasnt paying as much attention) - while the movie is still in process, so you don't have this BLACK SCREEN appear and wrap things up and force you into making some kind of judgement/summation. so we get a kind of a profundity-of-the-everyday quality - the 'final judgement' already happened without us noticing (actually, both end scenes i'm talking about here are very much ABOUT the mundane turned profound - benecio attending the little league game which becomes this beautiful cosmic event with the help of eno and everthing being saturated in mars red and erin's workroom squabble which resolves itself into 2 million dollars)
― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 12 September 2003 14:38 (twenty years ago) link
sure, some films of his are great, some are okay - and some are crap.but i'd like to hear anyone who's seen schizopolis bad mouth soderbergh. go on, you know you can't.
― dyson (dyson), Friday, 12 September 2003 15:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 12 September 2003 18:45 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:30 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:41 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 12 September 2003 20:34 (twenty years ago) link
― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Saturday, 13 September 2003 08:18 (twenty years ago) link
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 years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 01:04 (twenty years ago) link
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 03:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 09:21 (twenty years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:20 (twenty years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:21 (twenty years ago) link
― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 12:42 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:10 (twenty years ago) link
On the other hand, Albert Finney's accent. Oy.
― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:13 (twenty years ago) link
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 years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:20 (twenty years ago) link
― Coat Hanger (c_hanger), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Coat Hanger (c_hanger), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:25 (twenty years ago) link
Traffic is probably my least favourite Soderbergh. Erin Brockovich kicks its ass.
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:26 (twenty years ago) link
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:32 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:38 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 20:22 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:08 (twenty years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 01:02 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 01:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 02:00 (twenty years ago) link
(Pete Scholtes can regularly be seen at www.complicatedfun.com.)
― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 02:02 (twenty years ago) link
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 years ago) link
― Miles Finch, Monday, 31 January 2005 15:09 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 31 January 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 31 January 2005 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 15:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Augustine (Augustine Bearse), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, what was that guy thinking ripping off Gus Van Sant like that!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link
-- Nordicskillz (t1nym1n...), March 11th, 2003.
solaris is one of my favorite films of all time. yes this version. you may now excuse whatever paltry credibility i have earned over the last five months.
kafka is great too.
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
I like all 3 Solarises, tho in Lem-Tarkovsky-SS order.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
I would agree, but he has made some good films (King of the Hill is probably my early favorite, but I like Schizopolis and The Underneath and most of Hollywood fare too.)
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link
SS steped in on this after Terence Malick (?!?) backed out.
― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 20:29 (nineteen years ago) link
Soderbergh:Malick::Spielberg:Huston
― Remy (x Jeremy), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 20:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Aaron A., Tuesday, 15 February 2005 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 22:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Aaron A., Tuesday, 15 February 2005 22:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Monday, 30 January 2006 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 30 January 2006 14:06 (eighteen years ago) link
So Bob Pollard has scored most of Bubble. If only it was still the '90s.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 January 2006 14:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Monday, 30 January 2006 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 30 January 2006 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 30 January 2006 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link
No, the work of Lars von Trier is
― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 30 January 2006 15:37 (eighteen years ago) link
This is so OTM. Best post on this thread.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 30 January 2006 15:52 (eighteen years ago) link
mind-boggling.
― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Monday, 30 January 2006 15:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 30 January 2006 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link
I'll admit EB shrinks in comparison to something like North Country, which actually takes an interest in its children, has no stock townies, and makes its trial almost an afterthought to activism. But I guess I will always be on board for The Julia Roberts Show in some form--unless that means sitting through Ocean's 12 again.
Read Jon Lee Anderson's Che biography before you decide it wouldn't make a great movie. Hope it's Reds/Godfather II-long, too.
― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 30 January 2006 22:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 09:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 12:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 12:12 (eighteen years ago) link
-- Andy K (xndkx...), September 16th, 2003 9:42 AM. (Andy K) (link)
Must've been posted after the first or second episode.
― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 12:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:39 (eighteen years ago) link
Directed by:Michelangelo AntonioniSteven SoderberghKar Wai Wong
Anyone seen this? Apparently a collection of 3 'erotic' short subjects. According to my friend, Soderbergh's contribution is comparable in style to Schizopolis.
― elmo, holy helper (allocryptic), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― ant@work.com, Friday, 17 March 2006 22:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― ant@work, Friday, 17 March 2006 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― elmo, holy helper (allocryptic), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― elmo, holy helper (allocryptic), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:31 (eighteen years ago) link
oh, and I want to see the Limey. Gah, I just hate how so many of his movies just use enough of the tricks of good filmmaking to push over the horseshit. All the character exposition at the beginning of Brokovich was just to morph into A Civil Action For Women by act two.
― ant@work, Friday, 17 March 2006 22:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― timmy tannin (pompous), Saturday, 18 March 2006 02:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 18 March 2006 05:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 13 May 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link
For a bit of needed perspective, see Kim Il Jong.
― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 13 May 2006 03:03 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm no Star Wars dude or anything, but I noted that after Soderbergh ripped the Right Stuff Sally Rand fan dance with the fountain scene in 11, this time around we get Isabel, I am your father and the cantina scene (the music, even) at the end.
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 13 May 2006 03:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 13 May 2006 03:10 (seventeen years ago) link
BEST. MOVIE. EVER.
― gabbneb, Saturday, 9 June 2007 03:20 (sixteen years ago) link
ru crazy, i still want my money back for ocean's 12
― A B C, Saturday, 9 June 2007 03:55 (sixteen years ago) link
i walked out of it hating liberal hollyweird
― A B C, Saturday, 9 June 2007 03:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Ocean's 12 was the best of the three.
― milo z, Saturday, 9 June 2007 03:56 (sixteen years ago) link
maybe, i didn't see it in the theater tho, or tonite. did this one have a lot more subtle (or semi-subtle) stuff than the last two?
― gabbneb, Saturday, 9 June 2007 03:59 (sixteen years ago) link
What I liked best about the second is that they didn't even pretend that the caper(s) made sense. It was just Hollywood Glamour by way of Godard in pretty locales. This one's shot in the same way, but there's less room for the characters riffing together and having fun.
This one was actually a pretty effective pop heist movie (where the first one pulled a lame switcheroo and the second one just didn't bother), but very little made an impression (Pacino was ill-used, too much time examining the mechanics, far too little Eddie Izzard).
― milo z, Saturday, 9 June 2007 04:06 (sixteen years ago) link
but the scenes in Mexico were pretty awesome.
Damon's daddy reveal/role should have been more explosive, though. You could see it coming a mile away, and I wanted him to be a bigger personage (politician/head of the FBI/something).
― milo z, Saturday, 9 June 2007 04:08 (sixteen years ago) link
NO TOPHER GRACE NO CREDIBILITY
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 9 June 2007 04:13 (sixteen years ago) link
i thought the heist in this one sucked
― s1ocki, Saturday, 9 June 2007 05:05 (sixteen years ago) link
s 'bubble' any good? why is mark romanek the commentator on the dvd? i'm intrigued. -- The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Monday, 30 January 2006 14:16 (1 year ago) Link
last thing romanek actually did?
― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 9 June 2007 09:20 (sixteen years ago) link
i hate every movie this fucker's been involved with
― strgn, Saturday, 9 June 2007 09:26 (sixteen years ago) link
haha! but armen weitzman was pretty good, no? plus, the return of vincent cassel? jerry weintraub as the lead whale? David Paymer!
oh i don't know about making no sense. otherwise yeah, maybe, but the snippets were still pretty fun this time around. and mexico. and all the old-vegas/hollywood/reuben stuff. and roman-greco/analog-digital. and george&brad as women/the charity/oprah. the real-life/relationship stuff. "Fender Roads"
― gabbneb, Saturday, 9 June 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
every time i try to watch one of these ocean's movies i fall asleep in the middle and wake up at the end completely bewildered.
― akm, Saturday, 9 June 2007 14:28 (sixteen years ago) link
actually this happened with the bourne movies too. maybe it's matt damon
i agree that Caldwell pere wasn't all it could have been (maybe that's for 14? that wasn't telegraphed or anything), but the Linus stuff remained pretty fun
― gabbneb, Saturday, 9 June 2007 14:30 (sixteen years ago) link
i saw the first 'oceans', it was pointless shit, and it's a kind of "phenomenon" now, and in thirty years god help us, clip shows will look upon it as the acme of 00s cool, for serious. the lame thing about soderbergh is that his 'one for them, one for me' strategy doesn't actually lead to very exciting 'one for me projects'. i say this having not bothered with 'bubble', 'the good german', or that self-referential one, but the point stands. i liked 'out of sight', it had a fine cast, but at this stage that's about as much enthusiasm as i can summon. may be i should 'rescreen' some. maybe not though, there's only so much time on this earth.
― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 9 June 2007 14:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Everything Soderbergh I've seen is shit, except Schizopolis which I guess is like his one fluke, as it's pretty much genius. I'm not sure how that worked out.
― billstevejim, Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Saw Erin Brockovich again a few weekends ago; it holds better than any of his others (save Out of Sight).
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 10 June 2007 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link
something about his style just flattens everything. all the jump cuts and ppl talking over each other comes off as planned and over rehearsed, just like the heist itself, they've planned everything in advance and are just going through the motions being pleased with themselves & only concerned about looking cool. what godard i've seen is reckless and exuberant, like they don't know what'll happen next. steven soderbergh, proof that cool is over.
― daria-g, Sunday, 10 June 2007 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link
saw oceans 13 last night and thought it was incredibly shit. i think soderburgh is just making whatever gets him a cheque at this point. didnt really laugh once in the whole film (ok maybe once) but found the whole thing too smug in its 'coolness'. and the pastiched 70s soundtrack was even worse.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link
also pacino just seemed to barely be trying as the hotel owner, and izzard just seemed deeply uninteresting, flat and devoid of personality. i know im meant to find this sort of film 'smooth' but i just found it a bit irritating in its complete and total lack of rough edges (narrative or visual).
― titchyschneiderMk2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
are there really people who look at clooney & co and think that they either are, or are trying to be, 'cool'?
― gabbneb, Monday, 11 June 2007 04:42 (sixteen years ago) link
yes. many, many people.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 11 June 2007 09:41 (sixteen years ago) link
i know im meant to find this sort of film 'smooth' but i just found it a bit irritating in its complete and total lack of rough edges (narrative or visual).
Why is this bad?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 11 June 2007 11:26 (sixteen years ago) link
seemed a bit smug.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 11 June 2007 11:31 (sixteen years ago) link
i dont *hate* soderburgh though. i still really like sex lies and videotape. i think i liked traffic too, even if i remember it being a bit heavy handed.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 11 June 2007 11:34 (sixteen years ago) link
The first person to ask me for my opinion mentioned something about hoping it was too overdone. Overdone? That's the damn point of the franchise!
So the Oprah shit carried a fair amount of disdain for her antics, or was it just me laughing?
― mh, Monday, 11 June 2007 13:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i don't know i actually love some of his stuff... Traffic, Brockovich, Ocean's 11, all of that stuff really, really satisfied me. Esp Erin Brockovich, which i own and love
― Surmounter, Monday, 11 June 2007 14:13 (sixteen years ago) link
i actaully own Traffic too
― Surmounter, Monday, 11 June 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
People expecting this to somehow not be a cross between an Altman ensemble piece and James Bond are seriously misinformed
― TOMBOT, Monday, 11 June 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I liked Solaris an awful lot, along with Ocean's Eleven. And Out of Sight.
― Hey Jude, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 05:04 (sixteen years ago) link
caught the end of Ocean's Eleven last night and could not but feel: such banter and panache, such self-pleasuring cinematic ease. I was deeply impressed anew somehow, and felt that David Thomson must love this picture - especially with its sentimental efforts to admire a pensive or conflicted Julia Roberts. But maybe he doesn't. It just felt like he should.
― the pinefox, Monday, 24 March 2008 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah he doesn't.
― banriquit, Monday, 24 March 2008 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link
will he like his 2 Che films tho
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 24 March 2008 17:41 (sixteen years ago) link
He REALLY doesn't.
(xpost)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 24 March 2008 17:42 (sixteen years ago) link
The semi-subtle this-is-what's-happening-in-America/the-world nods seemed more prominent in 13, as noted above, but they've also jumped out at me more in my, ahem, rescreening of the earlier films.
If pf likes the end of 11 (or the Venetian scene in 13), he should see the original, also referenced above.
― gabbneb, Monday, 24 March 2008 18:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, Sex, Lies, and Videotape holds up better than I thought.
― I'm crossing over into enterprise (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:00 (fourteen years ago) link
has a call-girl movie coming out in May, shot w/ newer version of the Che HD camera.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:06 (fourteen years ago) link
we shot our movie on that!
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:12 (fourteen years ago) link
And real porn stars, no?
― naturally unfunny, though mechanically sound (Pancakes Hackman), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:12 (fourteen years ago) link
xp
Real porn stars are hurting from free porn downloads so any work is good.
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Real porn stars are paid to be hurting tho so it's all good.
― Easy Hippo Rider (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:17 (fourteen years ago) link
http://jezebel.com/5234491/the-girlfriend-experience-blurs-the-line-between-fantasy-reality
his quotes here make him sound like a fucking moron.
it might make a better film than 'che' at least.
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:19 (fourteen years ago) link
This doesn't sound very good.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Hey in schizopolis, there's a segment where they start speaking in grammatical descriptions of the dialogue instead of actual dialogue, but I heard a similar thing put on by a comedy? troupe on this american life -- was this tribute or outright pilfering?
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Glenn Kenny on his role in The Girlfriend Experience:
http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/672
(now I don't have to be tempted to report what I overheard him say about it in a screening room)
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 14:34 (fourteen years ago) link
COME ON
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 14:34 (fourteen years ago) link
did u see it?
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 14:35 (fourteen years ago) link
no.
Nothing spectacular, he just said what I'm sure will be in these two articles.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 14:56 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girlfriend_experience/news/1822420/five_favorite_films_with_adult_film_star_sasha_grey
― Eazy, Friday, 22 May 2009 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
there didn't seem to be anything particularly revealing or surprising in those posts
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 22 May 2009 21:39 (fourteen years ago) link
lol ebert (four * review): Chelsea is played by Sasha Grey. She is 21. Since 2006, according to IMDb, she's made 161 porn films, of which only the first title can be quoted here: "Sasha Grey Superslut." No, here's another, which makes me smile: "My First Porn #7." I haven't seen any of them, but now I would like to see one, watching very carefully, to see if she suggests more than one level.
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 22 May 2009 22:34 (fourteen years ago) link
lol i did not know that was glenn kenny in that scene. think he should star in a biopic of jim toback
movie was ok liked it lots more than che
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 13:25 (fourteen years ago) link
In Skittish Hollywood, Stars Can’t Save ‘Moneyball’
By MICHAEL CIEPLY, NY Times
LOS ANGELES — In a production office here, at least a couple of would-be film workers were still hanging around on Monday, hoping in vain to score with their troubled baseball movie “Moneyball.”
But they had swung, and missed.
The powers at Sony Pictures, which was supposed to finance the film, and the Creative Artists Agency, whose prize client Brad Pitt had agreed to star in it, were, meanwhile, wrapping up a rhubarb with the director Steven Soderbergh, a clutch of producers and each other. This followed Sony’s decision to halt the picture just days before shooting was to have begun in Los Angeles, Oakland and Phoenix last week.
The last-minute demise of a high-profile film project, especially one starring an A-list star like Mr. Pitt, is Hollywood’s equivalent of a bridge collapse. Painful, expensive, and damaging to all involved, the spectacle is rare. It happened with “Used Guys,” a high-priced comedy at 20th Century Fox in 2006.
But such disasters — this one is estimated to have cost Sony $10 million in development and pre-production costs — may become more common as an increasingly nervous film business comes to terms with a sharp decline in home video revenue, the diminishing power of even the most popular stars to muscle their projects into production and new uncertainty over complicated bets like “Moneyball.”
“They’re much more careful about doing a movie just because a star wants to do it,” said Eric Weissmann, a long-time entertainment lawyer who recalled the days when Warner Brothers made a film, “An Enemy of the People,” based on an Ibsen play, largely because Steve McQueen wanted to do it.
“Moneyball,” which is based on a 2003 nonfiction book by Michael Lewis, is supposed to tell the story of Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics general manager who figured out how to build a winning team on the cheap with players who were undervalued by the conventional measures of success in baseball.
Not hugely expensive — the budget was estimated at around $57 million — but not a small indie project, either, the film was of a sophisticated type that needs the cachet of a Soderbergh, the star power of a Pitt and perhaps Academy Awards potential to overcome its somewhat cerebral quality and the difficulty of attracting foreign viewers for American-based sports pictures.
But some of those elements collided in the last few weeks, increasing doubts that Hollywood — where specialty divisions like Warner Independent Pictures and Paramount Vantage have been closed or diminished — is losing its ability to deliver tricky but appealing pictures like “Good Night, and Good Luck” or “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which earned Oscar nominations for George Clooney (as a director) and Mr. Pitt (as a star).
As of Tuesday, “Moneyball” was back in development, with Sony executives still hoping at some point to work with Mr. Pitt. But Mr. Soderbergh was off the project. And the studio was gearing up eventually to find someone who would direct something more like the version of the script written by the Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian than the rewritten version by Mr. Soderbergh that scuttled the project.
But that might bring problems of its own. One of the reasons Mr. Soderbergh made his script changes was to win the approval of Major League Baseball, which was not happy with some factual liberties in Mr. Zaillian’s version. Such approval is crucial in a reality-based baseball film that intends to use protected trademarks.
“Typically, on a film like this, we look at it for historical accuracy,” said Matthew Bourne, a public relations vice-president for Major League Baseball. “We’re been in touch with Soderbergh and Sony, and they’ve been receptive to our requests” Mr. Bourne said.
Representatives of Sony, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Soderbergh all declined to discuss “Moneyball.” But accounts from more than a dozen people involved with the film, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid damaging professional relationships, described a process in which the heady thrill of a film rushing toward production was halted by a studio that was suddenly confronted by plans for something artier and more complex than it had bargained for.
A central player in the drama has been Amy Pascal, Sony’s co-chairman, and an executive known for taking a strong hand in the development of scripts. Ms. Pascal and her team became involved with “Moneyball” about six years ago, when a relatively untested producer, Rachael Horovitz, brought the book to Sony with a screenwriter, Stan Chervin, after virtually every other buyer in Hollywood had passed.
Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson — writers who had worked with Sony on pictures like “Ali” — also wrote a draft. Then Mr. Chervin returned to work with the director David Frankel, who opted to do “Marley & Me” instead.
Mr. Pitt, a fan of the book, meanwhile had become interested, putting the film on a fast track at Sony, which, hired Mr. Zaillian, another of the studio’s favorites, to do another rewrite, even as it agreed to bring on Mr. Soderbergh as the director.
While he has scored big with studio projects like the “Ocean’s Eleven” series with Mr. Pitt, Mr. Soderbergh remains one of Hollywood’s most self-consciously distinctive directors. He serves as his own cinematographer, often contributes to scripts and has worked lately on a series of challenging, low-budget films like his two-part “Che,” a Spanish-language movie that made its debut both in a small number of theaters and on pay-per-view.
Two weeks ago, a mismatch in both personal style and expectations proved fatal to “Moneyball.” Mr. Soderbergh, about a week before shooting, delivered his own revision of the script, which Sony executives saw as being far more documentary-like than Mr. Zaillian’s approach.
The executives, who had just seen disappointing results from “The Taking of Pelham 123” and “Year One,” rebelled.
It cannot have helped that the new script showed up just days after an announcement in Washington that Sony was about to begin an elaborate production by yet another studio favorite, the writer-director James L. Brooks, with Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon. The untitled new movie is a romantic comedy set in the world of — baseball.
The situation was particularly ticklish, given Mr. Pascal’s close professional relationship with Bryan Lourd, the Creative Artists partner who serves as one of Mr. Pitt’s agents. In a highly unusual arrangement, when the studio decided to pull the plug on Mr. Soderbergh’s film, it allowed representatives for him, Mr. Pitt and the producers a weekend-long window to shop the film to Paramount, where Mr. Pitt is closely allied with the studio chief, Brad Grey, and Warner, where both Mr. Pitt and Mr. Soderbergh have strong ties.
Both studios, however, immediately passed.
Through last week, the “Moneyball” team looked for a compromise that might restart the film, which was already weeks into its expensive prep period. But Fox, which also got a look, joined those who passed.
And by this week, the movie, at least in its current configuration, was dead. Mr. Pitt’s representatives had an eye out for his next picture. Mr. Soderbergh’s were looking for ways to assure that his valuable, if somewhat eccentric, career, would not be harmed by the debacle.
And those who looked forward to “Moneyball,” the film, were waiting to see whether Hollywood might still figure it out.
“There’s a movie in there,” Mr. Wilkinson said on Monday. “But it’s a very unusual movie.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link
god $57 million for a frickin baseball executive movie?
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:18 (fourteen years ago) link
is Dubya in it?
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:21 (fourteen years ago) link
three cheers for sony imho. soderbergh's personal/serious/arty films have a very low strike rate.
the informant looks pretty dece.
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:23 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i was lollin at the informant trailer
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
max, $57 M is dirt-cheap for any Brad Pitt-starring film.
enrique, you're such a pro-shit scumbag.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 15:39 (fourteen years ago) link
sorry, I meant cad, not max xxxp
so you enjoyed 'che', 'full frontal', 'the good german'?
apparently ss wanted to excise from the script anything that 'didn't really happen'. what a dick. soderbergh, you're fucking out.
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
what an asshole, wanting to make a movie that way.
― Michael tapeworm much talent for the future (s1ocki), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:10 (fourteen years ago) link
wonder if erin brockovich was that sassy irl.
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:11 (fourteen years ago) link
xp yeah i realize that pitt is commanding a lot of that i'm just continually bemused by how ppl need $57 million for a film that in terms of actual execution should need what--10? 15?
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:11 (fourteen years ago) link
nice use of american baseball slang nrq
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm guessing nrq wouldn't know a baseball if it struck him in the nutz. (and i'd love to test that)
I saw only Che of those, like the first half particularly. I quite liked Bubble and Solaris.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
also cad, the budget for MLB licensing and shooting in ballparks ... this would be a early '00s period film, calling for quite a bit of FX to make the game transitions work...
If the script didn't stick to general facts, MLB might withdraw its co-op, which would kill the film (a different way).
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link
ok, you are slowly convincing me....
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:20 (fourteen years ago) link
I think the average studio pic budget is well over $100 mil, and even the avg Aniston romcom costs $60 M or more. (pre-advertising)
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:29 (fourteen years ago) link
solaris is maybe the worst movie i've ever seen. soderbergh is overrated but his fans are more annoying than the movies he's been a part of imo.
― Matt P, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm a fan of his! i think i'm kind of annoying too, but not overly so
― surm, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:40 (fourteen years ago) link
what does that even mean xp
― Michael tapeworm much talent for the future (s1ocki), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:40 (fourteen years ago) link
like ppl who wear steven soderbergh t-shirts?
i don't do that
― surm, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
artists who follow their muse will be "annoying" some of the time
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
who's worse, soderbergh fans or DMB fans???
― i want to marry a pizza (gbx), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Soderbergh fans joined forces with grieving MJ fans.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:42 (fourteen years ago) link
you know what that should have been "two people i didn't like who always brought up steven soderbergh in class as examples of 'post-modern' cinema in 2002." solaris still sucked so hard but i haven't seen very many of his other movies so idk honestly
― Matt P, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:48 (fourteen years ago) link
steven soderbergh is ok but the fanfic writers are a little ott
― Matt P, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Especially the mpreg stories.
― Detroit Metal City (Nicole), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
i really wish ppl would EXPLAIN why things "suck so hard"
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
i foolishly GISed mpreg before checking wikipedia x-post
― Matt P, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
it's a remake of my favorite tarkovsky movie and one of my favorite movies of all time with george clooney in it, who drives me crazy, so admittedly i'm a little biased. i saw it years ago and i've forgotten specifics but i just remember feeling like it was the most pretentious and vacuous movie i'd ever seen.
― Matt P, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Solaris is the Kid A of films. make of that what you will.― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, March 11, 2003 6:54 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark
a movie about baseball, really
― josh fenderman (jeff), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
what a tragedy for movies about baseball
― We are not a gossip site like Wikipedia (hmmmm), Thursday, 2 July 2009 04:37 (fourteen years ago) link
I cannot join the contrarians in praising The Informant!, which strains to be a satire of something or other (the corporate culture of theft, I wish). Matt Damon's bipolar voiceover wore me out before his Bruce McCullochization. I don't particularly understand all the bashing of the Marvin Hamlisch score, it just underlines the already smug vibe.
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
It was obnoxious. Scott Bakula and his hair were the only saving graces.
I did get The Girlfriend Experience today.
― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:22 (fourteen years ago) link
*instant rimsh...wait that sounds wrong.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:23 (fourteen years ago) link
I liked Bakula! Tom Smothers slipped by unnoticed; I did spot his brother.
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:31 (fourteen years ago) link
So, is this the point where everyone comes to their senses and realises this man has never made a good film?
― grobravara hollaglob (dowd), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 01:16 (fourteen years ago) link
King of the Hill, Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin Brockovich, The Girlfriend Experience comprises an impressive achievement.
― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 02:06 (fourteen years ago) link
*comprise
watched "king of the hill" it was good i thought. also i correctly id'd a young katherine heigl! i never really knew she started so young
― johnny crunch, Friday, 3 September 2010 22:41 (thirteen years ago) link
we all did
― real s1ock (s1ocki), Friday, 3 September 2010 23:00 (thirteen years ago) link
'out of sight' remains way more stylish and fun than i had assumed it wld - lol'd heartily throughout - everyone & everything in this is so charming that it sorta fucked me up that the end was so bloody & heartless
the cast in this is so stellar - head nods @ catherine keener and luis guzmán & the keaton cameo that nods to jackie brown - whole thing has a tremendous ease to it
― Lamp, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:16 (thirteen years ago) link
If he'd made OOS now we'd all think he was in his Effortless Craftsman phase.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link
― A B C, Friday, June 8, 2007 11:55 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― A B C, Friday, June 8, 2007 11:56 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark
haha! ocean's 12 sucked but i did like the Kashmir scene
― My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:29 (thirteen years ago) link
out of sight was the last time j-lo was really hot too... then she got a bunch of work done to make her look like a white girl
― My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:30 (thirteen years ago) link
j-lo in out of sight is O_O esp when they put her in those little shorts and a dolphins jersey
― Lamp, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:35 (thirteen years ago) link
i gotta watch oos again--my gf loves it but i never cared for it.
sex lies is still one of my faves and really the limey is too so i don't care what else this guy does.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Never loved sex lies like some ppl seemed to. Maybe I should watch it again. I do love Spader. OoS is really good.
― ENBB, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 03:40 (thirteen years ago) link
It's true about Lopez, I think, in that film.
The Limey is super!
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 11:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Love how well shot, written, and acted the scene in that lovely Detroit hotel bar is. You can taste the bourbon and smell J-Lo's perfume.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 00:29 (thirteen years ago) link
He is filming a "OH NOES FATAL VIRAL OUTBREAK IN METRO USA" film with O_o ensemble cast in SF right now called Contagion, looks to be v. similar to Outbreak (ensemble cast, shit film).
― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 01:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Didn't see this one coming, Steven Soderbergh to retire.
― Cluster the boots (Billy Dods), Monday, 14 March 2011 18:14 (thirteen years ago) link
I posted a similar story on a diff thread last month
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 March 2011 18:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I mean, he's gotta be depressed that some people actually love the Ocean's movies
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 March 2011 18:46 (thirteen years ago) link
has he publicly downplayed them or admitted to being less proud of them than his other work?
― some dude, Monday, 14 March 2011 18:49 (thirteen years ago) link
NO, I COULD TELL BY WATCHING.
Clooney on Letterman a few years ago: "yep, we're doing Ocean's 12... (flashes grin) cuz Solaris bombed."
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 March 2011 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Not sure he'll actually follow through--Jay-Z retired, too, and so did Michael Jordan and Brett Favre, more than once. Neither am I really sure why he's unhappy. Of the four remaining films the article mentions, two are action/genre films, one's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the other's a biography of Liberace. The last could be interesting, the other three probably not. Is it that he wants to make stuff more like sex, lies & videotape and no one will let him? I thought he voluntarily veered into more commercially viable filmmaking with Out of Sight. I also thought he made enough money from that and the Ocean films that he can pretty much do what he wants anyway. Or is he just frustrated that no one goes to see his smaller films, like the quote above suggests? A whole lot of filmmakers better than him learned to live with that (don't get me wrong, I like some of his movies)...I find the story odd, but maybe I'm over-analyzing; maybe he's just tired.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I'd take the Oceans on either side of 12 over Inception anyday, as far as directors aiming for virtuoso editing.
― A Very Small Bag of Phrases (Eazy), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:14 (thirteen years ago) link
He is apparently bored with the syntax of narrative filmmaking; Matt Damon quoted him saying something like "If I see one more over-the-shoulder shot I'll go crazy."
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link
doesn't he have enough money to do whatever the hell he wants? he should go do that. whatever the hell it is he wants to do.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Soderbergh's one of the few guys who knows how to direct Conventional Hollywood Narrative, so he should stop overestimating his talents.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I mean, I wish more boilerplate as good as Erin Brockovich more often.
*wish he made
this is actually something i think you're right abt
― plax (ico), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:38 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i always thought is best stuff was perfectly decent entertainment-making. he tries too hard with the arty thing. his arty stuff sweats too much.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Neither am I really sure why he's unhappy.
He's spoken about his frustration with 'the tyranny of narrative' before - I suspect that traditional storytelling based filmmaking just increasingly bores him.
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:41 (thirteen years ago) link
nevermind, morbs already said that
he should try abstract noodle art.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:43 (thirteen years ago) link
ha "actually"!
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:43 (thirteen years ago) link
this is way better than Traffic, by the way:
http://img.designswan.com/2009/Art/noodleArt/2.jpg
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:44 (thirteen years ago) link
oops
The Girlfriend Experience was his best 'experimental' film and fortunately it was less than 80 minutes long.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WdZilHfMq6U/TRj2EK6IaPI/AAAAAAAAAyY/rm0JEFBDJJo/s1600/noodle+art+2+tutorial.jpg
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link
He says he's going to be painting and doing photography so it may still happen.
― Cluster the boots (Billy Dods), Monday, 14 March 2011 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link
damn, design swan got some tight security on their noodle art...
guy has a pretty high productivity rate -- at least one full-length film as a director a year since '98, often 2 a year -- and in the announcement he talks about how much work he's been turning down lately, so whether or not it sticks as a permanent retirement i can kinda see why'd want to publicly just shut the whole thing down and stop getting job offers.
― some dude, Monday, 14 March 2011 19:59 (thirteen years ago) link
he should make Transformers 3 if he hates narrative so much
― garage rock is usually very land-based (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:03 (thirteen years ago) link
I still like sex, lies & videotape a lot. When Soderbergh broke through with Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, and Traffic, I remember him saying something somewhat dismissive of the earlier film, like he'd finally figured out that people don't want to see stuff like sex, lies & videotape...I don't recall the exact quote, but I remember thinking, "Sorry that you feel that way--some of us want to see that stuff." Wonder where he stands on that now. (I may have mangled the quote--his comment may have been specifically aimed at Kafka--but I don't think so.)
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 20:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I found this in a NYT article from 1998, when he was cleaning up with Out of Sight: "Yes," he said one afternoon recently at his production office in Hollywood. "I had a bad case of my 20's, of being overly serious. And now I feel better at my job than I was." I don't know if that's the exact quote I had in mind--doesn't seem all that bad. Still, I like the "overly serious" sex, lies & videotape better than Out of Sight or Traffic (haven't seen Erin Brockovich), even though I realize Out of Sight would win a three-way poll handily.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 20:28 (thirteen years ago) link
it's funny, I don't remember a single thing about SL&V except for Andie McDowell talking to a video camera.
― garage rock is usually very land-based (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:30 (thirteen years ago) link
she lied to the camera, i'm pretty sure
― some dude, Monday, 14 March 2011 20:33 (thirteen years ago) link
i think i've watched ocean's 11 like a million times and i always love it
― gr8080 sings the blues (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Peter Gallagher's hilarious as the idiot husband. I also like Spader; most people'd find him insufferable. And Laura San Giacomo's yum-yum. (In general, I think it's a much funnier film than its reputation would have it.)
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 20:37 (thirteen years ago) link
sex, lies, and videotape is a pretty conventional indie film though -- even for its time! I wouldn't put it in the experimental camp.
Traffic is failed agitprop. I was one of those guys fooled for a few weeks into thinking the fun Erin Brockovich was the less 'serious' film.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:38 (thirteen years ago) link
All the actors are first-rate in SLV. I could forgive casting agents thinking Andie McDowell had talent.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Maybe it wasn't experimental formally, but it was still, from how I remember it, a much different film than most everything in theaters at the time. (What were the comparable indie films? I remember 1989 as Rain Man and Working Girl and all that.) It felt like an early-70s film to me. Not a good thing for everyone; for me, high praise.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 20:44 (thirteen years ago) link
― garage rock is usually very land-based (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, March 14, 2011 4:30 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark
haha same - i remember james spader changing into jeans in a gas station bathroom and that's it
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:44 (thirteen years ago) link
The characters drink a lot of iced tea.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Maybe it wasn't experimental formally, but it was still, from how I remember it, a much different film than most everything in theaters at the time. (What were the comparable indie films? I remember 1989 as Rain Man and Working Girl and all that.)
Spike Lee, Nancy Savoca, Jarmusch, etc had all made splashes before SLV. I'm not diluting Soderbergh's triumph: Ameri-indie needed an avatar. And I do like the movie (I own it). But SLV is a first film in the good and not so good sense: it's clever, facile, beholden to ill-considered ideas about sex and women. He was a better filmmaker by the time he made Out of Sight; he learned to trust how an actress like Jennifer Lopez can sip bourbon thoughtfully and say everything about sex without dialogue.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 March 2011 20:54 (thirteen years ago) link
oh god jlo in that movie..............................oof. he could make movies that are nothing but jlo sipping beverages thoughtfully for the rest of his life and i would be happy.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 March 2011 21:02 (thirteen years ago) link
is jennifer lopez supposed to be a good actress? i saw this movie on a flight once where she was having a sperm donor baby
― plax (ico), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:13 (thirteen years ago) link
She was great in Anaconda.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:14 (thirteen years ago) link
jk she was awful. No she's not a good actress.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:15 (thirteen years ago) link
ill-considered ideas about sex and women
I knew there was something I connected with in that film...Personally, I consider SLV more experimental than Do The Right Thing (which I like). There are aspects of Do the Right Thing that make it very much an audience film; for better or worse, SLV is not that. Clever and facile...well, I don't want to get into an Up in the Air thing all over again; I don't think there's anything especially facile about SLV. (Clever in the pejorative sense, probably, to the extent that it's entire storyline is the kind of thing that only exists in the movies...which is okay, because it's a movie.)
― clemenza, Monday, 14 March 2011 21:15 (thirteen years ago) link
I have a feeling I would like SLV much now.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
wouldn't, rather
Do the Right Thing isn't particularly experimental, it's just really really good
― garage rock is usually very land-based (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Is SLV really that experimental?
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 14 March 2011 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
No.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 01:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Whether J-Lo is a good actress is beside the point, really. Soderbergh used her well, and she delivered.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link
same for Andie McDowell.
clemenza, you've got a different idea about 'seventies film' than I do. American seventies films were a lot more sensual and crowdpleasing than SLV, which is closer to the spirit of a Rohmer thing.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 01:55 (thirteen years ago) link
same for Sasha Grey.
― A Very Small Bag of Phrases (Eazy), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 01:57 (thirteen years ago) link
same for Julia Roberts.
Out of Sight is a really well cast movie period.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 01:57 (thirteen years ago) link
clemenza, you've got a different idea about 'seventies film' than I do.
We probably do, yes.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:09 (thirteen years ago) link
When I say SLV is experimental, I don't mean it's Michael Snow or Stan Brakhage or anything like that; I meant in relation to, I don't know, The Accidental Tourist and other acclaimed American films of the day. It does some somewhat unusual stuff with the videotaping scenes. That's all.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:14 (thirteen years ago) link
ha, not being very crowdpleasing was v much a new hollywood thing, look at the box office for many of the most revered ones
― buzza, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Compared to the Accidental Tourist, the Muppets Take Manhattan was experimental.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:19 (thirteen years ago) link
Great line, but I'll stand by my point that SLV is not a conventional film.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:23 (thirteen years ago) link
I'd rather use the term provocative than experimental.
Watched it again recently and it holds up well. Spader 4 lyfe.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:24 (thirteen years ago) link
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Monday, March 14, 2011 8:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
what about laura san giacomo's boobs?
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:31 (thirteen years ago) link
I wish...if you've seen some director's cut I'm not aware of, please let me know.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:35 (thirteen years ago) link
IIRC she doesn't take him out, but does wear a lot of impressive tank tops
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:37 (thirteen years ago) link
we do get to see her booTs however
http://www.celebarazzi.com/content/Thumbnails/L/Laura_San-Giacomo/Laura_San_Giacomo_Sex_Lies_02.jpg
I love the contrast between Spader's acting and his mullet.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Soderbergh talks more about retiring and all.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 June 2011 02:30 (twelve years ago) link
And the trailer for Haywire (the spy movie with Gina Carano) is out: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/haywire/
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Saturday, 23 July 2011 03:12 (twelve years ago) link
huh, weird. it looks like it was made very cheaply. and it almost looks like a pastiche of a straight-to-video action film.
soderbergh is very smart. he reminds me of hal hartley in how in interviews he comes across as a bit self-regarding and pompous but also as very unsentimental and hard-nosed. and extremely smart and articulate. i actually think they have a lot in common -- both seem to view movies mostly in terms of the possibilities for visual invention. and both see filmmaking as largely a question of problem-solving. that's part of the "hard nosed" bit.
that said i seldom find in soderbergh's films the sort of moment-to-moment inventiveness that i find in the best hartley films (mostly from the early 1990s). too often his visual intelligence seems put in the service of these kind of half-baked "schemes" that are somewhat interesting to contemplate but don't provide a great deal of visceral pleasure.
his statement that he feels bored with mainstream narrative filmmaking should probably be taken at face value--he's bored. but it's hard not to find it a bit hubristic. i mean, lots of great filmmakers never seemed to get bored with narrative filmmaking. it can't be because they were necessarily less intelligent than soderbergh. what he's really admitting here is not the limit of narrative filmmaking but his own limits as a filmmaker. he'd probably own up to that too, but because he doesn't frame it that way he comes across as pretentious.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 03:35 (twelve years ago) link
i was going to say, i can see "pastiche of a straight-to-video action film" being another one of soderbergh's "concepts," much like "erin brokhovich" was very self-consciously him "doing" an inspiring movie-of-the-week thing.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 03:36 (twelve years ago) link
to clarify, maybe: both hartley and soderbergh openly discuss thinking about films in terms of their graphic potential, in terms of the image.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 03:37 (twelve years ago) link
his statement that he feels bored with mainstream narrative filmmaking should probably be taken at face value--he's bored. but it's hard not to find it a bit hubristic. i mean, lots of great filmmakers never seemed to get bored with narrative filmmaking.
i know, right? this is my least favorite thing for a filmmaker to say, i think. it infuriates me. i get bored with YOU, steven soderbergh!
― horseshoe, Saturday, 23 July 2011 04:23 (twelve years ago) link
in communist russia... etc.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 04:27 (twelve years ago) link
and Soderberg has proven an expert in narrative filmmaking (sex, lies, and videotape, Erin Brockovich).
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 July 2011 11:28 (twelve years ago) link
i agree, he's made some excellent films -- it's just an odd thing to say that he feels that he's exhausted the format. i believe he's sincere, and probably humble about it too, but it comes across as hubristic just the same.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 11:32 (twelve years ago) link
i think you're allowed to be bored by something that other people didn't get bored by
― graveshitwave (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 23 July 2011 11:47 (twelve years ago) link
no
― horseshoe, Saturday, 23 July 2011 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
not allowed
it doesnt bother me because i dont think hes saying other people are suckers for being into narrative filmmaking - i think there are infinitely more obnoxious ways he could go about saying that he's bored with directing
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Saturday, 23 July 2011 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
also yeah that trailer looks *exactly* like a DTV action movie except with big stars. it's one of the more surreal trailers ive seen in recent memory actually
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Saturday, 23 July 2011 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
yeah it seems like a category error
anyway yeah sorry don't know why i went on and on about that quote. he seems like a decent, sincere sort who's only saying that he himself is a bit bored with what he's been up to.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
I've been seeing this guy at my lab a lot recently. People are ridiculously deferential to him and he drives a beaten up old VW bug.
― Patrice Leclerc Delacroix Poussin (admrl), Saturday, 23 July 2011 17:53 (twelve years ago) link
So, there you go
― Patrice Leclerc Delacroix Poussin (admrl), Saturday, 23 July 2011 17:54 (twelve years ago) link
that's because he's driving the original herbie.
― apichathong song (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, 23 July 2011 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
is that a euphemism
― Patrice Leclerc Delacroix Poussin (admrl), Saturday, 23 July 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
pass the herbie from the left hand side
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 23 July 2011 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
Off to join Bill Watterson or something.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 29 August 2011 22:40 (twelve years ago) link
Passive aggressive notes
― jed_, Monday, 29 August 2011 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
this reminded me how much i enjoyed getting away with it.
― caek, Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:02 (twelve years ago) link
seeing the byline reminded me how much i don't enjoy dan kois
― a fake wannabe trying to be a pimp (history mayne), Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:05 (twelve years ago) link
well yes that article is a list of glib thoughts and anecdotes. but the book is good!
― caek, Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
yeah it's a good book. i didn't read the article. tbh im not even sure if i've ever read anything by dan kois except the one where he says foreign movies are for posers, which i power-skimmed.
― a fake wannabe trying to be a pimp (history mayne), Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
poser.
schizopolis is ~10x better than it has any right to be
― caek, Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:46 (twelve years ago) link
Kent Jones does a fine takedown of Kois in the new Film Comment
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:46 (twelve years ago) link
is there a soderbergh poll?
― caek, Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:49 (twelve years ago) link
shd leave it till he's retired / haywire has come out
― a fake wannabe trying to be a pimp (history mayne), Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:50 (twelve years ago) link
sure, just wondering if i'd missed the thread
― caek, Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
that would have been a disaster
steven soderPOLLgh is the one to search for
― a fake wannabe trying to be a pimp (history mayne), Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
Getting Away With It is very smart and enjoyable and one of the main reasons I'll always give Soderbergh the benefit of the doubt.
― Science, you guys. Science. (DL), Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
Sad irony having that Slate article slathered in ads for Moneyball.
― Corn Maze to the Dark Side (Eazy), Thursday, 15 September 2011 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
I don't have a problem with ranking OOS and The Limey as his beset, and Kois is OTM about Traffic and his Best Director Oscar ("it's a helpful reminder that, to the Academy, "best directing" usually means 'most directing'").
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 September 2011 22:05 (twelve years ago) link
sex lies & videotape is still brilliant imo
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Friday, 18 November 2011 22:42 (twelve years ago) link
although weirdly for such an important film, it doesnt seem to have retained its stature
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Friday, 18 November 2011 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/film/15082547/steven-soderbergh-interview
― do you not like slouching? (Eazy), Thursday, 19 January 2012 18:59 (twelve years ago) link
hm, re-editing 'kafka' sounds interesting i guess?
glad hes not into super-quick-cutting action steez
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 19 January 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
Did not know his new flick stars Gina Carano. Infinitely more interested in seeing it now.
― Put another Juggle in, in the Juggalodeon (kingfish), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
new flick looks *~dope~*
― omar little, Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link
heard bad things
― (govtname)mac (darraghmac), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
don't care
Soderbergh should make another "Schizopolis," not this commercial garbage. He's been a whore since he started working with George (C)loon(e)y.
― Static Electricity, Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
consider yourself 'snapped', george, if you're reading tonight
― (govtname)mac (darraghmac), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:49 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.celebitchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wenn3103499.jpg
― omar little, Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
AV Club liked it
― Put another Juggle in, in the Juggalodeon (kingfish), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
http://latimesherocomplex.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/haywire1.jpg?w=600&h=379
― Put another Juggle in, in the Juggalodeon (kingfish), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
official ilx thread for steven soderbergh's haywire starring gina carano and bearded antonio banderas
― maghrib is back (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 19 January 2012 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
I put this in the Side Effects thread too:
http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/steven-soderbergh-in-conversation.html
― to each his own but (Eazy), Monday, 28 January 2013 17:10 (eleven years ago) link
thanks for that, great interview
― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Monday, 28 January 2013 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
When I hear people talk about 2025, I’m like, this could all turn into Mad Max a lot sooner than that! I was talking to Dr. Larry Brilliant, who consulted on Contagion, and I asked him, “Does the world seem to be spinning out of control as fast as I think it is?” And he said, “Oh, yeah.”
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 02:45 (eleven years ago) link
i admire this dude's relentless work ethic
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 02:50 (eleven years ago) link
bummed Che went off of netfilx before i got around to watching them
― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 02:52 (eleven years ago) link
Che is great.
― ryan, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 03:35 (eleven years ago) link
and i've caught Contagion so many times on HBO that I've begun to think of it as a kind of minor masterwork.
― ryan, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 03:36 (eleven years ago) link
I love Soderbergh interviews. The one time I talked to him he was a blast. Love that even he recognizes "Out of Sight" as his one movie where absolutely everything seemed to go right, 100%. Even the timing, which he had nothing to do with. If he made the exact same movie today, it would not be the same, because Clooney and Lopez now are totally different creatures.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
ive only seen about half of his films but i've liked them all
― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 04:59 (eleven years ago) link
"getting away with it" covers exactly that out of sight timing thing, but as a diary as it happened. recommended.
― caek, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 05:03 (eleven years ago) link
"But an alarming thing I learned during Contagion is that the people who pay to make the movies and the audiences who see them are actually very much in sync. I remember during previews how upset the audience was by the Jude Law character. The fact that he created a sort of mixed reaction was viewed as a flaw in the filmmaking. Not, 'Oh, that’s interesting, I’m not sure if this guy is an asshole or a hero.' People were really annoyed by that. And I thought, Wow, so ambiguity is not on the table anymore. They were angry."
great interview!
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 10:35 (eleven years ago) link
apparently I've seen 18 of his features and only actively disliked The Informant! But that was certainly a gutsy attempt at, well, something.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:04 (eleven years ago) link
I enjoyed it, because I had read the book and appreciated the fact that Soderbergh transformed what was a metaphorical farce into an actual farce. Also, Matt Damon's mustache.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
Dr. Larry Brilliant?
― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:08 (eleven years ago) link
it helps when farce is funny.
Lawrence "Larry" Brilliant is an American physician, epidemiologist, technologist, author, and the former director of Google's philanthropic arm Google.org.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:09 (eleven years ago) link
Loved the informant
― b'hurt's tauntin' (darraghmac), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:11 (eleven years ago) link
Helps when farce is funny, but I'll take simply silly in a pinch.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:14 (eleven years ago) link
prefer Schizopolis and The Girlfriend Experience.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:17 (eleven years ago) link
Co-sign on the former, but the latter is "Bubble"-level lark.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
Bubble's a good one too -- but a lark?
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:19 (eleven years ago) link
I do like how Soderbergh clearly flips channels, surfs the web, etc., finds some neo-actor who intrigues him and builds a movie around her. Oh, look at this extreme porn star! I'll make a movie around her. Hey, check out this extreme fighter? I'll make a movie around her. Hey, check out this host of some E! show! I'll date her!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:19 (eleven years ago) link
Lark in the sense that it was at least partly an experiment - can I whip together this ultra-low budget film with no stars and then find an alternative distribution method?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
Wait, he married Jules Asner? Good for him.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 15:21 (eleven years ago) link
comedian friend's FB status: "Saw SIDE EFFECTS tonight -- outside of some rectal bleeding, I loved it!"
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 15:59 (eleven years ago) link
Whose rectum was bleeding? Your friend's?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 30 January 2013 16:01 (eleven years ago) link
He should see a doctor, and be sure to tell the theatre to throw a towel over that seat.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 30 January 2013 16:02 (eleven years ago) link
The Girlfriend Experience and MM my favorites of the last ten years.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 16:03 (eleven years ago) link
I preferred Haywire to MM, in fact I generally prefer his smaller 'experiments', such as The Girlfriend Experience, to the likes of Contagion and The Informant!. sex, lies and videotape and Out of Sight are still his best work, though, I'd say.
― DavidM, Monday, 4 February 2013 11:53 (eleven years ago) link
GFE directors cut is much better than the original
― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Monday, 4 February 2013 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
wow http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-steven-soderbergh-12-hour-john-barth-adaptation-james-greer-20130402,0,3573297.story
― johnny crunch, Friday, 5 April 2013 23:40 (eleven years ago) link
Soderberg can't be worse than Gus van Sant, who seems to have no particular aptitude towards movie-making.
― Poliopolice, Friday, 5 April 2013 23:55 (eleven years ago) link
The adaptation was done, at least in part, by James Greer, the novelist and former Guided by Voices bassist who lives in Los Angeles when not on tour with his band Détective.
Surely one of the most impressive rock critic to film tales since Crowe. Spin mag, Kim Deal fiance, bassist in GBV, novelist, screenwriter ...
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 6 April 2013 00:08 (eleven years ago) link
Interesting - I read that for a class in college.
― Raymond Cummings, Saturday, 6 April 2013 00:54 (eleven years ago) link
He actually came to meet with my freshman writing class, it was kinda cool (Barth, that is).
― Raymond Cummings, Saturday, 6 April 2013 00:55 (eleven years ago) link
psyched for this (i mean, if it actually materializes ever)
― sleepingbag, Saturday, 6 April 2013 00:56 (eleven years ago) link
love that book
― Chuck E was a hero to most (s.clover), Saturday, 6 April 2013 01:50 (eleven years ago) link
Finally caught up with Magic Mike. Surprisingly well made and good looking (not just taking about the cast here); he actually seems invested in this film rather than seeming, as he so often does to me, like he's tossing it all together so he can get on to the next thing. Saying this is Tatum's best performance probably sounds like faint praise, but he's really good in this film. His scenes with the sister and especially the one in the bank are terrific.
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Saturday, 6 April 2013 02:59 (eleven years ago) link
https://vimeo.com/65060864
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 23:48 (ten years ago) link
Transcript:http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/steven-soderbergh-state-of-cinema-address/
― cougars and sneezers (Eazy), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 01:39 (ten years ago) link
thank you so much eazy. no way i was gonna watch a 40-minute lecture, but 10 minutes of text i can handle (take that, cinema). a wonderful read. <3 soderbergh. this was particularly interesting, and i'm half surprised he didn't go on to make the obvious comparison. would have been gauche, i suppose:
But let’s sex this up with some more numbers. In 2003, 455 films were released. 275 of those were independent, 180 were studio films. Last year 677 films were released. So you’re not imagining things, there are a lot of movies that open every weekend. 549 of those were independent, 128 were studio films. So, a 100% increase in independent films, and a 28% drop in studio films, and yet, ten years ago: Studio market share 69%, last year 76%. You’ve got fewer studio movies now taking up a bigger piece of the pie and you’ve got twice as many independent films scrambling for a smaller piece of the pie. That’s hard. That’s really hard.
― controversial vegan pregnancy (contenderizer), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 02:31 (ten years ago) link
He's started tweeting a novel, but the tweets before the novel (when his account was probably private or anonymous) are more fun:
https://twitter.com/Bitchuation
― cougars and sneezers (Eazy), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 17:02 (ten years ago) link
@Bitchuation 1 AprDoes Stanley Crouch? Did Edith Sitwell? What will Joyce Cary? Is Conrad Aiken? Did Gene Fowler? Was Anita Loos? Was Arthur Freed?
― cougars and sneezers (Eazy), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 17:04 (ten years ago) link
that was great
― wk, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 20:12 (ten years ago) link
Soderbergh re-edits Psycho, combining the original and the Van Sant remake:
http://extension765.com/sdr/15-psychos
― That's So (Eazy), Tuesday, 25 February 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
I like a lot of his movies and always appreciate his comments, etc. but I get the feeling that he would hate me.
― espring (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2014 00:58 (ten years ago) link
it's just that so often he says something like "you know who's really the worst? these guys!"
and i think, "i'm totally one of those guys"
:(
― espring (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2014 01:05 (ten years ago) link
interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4H2rbxgbQo
― piscesx, Thursday, 13 March 2014 02:39 (ten years ago) link
yeah he's admitted this several times -- this was his turning point, he says, but really not much has changed
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 March 2014 03:03 (ten years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, March 11, 2003 11:29 AM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
if by "decades" you meant within 10 years of coming out, then you are OTM.
― 糞똥 (Eisbaer), Saturday, 12 April 2014 09:03 (ten years ago) link
it's like crash with cartels and freebasing white girls. I liked it when I saw it but I think I was mostly impressed by the attempt box the execution of the attempt isn't that interesting. the directing is better than the script but neither are as good as a few of the performances, which aren't given much to work with so aren't THAT good. it's funny how it plays now be soderbergh strikes me as a director of fairly breezy and confident films whereas this just trudges along. I'd probably watch any of the Ocean's movies before this now.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Saturday, 12 April 2014 15:03 (ten years ago) link
not to mention Erin Brockovich
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 April 2014 16:13 (ten years ago) link
attempt box? *attempt because
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Saturday, 12 April 2014 16:24 (ten years ago) link
He has an Off-Broadway show opening at the Public, written by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!).
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/2014/04/07/140407goli_GOAT_theatre_als
― That's So (Eazy), Saturday, 12 April 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOXbU8TOZVM
― That's So (Eazy), Sunday, 27 April 2014 04:40 (nine years ago) link
^^Trailer for new Cinemax miniseries.
― That's So (Eazy), Sunday, 27 April 2014 04:41 (nine years ago) link
so has anyone seen it?
http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/review-the-knick-soderbergh-cinemax.html
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:59 (nine years ago) link
It debuts on friday night and has garnered some early doors hyperbole, one critic comparing it to Deadwood!
― autumn reckoning faction (xelab), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 18:22 (nine years ago) link
deadwood wasn't so great.
just watched che. a great film, i thought, within the limitations of the style.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 23:10 (nine years ago) link
Deadwood was p damn good, Che a bit less than that
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 August 2014 03:03 (nine years ago) link
This thread title is up there with "Glenn fucking Greenwald."
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Thursday, 7 August 2014 03:48 (nine years ago) link
didnt this guy retire like five years ago
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 August 2014 09:56 (nine years ago) link
his movies are usually fun to watch some are bad a few are pretty good, out of sight is great
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 August 2014 09:58 (nine years ago) link
psyched
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 7 August 2014 10:05 (nine years ago) link
https://38.media.tumblr.com/44a94dc662d4412f05dd259a848c783e/tumblr_mwybxrwJkW1qedb29o1_500.gif
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Thursday, 7 August 2014 18:01 (nine years ago) link
he's a great interview subject; one constant in life is that I will always read a Steven Soderbergh interview.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 7 August 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link
The Knick looks quite promising from the first episode, even though I was struggling with the extremely graphic cutting and sewing scenes. The less said about the opening caesarean section scene the better really. The violent foul-mouthed ambulance driver and the nun are my fave characters so far.
― autumn reckoning faction (xelab), Saturday, 9 August 2014 22:13 (nine years ago) link
i couldn't tell if the gore was just matter of fact (can't really have a show featuring a surgeon and not have some gore) or sort of self-congratulatory in the typical quality-pay-cable way. i guess i'll need to see a few more episodes.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 20:26 (nine years ago) link
the decision to have a racist protagonist and an extremely upright black supporting character is also a little modish, i think. it might have been wiser to have the protagonist be a little more casually racist, rather than vehemently racist. by wiser i suppose i mean, more interesting. but i'm not a TV writer.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
also apparently a spawn of Bono is in this? i really don't like to think about Bono procreating.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 20:34 (nine years ago) link
I am confused as I could've sworn I saw this was shown on HBO but everything says this is a Cinemax show
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 20:38 (nine years ago) link
don't ask me, i watched it on youtube
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 20:39 (nine years ago) link
Cinemax is owned by hbo I think. Or they're owned by the same company or whatever. Anyways, hbo aired it to spread the word b/c who watches cinemax.
― Panda Friend (Clay), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:01 (nine years ago) link
they are owned by HBO, which is owned by time warner.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:37 (nine years ago) link
not gonna watch any show about surgery sry folks not gonna happen
― lag∞n, Thursday, 14 August 2014 01:13 (nine years ago) link
I dbl dog dare u
― Panda Friend (Clay), Thursday, 14 August 2014 01:26 (nine years ago) link
no way surgery is hella gross
― lag∞n, Thursday, 14 August 2014 01:50 (nine years ago) link
i love watching surgery, but i have a pretty strong stomach.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 14 August 2014 03:54 (nine years ago) link
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2012/029/8/e/we_got_a_bad_ass_over_here_by_multipettan-d4nz1uj.jpg
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, 14 August 2014 03:58 (nine years ago) link
i like surgery scenes in movies, but really only like battlefield surgery or that scene in 'ronin' with the bullet or that scene in 'the killer' with the gunpowder and the cigarette and the bullet wound.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, 14 August 2014 03:59 (nine years ago) link
not into any sort of surgery or puss poop blood puke
― lag∞n, Thursday, 14 August 2014 04:05 (nine years ago) link
soundtrack for the knick is dope
― just sayin, Thursday, 14 August 2014 06:46 (nine years ago) link
Why is this series on Cinemax instead of its corporate cousin HBO?Well, it was an ego problem. I asked (HBO boss) Michael Lombardo, when I called him on the phone, if it would be OK if we would be on Cinemax because I, frankly, in the midst of understanding that they were sort of reorienting that brand, wanted to be the big kid at a small school, and as it happened, Michael said, "Actually that would really work well for us." And I'm glad that that did work for them because it allowed for a smaller teacher-to-student ratio in the sense that it was really me and (HBO miniseries exec) Kary Antholis having a conversation, and that was it. I mean, it was just the two of us, and I really enjoyed that. It was efficient, and it was fun, so it all for me creatively worked out perfectly.
Well, it was an ego problem. I asked (HBO boss) Michael Lombardo, when I called him on the phone, if it would be OK if we would be on Cinemax because I, frankly, in the midst of understanding that they were sort of reorienting that brand, wanted to be the big kid at a small school, and as it happened, Michael said, "Actually that would really work well for us." And I'm glad that that did work for them because it allowed for a smaller teacher-to-student ratio in the sense that it was really me and (HBO miniseries exec) Kary Antholis having a conversation, and that was it. I mean, it was just the two of us, and I really enjoyed that. It was efficient, and it was fun, so it all for me creatively worked out perfectly.
― Number None, Thursday, 14 August 2014 08:49 (nine years ago) link
i'm going to marathon Soderbergh, all of his films in 3 weeks. wish me luck.
― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 17 August 2014 19:29 (nine years ago) link
I'd like to see "The Limey" again. TELL 'IM I'M FAHKING COMING"
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Sunday, 17 August 2014 20:24 (nine years ago) link
you left out six Ns and a couple Gs
― duff paddy (darraghmac), Sunday, 17 August 2014 21:14 (nine years ago) link
Not a marathon actually, I'm doing it as one day one Soderbergh film and so I started with Out of Sight, which is formidable. J-Lo had such potential as an actress.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 18 August 2014 20:21 (nine years ago) link
keep expecting clive owen to say "eeeeeeeeranu"
― massaman gai, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 06:29 (nine years ago) link
Out Of Sight is movie of the week in Dissolve
http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/720-out-of-sight-stayed-true-to-its-source-by-taking-l/
fair dos
― piscesx, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 15:41 (nine years ago) link
So I decided to watch everything Soderbergh ever did and so far the worst film by far is Side Effects, this film is terrible. Absolutely terrible. The first half hour is great and then it's a huge plan crash.
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
haha yeah that one really went down the tubes with the murderous lesbians and everything. it was like a bad 90s erotic thriller plot.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
*queues up side effects*
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:12 (nine years ago) link
Even Soderbergh’s filmmaking owes a debt to the rhythms of Leonard’s prose. Leonard portrays Karen’s riposte after she takes down Kenneth, one of Maurice’s henchmen, with these words: “‘You wanted to tussle,’ Karen said, ‘we tussled.’” Soderbergh’s film keeps the line and ends the scene with one of several freeze frames he deploys throughout Out Of Sight. Here, it serves much the same function as the “Karen said,” interruption, pausing the moment to emphasize the competence and authority with which Karen handles the situation. Kenneth didn’t get exactly what he asked for, but he got what was coming to him, and like Leonard, Soderbergh draws out the moment by one delicious beat.
otm
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:13 (nine years ago) link
Side Effects is wonderful b-movie sleaze! The batshit-ness of it all is classic!
No by far his worst film is Waking Life
― Nhex, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link
wait, i got my wires crossed
It would be if he'd directed it instead of Linklater.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link
Realizing I haven't even seen half of Soderbergh's movies, but Side Effects is still magnificent stupid entetainment
― Nhex, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:16 (nine years ago) link
So far I'd say:
Make a golden statue in yr city's biggest park for:Out of SightTraffic
Deeply satisfying stuff:HaywireOcean's ElevenOcean ThirteenMagic Mike
The very definition of meh:Ocean Twelve
Burn it down and bury the ashes on a mountain:Side Effects
I have a lot to go still: tonight it's Erin Brockovich, then I'll do the scary SL&V ->Schizopolis part of his career.
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:18 (nine years ago) link
The Limey is good stuff, especially if you liked Point Blank
― Nhex, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
the informant is great
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
^my choice for his worst.
haven't seen King of the Hill in 20 years, liked that quite a bit.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:23 (nine years ago) link
The Knick is immediately one of the best shows on television btw
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:23 (nine years ago) link
I would rank the Limey as his best
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:29 (nine years ago) link
you know what film of his hasn't been mentioned once in this thread? this one.
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/and-everything-is-going-fine
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:31 (nine years ago) link
I can't bring myself to watch something that sounds so depressing
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:35 (nine years ago) link
Gray's Anatomy isn't much more uplifting, at least now.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:37 (nine years ago) link
VHS- have you gotten to the girlfriend experience yet? Be sure you see the directors cut and not the theatrical cut.
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 16:40 (nine years ago) link
traffic is such a huge piece of shit movie just unbelievable bad a corny
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:06 (nine years ago) link
wow check out those filters and years before instagram too
side effects is cool too
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:07 (nine years ago) link
traffic isn't that bad but its definitely bad
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:12 (nine years ago) link
i think soderbergh's got kind of a light touch that works really well with a lot of if not most of his films and a sort of 'let's throw something together and see how it works' style, which paid off with something like 'the limey', but i think 'traffic' was the worst sort of project for his two styles.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link
dude likes wide shots of rooms more than i do
― da croupier, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link
big fan of wide shots of rooms, its true. throw in some non-actors and i start swooning
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:18 (nine years ago) link
idk if traffic is technically the worst movie but it is extremely stupid and lame
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:20 (nine years ago) link
like to the extent that you wonder if its purposely insulting you
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:21 (nine years ago) link
Oscar winner!
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:23 (nine years ago) link
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080),
why I liked The Girlfriend Experience.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:26 (nine years ago) link
it's just an odd movie storywise too, it's like a really lurid afterschool special spliced together with a south of the border docudrama and a gritty episode of CSI san diego.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:28 (nine years ago) link
Saw a bit of Oceans 12 flipping channels and even that one has some fine wide shots of an Amsterdam rowhouse.
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
did the people who hated Traffic also see Traffik (the tv series on which it was based)? did they hate that too if so?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096716/
― piscesx, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, August 26, 2014 1:28 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
its cool tho u can tell which one is which from the colors
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:30 (nine years ago) link
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 26, 2014 12:26 PM (4 minutes ago)
totally, but don't forget Bubble!
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:31 (nine years ago) link
― lag∞n, Tuesday, August 26, 2014 12:30 PM (1 minute ago)
lol sadly otm
― ╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
― lag∞n, Tuesday, August 26, 2014 10:30 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
my favorite story is the orange one tbh
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
i keep meaning to revisit haywire based on the buzz but he gave me all those actors i love and it was just like this lady who couldn't act in a room from far away and ugh i didn't trust him to go elsewhere, i know his kicks
― da croupier, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:34 (nine years ago) link
this is what The Movies should always be like IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCIXKzeaAAs
― piscesx, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:35 (nine years ago) link
helloe tess
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
I'll step up to the mound and defend Traffic here. It's heavy handed both stylistically and thematically, for sure. However, I think what Soderbergh wanted to express is on the money on so many levels. He manages to tie so many things together, both very personal (what can one person do against addiction or corruption) and very political (how do we deal with Tijuana). I generally agree with his views on the drug trade: take care of the demand side of things, in a way that floats your boat. That notion found interesting echoes in his post-Lehman films about money and greed (Magic Mike, Haywire). I think its wise that you get to have clear stylistic distinction between all three sides of the trade itself: transportation, supply and demand and how they are all connected made me very hopeless and how Soderbergh find a way to get his character out of the situation without being too corny (at least to me) and I enjoyed that.
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:47 (nine years ago) link
yeah, Traffic is not terrible even if it might be improved with the sound off.
Wolf of Wall Street IS terrible even if it might be improved with the sound off.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:55 (nine years ago) link
Traffic was solid, I had no misgivings at the time. "Heavy-handed" is accurate, I'll admit
― Nhex, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 17:59 (nine years ago) link
Traffic was OK whenever Michael Douglas wasn't worried about his daughter and Benicio didn't dream about his ballpark.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:00 (nine years ago) link
Erin Brockovich has become my most watched Soderbergh.
traffic is hilarious, traffik is somber in the same way departed US is hilarious, departed HK is somber.
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:02 (nine years ago) link
so what you're saying is that in Traffik, the humor is unintentional
― Nhex, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:10 (nine years ago) link
traffik is pretty dour!
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:48 (nine years ago) link
wolf of wall st def not one of soderbergh's best
― a spectrum is taunting ur OP (wins), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:50 (nine years ago) link
it is def David O. Russell's best tho
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 18:52 (nine years ago) link
http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/steven-soderbergh-the-knick-directing-race-riot.html
― the man with the black wigs (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 21:24 (nine years ago) link
does the knick get less gory
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 04:57 (nine years ago) link
not really, though the opening episode is a straight up "oh blood bothers you, GTFO" gutbucket. it never gets worse than that.
― the other song about butts in the top 5 (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 05:05 (nine years ago) link
blaaahhhhh i guess i'll keep going until i explode
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 05:41 (nine years ago) link
I have gotten quite hardened to the surgical scenes, that opening failed c section scene in ep1 is very disagreeable - that is probably the most troubling scene of the series.
― xelab, Tuesday, 7 October 2014 07:40 (nine years ago) link
syphilis nose way harder on my stomach than the c section
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Thursday, 9 October 2014 04:31 (nine years ago) link
oh should i still be watching this? i kind of forgot about it!
― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 9 October 2014 04:36 (nine years ago) link
are you a fan of syphilis nose
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Thursday, 9 October 2014 04:40 (nine years ago) link
who isn't?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 9 October 2014 05:02 (nine years ago) link
That the "comedy" Typhoid Mary subplot is the light relief in this series says a lot.
― xelab, Thursday, 9 October 2014 05:26 (nine years ago) link
haven't seen traffic in like a decade, willing to believe it will suck on re-screening, but i always thought the closing eno-soundtracked scene was p cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNgvVVjgK68
― deej loaf (D-40), Friday, 10 October 2014 03:11 (nine years ago) link
Watch his "touched" version of 2001: A Space Odyssey:
http://extension765.com/sdr/23-the-return-of-w-de-rijk
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Thursday, 15 January 2015 12:39 (nine years ago) link
anyone hear The Limey's commentary track?? sounds crazy.
http://www.avclub.com/article/the-new-cult-canon-ithe-limeyi-filmmaker-commentar-23702
― piscesx, Friday, 30 January 2015 16:00 (nine years ago) link
it's been a long time since i heard it but i remember enjoying it and cringing in equal measure. it's like the polar opposite of the chummy, rambling john carpenter / kurt russell commentary tracks.
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 30 January 2015 16:06 (nine years ago) link
yes, it was A+.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 30 January 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
yea I have, dobbs is a p crabby dude but its mostly good natured kvetching iirc
― johnny crunch, Friday, 30 January 2015 16:10 (nine years ago) link
that's one of the best commentary tracks! probably the most illuminating one i've heard in terms of how a film is a kind of negotiation between competing authorships.... the robocop and starship troopers commentary tracks w/ verhoeven and neumeier are also englightening that way, though in those cases the principals seem less aware of what they're revealing.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:31 (nine years ago) link
i was just thinking yesterday of how 90% of commentary tracks are a waste of... time and space, i guess.
was listening to the commentary on the monte hellman double feature (shooting/ride in the whirlwind) and while there are a quite a few interesting anecdotes, almost none of them relate directly to what you're seeing onscreen. in that sense you have to appreciate it as two separate streams of information. on the video level, you're kind of re-experiencing the film, while on the audio level, you're hearing a bunch of people gab about the movie -- but the two seldom interact meaningfully.
the hal hartley/richard pena(?) commentary on godard's "hail mary" is another missed opportunity IMO. hartley is (well, /was/) one of the smartest Godard acolytes, who has a great fondess for JLG's 1980s work, so it should have been a gas. but it's clear that no preparation was done, no remarks were planned, so it really is just like eavesdropping on a not entirely enlightening conversation. it does help that pena (i think it's h im) has nothing of interest to say at all.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:34 (nine years ago) link
i should add that bill krohn and blake lucas, who "interview" hellman for the two commentary tracks i mentioned, have some interesting things to say but probably 70% of it is just bloviating and them floating dubious theories about the films' relationships to the western genre, most of which hellman tellingly just avoids responding to.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:36 (nine years ago) link
to bring this back to soderbergh, his commentary w/ john boorman on the point black dvd/blu-ray is great. soderbergh in general is kind of the master of commentary tracks, i'd say it should actually count as a key part of his body of work.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:37 (nine years ago) link
point BLANK
Yeah, the point blank track really is great
― bizarro gazzara, Friday, 30 January 2015 17:48 (nine years ago) link
i wish more filmmakers were as good at /talking/ as soderbergh.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:51 (nine years ago) link
actually, hal hartley is a great talker, too, which is one reason his "hail mary" commentary was such a disappointment.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 17:52 (nine years ago) link
I'mm not a fan of them either – I only listen to them if I'm watching a movie a second or third time – but a top fiver for me is, of all things, Jack Nicholson's for The Passenger. Meticulous, consistently interesting, no trace of the Jack persona; the guy knows about composition, film history, etc.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:04 (nine years ago) link
yup, which makes it all the more regrettable that nicholson is nowhere to be found on the criterion of those hellman films, which he starred in and produced (and he wrote one of them!).
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:06 (nine years ago) link
feel like soderbee is kinda underrated rn if anything
― wizaerd (Lamp), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:06 (nine years ago) link
he's thanked in the liner notes btw, which probably means he helped out somehow--maybe he gave them a phone number or two--but bowed out of actively participating. which is a shame.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:07 (nine years ago) link
who know who is overrated? Gus Van Sant. I have no clue how a man so talentless at directing fumbled his way into a highly successful career.
― Poliopolice, Friday, 30 January 2015 19:09 (nine years ago) link
i don't think he's talentless, but i think his best moves are stolen from other directors and that his choice of subject matter is positively vampirish.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 19:41 (nine years ago) link
but nobody really cares about gus van sant anymore, right?
boy the King of the Hill Blu-ray is gorgeous.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 May 2015 01:04 (eight years ago) link
it's a really good movie! i love the ending, in particular.
did you watch the supplement where soderbergh talks about how terrible he thinks "the underneath" is?
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Saturday, 16 May 2015 01:44 (eight years ago) link
I watched The Underneath and remembered how non-descript it is, a couple of acerbic exchanges and framings of actors around interior design aside. Peter Gallagher is so miscast.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 May 2015 01:48 (eight years ago) link
Also: it's awkward! The hopscotching through time and space often breaks rhythms.
yeah, it looks really nice, though.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Saturday, 16 May 2015 01:53 (eight years ago) link
i remember good things about alison elliott's performance in that film but i don't know if that's an accurate memory.
― ceres, Saturday, 16 May 2015 01:57 (eight years ago) link
Without his saying so it's totally a crisis movie: the kind of approach he'd abandon lest he turn hack-ish.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 May 2015 02:00 (eight years ago) link
I can see why a studio would have endorsed the project: it's 1995, heist movies are big, the kid needs a hit. But the thing is humorless and faceless.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 May 2015 02:02 (eight years ago) link
I missed this last winter: he's still really pleased with Ocean's 12
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/steven-soderbergh-oceans-12_n_6289914.html
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 03:25 (eight years ago) link
He's a smart guy and he makes good points - O12 is not incompetent filmmaking. It just feels so profoundly superfluous, even by the standards of sequels, and so much of it feels so smug (iirc). Not fun but "fun." But it's all worth it for whatever review I read that pointed out the number of scenes where a tired Brad Pitt just sort of shows up on the periphery with a coffee cup, looking like he's coming off the childcare night shift.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 13:44 (eight years ago) link
I like his genre exercises of the last five years or so: Contagion was the weakest of the batch, but Haywire is fucking great, Magic Mike is one of those movies I'm afraid to go back and re-watch in case it's deflated, and Side Effects was great, too.
I'm sure the day I finally cave and buy The Limey on DVD they'll announce a Criterion Blu-Ray or something. So I'm waiting.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 14:09 (eight years ago) link
Soderbergh otm, Ocean's 12 was full of visual flair that never gets talked about.
― intheblanks, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 14:18 (eight years ago) link
http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/adam-driver-joins-soderberghs-logan-lucky.html
― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 23:43 (seven years ago) link
Steven Soderbergh will produce, with an eye to direct, a movie based on the infamous Panama Papers, the largest data leak in corporate and government history.
Lawrence Grey’s Grey Matter Productions acquired the feature film rights to the forthcoming book, Secrecy World, being written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jake Bernstein and published by Henry Holt and Company, and is teaming with Anonymous Content (“The Revenant,” “Spotlight,” “Babel”) to develop, finance and produce the film.
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:08 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPzvKH8AVf0
― to pimp a barfly (Eazy), Wednesday, 31 May 2017 14:37 (six years ago) link
On the eve of the release of Logan Lucky, I thought it amazing that he has s few good movies relative to profligacy.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 10:47 (six years ago) link
Not many people like his Tarkovsky remake; it’s closer to a re-imagining, transforming the original Solaris into an exegesis on remembered melancholy, the kind bereft of — too cool even for — ghosts. His instinct for cutting the crap shows itself in sharp dissolves and and crisp editing that isolate George Clooney’s astronaut in the shallowness of his recollections. I haven’t watched it again since 2002 and I’m afraid to — this guy’s work often wilts from on second thoughts.
yeah, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed his solaris - i saw it not long after it came out, having just read the book for the first time, and it struck me as a decent interpretation of lem's themes, but i've never been motivated to go back to it laregly for the same reasons as you
i think out of sight is probably my favourite of his as far as rewatchability goes, mainly for the lead performances and elmore leonard's story, which is one of my favourites of his. the aggressive colour grading hadn't aged terribly well the last time i saw it, though, and david holmes' score seemed very much of its time
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:03 (six years ago) link
I am amazed at how few people I know who have still not seen Out of Sight. The one film of his formative years I think I still haven't seen is the Underneath, which if I recall correctly also has a radical color scheme and plays with time as well.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:40 (six years ago) link
Ouch, too many double negatives in my post. Meant how many people I know who have not seen Out of Sight.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:41 (six years ago) link
Soderbergh is correct to call The Underneath his crisis film. You can see him lose interest in this kind of movie and narrative approach.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:44 (six years ago) link
He seems to go into crisis mode with some consistency. While I think most of his stuff is pretty middlebrow, he's a really smart guy, and I think sometimes struggles balancing his intelligence and perhaps more radical inclinations with his similar urge to entertain. Epitomized by stuff like this:
http://extension765.com/soderblogh/18-raiders
I recently re-watched the Oceans films with my older one, and the sheer half-assed indulgence of the second one still made me mad.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:54 (six years ago) link
Preferring Magic Mike XXl doesn’t mean we weren’t relieved that Soderberg directed the male gaze at beautiful lunks in movement the first time around
as DOP and editor, Soderbergh is still directing the gaze on XXL
(whatever gender or orientation it is - XXL is obviously very intently concerned with the female gaze, but welcomes anyone to be part of it)
― Doubtless they are toss. (sic), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:20 (six years ago) link
i'd be really interested to know more about how xxl was made - i find it hard to imagine soderbergh being on set with actors he's worked with before and being content to just concentrate on the photography
i dunno, maybe it felt like a holiday or something for him but for someone who usually acts as his own dp when directing i wonder how difficult it was to separate the two
(xxl is rad btw)
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:31 (six years ago) link
The abs also gaze
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:45 (six years ago) link
the abs really follow you around the room
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:47 (six years ago) link
I found Sex, Lies....almost unwatchably dated when I first saw it maybe 5-6 years ago
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 15:04 (six years ago) link
He's made plenty of "good" movies, Alfred, relative to output or not.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 15:05 (six years ago) link
I LIKE DATED MOVIES
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 15:06 (six years ago) link
https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5919d6d68b5a6075f26e5f3f/591b124dcd9384478b51737a_cast_dwightYokam.jpg
^^ Dwight Yoakam in Logan Lucky, btw.
― Eazy, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 20:29 (six years ago) link
nice. he was underused in the Amazon show he did recently.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 20:34 (six years ago) link
Again, I don't know what dated means.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), T
well, yeah, I found 10 of them, didn't I?
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 20:41 (six years ago) link
is there a logan lucky thread or are we doing that here?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 2 August 2017 21:37 (six years ago) link
Sunday Times profile
“I’ve really lost my interest as a director — not as a producer or viewer — in anything that smells important,” he said. “It just doesn’t appeal to me at all anymore. I left that in the jungle somewhere.”
― Eazy, Friday, 11 August 2017 02:08 (six years ago) link
Among the contemporaries whose work excited him, he singled out M. Night Shyamalan, the oft-derided suspense director. He has reinvigorated himself with recent movies like “The Visit” and “Split,” Mr. Soderbergh said, adding, “He went back to his roots and has rebuilt himself, and is right back where he was.”
― Eazy, Friday, 11 August 2017 02:13 (six years ago) link
People who think The Informant! is good confuse me.
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2017/8/15/16145880/steven-soderbergh-movies-ranked
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 12:30 (six years ago) link
Hoping to get to LL tom'w! Tatum with a gut, Driver with a prosthetic arm, Craig with an impenetrable accent!
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4757-the-daily-steven-soderbergh-s-logan-lucky
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 August 2017 15:23 (six years ago) link
I like Scott Bakula and the sepia tone off The Informant! and dat's dat.
I'm stuck between LL and Wind River.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 18 August 2017 15:31 (six years ago) link
hello i am watching the Limey at the momenthow do you do?
― ian, Friday, 18 August 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
YOU TELL 'IM I'M COMIN'!
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 19 August 2017 00:23 (six years ago) link
That film is so good
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 19 August 2017 01:25 (six years ago) link
log lucky was ok, bit too oceans-y
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 19 August 2017 03:44 (six years ago) link
I liked it, not usually into Soderbergh but it was fun
― Neanderthal, Saturday, 19 August 2017 05:20 (six years ago) link
the answer to this thread title is still 'no'
― akm, Saturday, 19 August 2017 06:30 (six years ago) link
― louie mensch (milo z), Saturday, 19 August 2017 06:55 (six years ago) link
From the 15-16 I've seen on that list, I'm impressed by his sheer competence. At best pretty-good, at worst interesting if not actually good.
― louie mensch (milo z), Saturday, 19 August 2017 06:58 (six years ago) link
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius),
It was OK.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 26 August 2017 19:22 (six years ago) link
Anyone see his 2001 reedit? It's impossible to find.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 27 August 2017 01:22 (six years ago) link
Happy to see The Limey do so well on that list (and on this thread), love that film.
― albvivertine, Monday, 28 August 2017 05:28 (six years ago) link
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Monday, 28 August 2017 13:42 (six years ago) link
thought Logan Lucky was extremely good
― nomar, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link
Really? To me he spent so much time making sure the plot was humming that the characters came off thin.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 August 2017 21:43 (six years ago) link
maybe? not so much that i noticed tbh. i enjoyed all of the performances a lot, and the milieu just as much.
― nomar, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 22:37 (six years ago) link
I love Cliff Martinez's soundtrack music for Solaris.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 22:43 (six years ago) link
Loved the world of Logan Lucky, reminded me a bit of Sean Baker? The sun-baked vistas with those box-shaped gas stations and shops, the slight unreality of the nascar/beauty pageant scene. The sense of a society that doesn't fit together.
― Frederik B, Friday, 1 September 2017 12:16 (six years ago) link
It worked better in Erin Brockovich
I didn't hate it or even dislike it that much; I felt nothing when it ended except, "This is long."
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 1 September 2017 12:41 (six years ago) link
Going to see it this weekend.
Also, there's a v. good Elvis Mitchell interview with Logan Lucky's costume designer, who also did Behind The Candelabra, Wall Street, Fatal Attraction.
― Eazy, Friday, 1 September 2017 14:17 (six years ago) link
This was really good and really fun - waaaay better than fuckin baby driver or valerian. I'm with morbz - Channing Tatum is hot af in this - I like him a little more chunky, a little less lean.
― just1n3, Saturday, 2 September 2017 09:25 (six years ago) link
*Logan Lucky
― just1n3, Saturday, 2 September 2017 09:26 (six years ago) link
Tatum's hot, yeah, but the rest not so much.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 2 September 2017 13:27 (six years ago) link
I dug Logan Lucky, especially how it played with the aspirational pleasures of heist movies. When each teller, clerk, etc. gets manipulated (especially the one who gets the birthday cake), there's a tug that's different from fooling the Vegas guard or Cannes concierge.
Sharp take by Alfred above.
― Eazy, Saturday, 23 September 2017 19:27 (six years ago) link
LL was a nice baked comedown after the rush of Mother! the previous evening. Cool to hear John Fahey on the soundtrack and yes, sooo much better than the wretched Baby Driver - this is how you do a comedy heist crime romance movie.
― Gunpowder Julius (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 28 September 2017 09:53 (six years ago) link
New...not a movie, not a TV series...
https://www.wired.com/story/steven-soderbergh-new-app-mosaic/
― Eazy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 20:34 (six years ago) link
"an NCSA production"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link
Steve joins the iPhone brigade!
“We hear that the pic will go wide. This is the thriller that Soderbergh reportedly shot on his iPhone and which stars Claire Foy, Juno Temple, Amy Irving, Aimee Mullins, and SNL alum Jay Pharoah.”
http://deadline.com/2017/11/claire-foy-juno-temple-steven-soderbergh-unsane-march-23-release-1202208079/
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 15 November 2017 21:00 (six years ago) link
Really enjoying Mosaic so far. Not sure if the formal gimmick will pay off but it’s a decent murder mystery.
― ryan, Thursday, 16 November 2017 01:08 (six years ago) link
is it US only? i don't see it in the app store.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 November 2017 01:13 (six years ago) link
There will be a "proper" mini-series release of Mosaic on HBO in January I believe.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 16 November 2017 07:07 (six years ago) link
I dig ILX's take that even though it may be froth Lucky Logan's a whole lot better cup of froth than Baby Driver. I concur. What fun this movie is, everyone plays a blinder; David Holmes, Dan Craig, Adam Driver.. i wish Katie Holmes had been in it more.
― piscesx, Thursday, 16 November 2017 12:02 (six years ago) link
til: riley keough is elvis' granddaughter. would sign up to the riley keough newsletter.
huge fan of driver in this. what a character. he was basically doing a comedy WV accent but it was probably better than anyone else's apart from some of the character actors, and the pageant girl. (daniel craig's accent was.. interesting. felt like he was going for tommy lee jones and almost got there) anyway i disagree with alfred that craig comes off best. driver felt real. does he smile once? if so i didn't see it. he was a character totally out of joint, out of time, out of place, slightly baffled by everything that doesn't involve the bar, which probably applies to a whole lot of veterans. tatum was just okay? it really could have been pretty much any hunky fella doing that role tbh (sorry channing). i loved the ford dealer. he brought on a lot of khaki, braided belt, white-ballcap flashbacks. btw i don't think that bar, if it existed in real life, would have had martini glasses, frankly. certainly not ones that clean.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 31 December 2017 00:43 (six years ago) link
Logan Lucky should have gotten its own thread. Driver and Tatum are fantastic. I could have done without the dumb brothers and the shitty automatic-driving car-dealer stepdad to Tatum's daughter, but it's a heist movie, so some folks have to be around to (almost) fuck everything up, and remind you that "legitimate" businessmen are (at least) as shitty as the thieves, respectively.
As cheap as it was, the pageant bit required significant mental exertion on my part to not turn into a puddle on the spot.
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 3 January 2018 04:54 (six years ago) link
Tracer you make a good point about the types of cocktail glasses available in that sort of establishment, but we are living in the future now
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 3 January 2018 04:56 (six years ago) link
since I became a parent I'll get all "no I just have something in my eye" at the cheapest stuff.
― omar little, Wednesday, 3 January 2018 05:00 (six years ago) link
re: the iPhone-shot thriller mentioned earlier - Unsane is out 03/23
― Simon H., Wednesday, 3 January 2018 18:27 (six years ago) link
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/01/steven-soderbergh-interview-sundance-iphone-unsane-1201921769/
Asked if he would commit exclusively to shooting on iPhones going forward, he replied, “I’d have to have a pretty good reason not to be thinking about that first… There’s a philosophical obstacle a lot of people have about the size of the capture device. I don’t have that problem. I look at this as potentially one of the most liberating experiences that I’ve ever had as a filmmaker, and that I continue having. The gets that I felt moment to moment were so significant that this is, to me, a new chapter.”
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 26 January 2018 17:38 (six years ago) link
WHts the point he only does cgi now anyway - coward!!!
― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Friday, 26 January 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
Has anyone seen his 2001 cut? It's been pretty well scrubbed from the internet.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 26 January 2018 19:14 (six years ago) link
Oh wait I thought this was aboout Speilberg
― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Tuesday, 30 January 2018 18:22 (six years ago) link
man, what a waste of effort for everyone involved Logan Lucky was. It's got all the trappings of a fun twist on the heist movie but there's just...nothing there
― Number None, Sunday, 4 February 2018 20:41 (six years ago) link
yeah the enthusiasm mystified me
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 February 2018 20:46 (six years ago) link
This movie was like the opposite of an idiot plot - instead Channing Tatum pulls off the heist because he's a superhero who can do anything, including predict the future.
Part of the fun of a heist movie is learning the minutiae of the heist plan, then seeing how the characters react when the heist (inevitably) falls apart. In this movie, everything just *works* first time and there's no tension, except the odd incidental fun detail, like Seth Macfarlane getting punched in the face.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 4 February 2018 21:52 (six years ago) link
1/2 way thru the televised mosaic, p good.. i like devin ratray a lot; generally feels like a less gritty "the night of"; some dialogue is a lil overwritten but nontheless enjoyable imo
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 4 February 2018 22:03 (six years ago) link
Unsane might be the culmination of a decade of his films. Actually kinda great.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 22 February 2018 00:37 (six years ago) link
UNSANE: so good it’s crazy. Soderbergh conjures dizzying terror, evokes visceral emotion, and pretty much rewrites the deep-focus rulebook, using little more than the contents of my front-right pocket.— Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) March 15, 2018
― Simon H., Thursday, 15 March 2018 13:41 (six years ago) link
preview next week!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 March 2018 13:48 (six years ago) link
Twitter dude pretty much otm.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 15 March 2018 15:09 (six years ago) link
opens in NY tomw
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 March 2018 15:13 (six years ago) link
Boring after it turns into a slasher flick
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 02:14 (six years ago) link
Frederik and Bramesco not otm
will I fare better if I love slashers
― Simon H., Tuesday, 20 March 2018 02:45 (six years ago) link
Even tedious and tonally muddled ones?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 02:51 (six years ago) link
feel like Soderbergh tried to semi-retreat to do things in a workmanlike way but people keep trying to figure out what angle he's playing
in the center of the just-off middlebrow target he's been hitting you get the impression he's trying to find a good project, or at least enjoys honing his craft
― mh, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 03:10 (six years ago) link
one of the writers of unsane is my FB friend and i kinda thought he was an ilxor. but maybe he isn't. i don't know how i know him.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 12:50 (six years ago) link
one of (JG) is a music critic who wrote for sp1n, it seems.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 13:41 (six years ago) link
one of them
I wondered if it was the same Bernstein!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
It's not 'workmanlike', it's vibrantly experimental, and people enjoy it because of the newness, energy and joy in the aesthetics. And yeah, it's weird that it's coming from an old pro who've just fallen in love with new toys, but that's what it is.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 13:48 (six years ago) link
ah yeah, I didn't mean this new project -- just the impression he's retreated in some way, or has pretended to retire/retreat a few times because he'd rather have less scrutiny on his works as _his works_
― mh, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 16:56 (six years ago) link
I don't think it's weird for him to use new toys, because that's pretty much what he does in a non-flashy way with every other production
― mh, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 16:57 (six years ago) link
the new toy is his old iPhone, and that part's fine – other than stressing the you-are-there shocks of the nuthouse sequences, it doesn't add appreciably to the verisimilitude of the narrative or whatever
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 17:03 (six years ago) link
Mosaic was* a totally new toy in terms of storytelling*"is," it's still only a month or two old. But I'm only 1/3 of the way through it bcz it's fucking horrible to watch a story on a phone
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 17:55 (six years ago) link
Unsane spoilers to follow:
It's one of the most fascinatingly awful movies I've ever seen. At the beginning it seems like it has some chance at being a decent psychological thriller that paints the for-profit medical industry and the complacency of police and the legal system as the villains. Then it turns out that the actual villain is a psycho murderer, who tortures one victim by sandwiching his head between defibrillator pads, and kills another with a Steven Seagal-style neck break maneuver. The way it gradually escalates the schlock level from moderate to unbearable is really something to see.
― JRN, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:17 (six years ago) link
I like Soderbergh's schlock side. Side Effects and Haywire are two of his best movies IMO. Might need to check this one out.
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:27 (six years ago) link
from jrn's summary this movie sounds fucking awesome
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:35 (six years ago) link
seconded
― mh, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:38 (six years ago) link
it's uninterestingly mediocre
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:43 (six years ago) link
It's fucking awesome. And the for-profit medical industry is clearly the (co-)villains.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:49 (six years ago) link
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 19, 2018 7:14 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah we prob won't agree on this one alfred
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 20:50 (six years ago) link
Slasher flicks = fine
"Soderberg makes okay Cuckoo's Nest knockoff with garrulous slasher denouement" = dud
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 21:11 (six years ago) link
You write that as if it makes sense...
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 21:25 (six years ago) link
Who wouldn't?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 00:30 (six years ago) link
Impressive, at least for a while--up to the first long rubber-room scene--although I was very conscious of all the films it was stealing from: Cuckoo's Next (serendipitous I would see it today), Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby (probably The Tenant, too, which I haven't seen in ages), Get Out, Shock Corridor. I know Soderbergh's proximity to commercial success and getting-films-made has had some wild swings over the years--this is all some metaphor for the film industry, right?
― clemenza, Sunday, 15 April 2018 03:23 (six years ago) link
the climax/coda seemed really haphazard, as if a narrative theme was dropped back in after the fact because someone remembered that angle wasn’t addressed, or there wasn’t a good ending they’d filmed
― alvin noto (mh), Sunday, 15 April 2018 03:33 (six years ago) link
the extreme horizontality of ocean's twelve is a delight to me
― j., Saturday, 23 June 2018 09:15 (five years ago) link
not a single scene above ground level iirc
― topless from 11am (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 23 June 2018 12:54 (five years ago) link
His new one seems to perhaps be Magic Mike for basketball
https://www.filmlinc.org/films/high-flying-bird/
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:04 (five years ago) link
He was on Bill Simmons' podcast and called out Under The Skin as a recent movie that he wished he had made, prompting me to finally watch that freaky-ass movie.
― DJI, Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:08 (five years ago) link
It's good!watched Out of Sight as a family last night, everyone enjoyed it.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:22 (five years ago) link
yea bill smartly said almost nothing other than like "surprising answer!" as he clearly had no idea what sodes was talking abt
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
https://deadline.com/2019/01/steven-soderbergh-sundance-slamdance-icon-interview-1202544513/
I found this to be a pretty excellent, lengthy interview.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:47 (five years ago) link
of all the people I have interviewed over the years, he was up there with the smartest and most interesting. sort of an eno-esque polymath.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 31 January 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link
Amy Taubin is a fan
https://www.artforum.com/print/201902/amy-taubin-on-steven-soderbergh-s-high-flying-bird-78379
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 1 February 2019 19:03 (five years ago) link
It's really good! By the writer of Moonlight (and it's a better film).
I sat in the row in front of Bill Duke, who has a golden supporting role. SS and Kyle Maclachlan, among others, were in the back but were not part of the Q&A.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:19 (five years ago) link
MacLachlan + Sodes is a deeply satisfying pairing
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:20 (five years ago) link
he has a scene-stealing moment in the steamroom
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:23 (five years ago) link
btw if you are not a sports fan, fear not, there is very close to zero playing of basketball in this film
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:31 (five years ago) link
news I can use
― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Friday, 8 February 2019 04:59 (five years ago) link
opens today in NY/LA (looks great), streams on Netflix
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 February 2019 11:10 (five years ago) link
I would have happily watched a whole series of this but liked it just fine as a film. I like all other non sports knowerrs immediately googled the Edwards book the second it was over. Sodes is really good at that wholeclever-but-not-annoying thing.
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 03:56 (five years ago) link
soderbergh gives so many interviews, he's such a constant presence on social media, etc., and he's such an interesting guy to listen to, that i feel like his movies and TV series are just one (important) part of this ongoing "brand" he puts out there.
he seems like one of those guys who isn't just a workaholic, he just has a fundamentally more active pituitary gland or something, like he's just "on" all the time, always sharp and focused and productive. i had a professor like that. it's amazing.
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:10 (five years ago) link
This was good. The script was in some places beautiful, and Andre Holland was ideally cast.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:11 (five years ago) link
I loved Bill Duke in this a lot
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:12 (five years ago) link
The women were terrific.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:20 (five years ago) link
"prosperity gospel" talk suitably skin-crawling
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:38 (five years ago) link
He always seems consciously invested in honing his own skills even when it means trying new variations that don’t quite work, and notably doing so without just throwing bottomless money at things until they pass a focus group
I don’t know that I’ve read more than a couple interviews and have never noticed a social media presence!
― mh, Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:43 (five years ago) link
https://twitter.com/bitchuation
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 04:57 (five years ago) link
This is something else.
― Norm’s Superego (silby), Saturday, 9 February 2019 06:49 (five years ago) link
10 tweets in a year is not what I wld call a “constant presence on social media”
― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Saturday, 9 February 2019 07:31 (five years ago) link
Holland said that Soderbergh showed them Sweet Smell of Success.
I didn't know Zazie Beetz or Sonja Sohn from their TV work, both fine especially the latter.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 9 February 2019 14:13 (five years ago) link
I think you would like Atlanta.
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 14:14 (five years ago) link
for a while I thought Sonja Sohn was Angela Bassett; her voice has the same timbre.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 February 2019 14:16 (five years ago) link
I think everyone would like Atlanta.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 9 February 2019 14:17 (five years ago) link
I want to see Atlanta! It's taking me over a year to get through Twin Peaks 2.0.
I recognized Harry Edwards as a go-to talking head on race in American sports for decades, but wasn't aware he helped bring about the '68 Olympics protest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Project_for_Human_Rights
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 9 February 2019 14:20 (five years ago) link
zazie beetz -- how wonderful is it that this is her real name? if philip roth gave a character this name, reviewers would be rolling their eyes. she's lovely btw.
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Sunday, 10 February 2019 18:52 (five years ago) link
half an hour to go because I was dozing on painkillers the first time and rewatched to catch up, but the tiny bits of basketball are easier to follow than every single other thing about the NBA's contracts and "lockouts" and tactics tbh
and it looks great. the sort-of-flat field is integrated into his approach, with the flexibility of "camera" placement turning that into a somehow bombastic yet intimate visual. Unsane felt more like an experiment, technically, but here he's obviously freestyling wildly with setups and movement and tracking/panning that you can't do with a camera*, yet it's servicing an overall controlled, mannered feel.
*or can do in seconds in situ vs production designing, building, lighting, etc - like the conversation btwn Ray and Sonja Sohn in the bar that's shot from behind the glasses of cherries and twists
remembering I still have** 2/3 of Mosaic left to watch, because a) I loathe watching stories on a phone and b) Sharon Stone went on WTF a few days after I started watching and talked about the ending of this 18-part-plus-other-stuff story, is the work of Steven Soderbergh the most existing thing ever, for a "film director"? Woody Allen has written & directed 47 features in 48 years, plus acting in things and writing other stuff. Studio system and b-movie directors could crack out a couple of features in a year, but very rarely wrote them. (TV directors can turn out 15 hours in a year that shows their style, or more on soaps, but never (?) as writers-directors.)
In Soderbergh's first 24 years as a narrative film director, he made 23 features as director (one of them 4.5 hours long and later released as two), only wrote five of them, but wrote two features with / for other directors, wrote and directed two shorts (one half-hour narrative, one 4-minute artier thing), directed-from-existing-material a feature Spalding Gray doco, directed a feature of a Spalding Gray performance, DPed 16 of his features and one short, edited 11 of the features and both shorts, directed two half-hour stories for television, directed/shot/edited a ten-episode season of TV, and produced half a dozen features for other directors. (Not counting "executive producing.")
In the three years he was "retired" from features, he directed/shot/edited two ten-hour seasons of television, and shot/camera operated/edited one feature (his best film, obv).
In the three years since unretiring, he's directed/shot/edited three features, produced another one, and directed/shot/edited a (let's call it) 18-part, 8-hour branching narrative.
Plus he's going home at night and editing 2001 or his friends' unfinished films for fun! Just adding up by minutes, has anyone else come close? ** oh it turns out the app was decommissioned a few days ago, go fuck yourself HBO
― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Tuesday, 12 February 2019 22:32 (five years ago) link
easier to follow than every single other thing about
lol that the minute I picked back up again, the NBA stuff immediately became a metaphor for Soderbergh's experiments with and failures in self-distribution
― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Wednesday, 13 February 2019 18:34 (five years ago) link
Erin Brockovich is very well made, and thank God he hasn't made another like it. It's a Julia Roberts superhero movie; no wonder you poptimists love it. Ed Lachman (dp) and Anne Coates (edit) better than Roberts and Finney.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 13:54 (five years ago) link
High Flying Bird is very well made popular entertainment, and thank God he made it.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
Labor drama that skips the basketball? Not *that* pop.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 14:07 (five years ago) link
Looooooove High Flying Bird. iPhone populism 4ever!
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 14:24 (five years ago) link
Zach Lewis on EB:
The most quotable line from the film is a response to Ed’s questioning of her prerogative power: “They’re called boobs, Ed.” This would almost devise a problem for Brockovich, posturing her as the archetype of troubled-past sexual-aggression that weakly traverses the narrative as a feminist conclusion without an argument. Instead, Roberts’s archetype, purportedly funneled from the “golden-hearted hooker” character from Pretty Woman, embodies sassiness as a confident hallmark, using it when necessary and as a subversive atmosphere when not. As the case accelerates, Ed calls in a big-city law team to handle the formalities; Brockovich is furious as she feels that she maintains legitimate ownership of the case and that the people of Hinkley will not respond to formal tactics. Her curvy outfits disrupt their expectations as she vocally lists phone numbers and complicated personal information of various clients from memory, solidifying herself as the case’s paramount authority. While Soderbergh places keen adjustments to a well-known paradigm, the film ultimately becomes lost in a motherly sentimentality, making Brockovich a messiah figure for the residents for the residents of Hinkley sans unconditional love; her emphasized “I just want to be a good mom” monologue in the beginning now appropriated for the cancer and disease-ridden town. It is a nice gesture and a definitive comment on the parent/career dilemma, but it is troublesome to accept given Roberts’s previous performance of a woman whose life has finally been given purpose via her career. Her reconnection with her kids at the end of the film also suffers; they accept her social-ladder-climbing by relating to the sick kids with whom she is actually spending time — no real catharsis, just narrative happy-ending excuse, an emotional deus ex machina.
https://www.popoptiq.com/erin-brockovich-investigates-the-power-of-performance/
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 15:40 (five years ago) link
The question is, how much 'fun' should a film with people dying of cancer via corporate malfeasance at the center be?
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 15:47 (five years ago) link
Erin Brockovich is very well made, and thank God he hasn't made another like it. It's a Julia Roberts superhero movie; no wonder you poptimists love it.
yeah stfu you poptimists
erin brockovich was on c5 last night― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:05 AM (sixteen years ago)Erin Brockovich is nearly as good except it forgot to have a story.― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:13 AM (sixteen years ago)erin brockovich has too much story!!― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:19 AM (sixteen years ago)
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:05 AM (sixteen years ago)
Erin Brockovich is nearly as good except it forgot to have a story.
― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:13 AM (sixteen years ago)
erin brockovich has too much story!!
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 2:19 AM (sixteen years ago)
_Erin Brockovich_ is at best, a TV-movie-of-the-week starring Julia Roberts. Utterly overrated.― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 4:14 AM (sixteen years ago)
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 4:14 AM (sixteen years ago)
Erin Brockovich [...] is really weak though and Full Frontal is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:00 AM (fourteen years ago)
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:00 AM (fourteen years ago)
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:19 (five years ago) link
the subsequent eleven years of approving posts are all from dedicated superhero movie fan Alfred, so fair enough
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:20 (five years ago) link
he likes certain kinds, see also Hoffman as Tootsie
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:31 (five years ago) link
so then EB is as fraught as any well-made Hollywood product
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:41 (five years ago) link
also Brockovich has one of THOSE Thomas Newman scores. Does he still get work?
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:49 (five years ago) link
I've more of a problem with the script's caricature of a female lawyer. Every one of those scenes is a cringe.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 18:50 (five years ago) link
Yeah... particularly strange as it was from a female screenwriter. (Check her subsequent credits to confirm that the script is the Achilles heel of this, abetted by Star Syndrome.)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 19:55 (five years ago) link
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/dd56f3c2-1b74-406a-b3f0-b3aeb3bf9042
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 April 2019 02:08 (five years ago) link
shoulda gotten Ed Asner
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 April 2019 02:20 (five years ago) link
I've generally like Soderbergh but I forced myself to watch Oceans 11, 12, and 13 on some flights last month and goddamn if those movies don't get progressively worse with every passing minute. By the end of 13 I wanted to beat every one of their smarmy faces to a pulp.
― akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:50 (five years ago) link
i only saw O11, which is a decent powdered donut, not a film. Had no interest in the others. Clearly minor works.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 April 2019 19:52 (five years ago) link
i rewatched them last year. 11 >>> 12 >>>>>>>>>>>>> 13.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 19 April 2019 20:25 (five years ago) link
Logan Lucky is the heist film the Oceans movies were prep work for
― mh, Friday, 19 April 2019 20:42 (five years ago) link
i should watch that. Yeah, caek's assessment is spot on though I'd put maybe more of a gulf between 11 and 12.
― akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 20:44 (five years ago) link
Nah, the Oceans films are delightful, though the first one is far better than the other two. Bad Soderbergh is when he thinks he's an auteur and makes four hour films about revolutionaries.
― Frederik B, Friday, 19 April 2019 21:36 (five years ago) link
upcoming:
Thinking of Gary Oldman's German accent in THE LAUNDROMAT way too much. "Do you VANT to go BACK to BUH-nan-UHS?!?!"— Keith Uhlich (@keithuhlich) September 13, 2019
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 13 September 2019 19:10 (four years ago) link
Looks familiar, but I'm down for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBRcfe4bSo
― ... (Eazy), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 20:22 (four years ago) link
That looks VERY Big Short.
― DJI, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
It's not an iPhone film this time? I just hope it's as greatly filmed as his last two, then I kinda don't care what it's about.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 19 September 2019 13:48 (four years ago) link
Not on iphone:
There are certain things that you can do when you’re shooting with a capture device as small as a phone that you can’t do any other way, and that’s great. But there are also other things that you can’t do that are really frustrating. Because of the fact that it doesn’t really have any mass, that can actually be a problem in some circumstances, particularly car work. The phone is so sensitive to vibration it’s kind of useless in a car context, at least for us. The other thing is, a dolly-based, multiple-destination master is a really tricky thing to do with a phone. You need a camera that you can put on a real dolly head and a real dolly. Those are the kind of things that you have to give up a little bit. And selective focus—with the iPhone, essentially, everything is in focus. So if you’re somebody who likes to create directionality for people’s gaze with focus, that tool is gone. It was nice to be back in a world where I can do that.
The other thing is, a dolly-based, multiple-destination master is a really tricky thing to do with a phone. You need a camera that you can put on a real dolly head and a real dolly. Those are the kind of things that you have to give up a little bit. And selective focus—with the iPhone, essentially, everything is in focus. So if you’re somebody who likes to create directionality for people’s gaze with focus, that tool is gone. It was nice to be back in a world where I can do that.
also:
Filmmaker: What was behind the choice to widen the aspect ratio during that segment and the use of the anamorphic lens?Soderbergh: I wanted there to be a different approach for each story branch. Ellen Martin’s is the most straightforward, camera always on a fixed device and very simple framing. Mossack and Fonseca in Panama when they’re at work is always handheld. The Beverly Hills sequence is The Goodbye Girl meets California Suite, a Herbert Ross from the ’70s thing. For (China), I thought it’s like a Bond film. It feels like a spy thing to me. This is the other great thing about being in the all-digital world now, you can do things like this and it’s not a problem. You can change formats in the middle of your movie. I felt like a different vibe would really help.
Soderbergh: I wanted there to be a different approach for each story branch. Ellen Martin’s is the most straightforward, camera always on a fixed device and very simple framing. Mossack and Fonseca in Panama when they’re at work is always handheld. The Beverly Hills sequence is The Goodbye Girl meets California Suite, a Herbert Ross from the ’70s thing. For (China), I thought it’s like a Bond film. It feels like a spy thing to me. This is the other great thing about being in the all-digital world now, you can do things like this and it’s not a problem. You can change formats in the middle of your movie. I felt like a different vibe would really help.
Also, since making this one, he's finished another film with Meryl Streep, using the first model of a new Red camera that's almost as light as an iPhone, which he intends to carry on with.
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:59 (four years ago) link
Lol. This new technology has been so good to Soderbergh.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 19 September 2019 21:26 (four years ago) link
speaking of iphone, Apple sent Rian Johnson their new model to play with and he took it outside for an hour or two: https://vimeo.com/361345913
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Wednesday, 25 September 2019 20:54 (four years ago) link
looks like he had fun with it
let his longtime cinematography collaborator Steve Yedlin borrow it now imo
― mh, Thursday, 26 September 2019 00:41 (four years ago) link
This is really disappointing. Should have been an iPhone film.
― Frederik B, Friday, 18 October 2019 22:19 (four years ago) link
A disappointment, yes. I wanted to bludgeon Banderas and Oldman with a candlestick.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 18 October 2019 22:22 (four years ago) link
Would use this to teach Brecht’s “distancing technique” that heightens the artifice of character to make larger points about societal constructions.
It was fine on Netflix on a Sunday night, would have been disappointing in the theater. Clunky.
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 21 October 2019 15:48 (four years ago) link
the blah short
― johnny crunch, Monday, 21 October 2019 17:32 (four years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/movies/contagion-movie-coronavirus.html
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 10 March 2020 19:06 (four years ago) link
also Contagion: Soderbergh, Winslet/Damon/Fishburne/Cotaillard/Paltrow/Law/etc/etc/etc
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Tuesday, 10 March 2020 20:45 (four years ago) link
"Contagion" is scarily prescient
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 14:46 (four years ago) link
great revive
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Wednesday, 25 March 2020 18:25 (four years ago) link
Social Distancing, Alternative Facts, and SD Cards?
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/05/soderbergh-wrote-sex-lies-and-videotape-sequel-in-quarantine-and-is-eager-to-direct-it-1202232376/
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 21 May 2020 21:44 (three years ago) link
Hasn't written an original narrative screenplay since Sex Lies in 1989; has to go a few weeks indoors without directing anything, and promptly cracks out a sequel to that last one, an adaptation of a novel, and a rewrite of something else.
― Bleeqwot (sic), Thursday, 21 May 2020 22:25 (three years ago) link
bless
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 22 May 2020 03:07 (three years ago) link
Frottage, Fibs and Fiios
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 22 May 2020 03:09 (three years ago) link
as mentioned on the Carruth thread, Soderbergh's B&W silent Raiders of the Lost Ark
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Tuesday, 26 May 2020 02:36 (three years ago) link
looks absolutely incredible, the Social Network score doesn't work as well
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Tuesday, 26 May 2020 02:39 (three years ago) link
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Friday, September 20, 2019 6:59 AM (one year ago)
― Frederik B, Friday, September 20, 2019 7:26 AM (one year ago)
Dianne Wiest also revealed the film was shot with “no equipment. The only equipment was sound equipment. Steven held the camera in a wheelchair and just rolled along. None of the lights, and the trucks, all that stuff that goes into making movies, there’s none of it. There was Steven and this new camera.”
Let Them All Talk on HBO Max in December.
― Covidiots from UHF (sic), Sunday, 18 October 2020 23:12 (three years ago) link
https://nofilmschool.com/red-releases-price-komodo
Not quite iPhone weight in the end
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Sunday, 18 October 2020 23:30 (three years ago) link
Just watched his cut of "2001" again. There are a couple of small changes I don't like, but the vast majority of it I do like a lot, and don't really miss the stuff he cut out, tbh. And his changes definitely make it more accessible to, say, my 16-year old daughter.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 December 2020 04:11 (three years ago) link
"Let Them All Talk" out today I think?
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 10 December 2020 15:55 (three years ago) link
I violently despised his mediocre Hollywood version of Solaris. I'm sure it's not the worst thing ever but at the time it triggered me that much I was huffing and hawing and effing and jeffing all the way through it!
― calzino, Thursday, 10 December 2020 16:23 (three years ago) link
producing the oscars
I suspect it will be....mostly the same
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 December 2020 23:13 (three years ago) link
I suspect (for two reasons) it will give more attention to the craft/labour side of filmmaking, and substantially less to movie stars in tuxes smiling at each other
― huge rant (sic), Thursday, 10 December 2020 23:19 (three years ago) link
that is definitely possible, hopefully while shortening it too somehow
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 December 2020 23:20 (three years ago) link
It's gonna be a new edit of the 1986 ceremony.
― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 10 December 2020 23:58 (three years ago) link
He'll shoot the 2022 ceremony during the ad breaks, and have it edited by the time the credit scroll finishes.
― huge rant (sic), Friday, 11 December 2020 00:26 (three years ago) link
often feel alone in my love for soderbergh's solaris
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 00:28 (three years ago) link
honestly feel like lem's book, tarkovsky's film, and soderbergh's film amplify such different aspects of the same themes that they almost form like a prism you can see the complete story through
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 00:29 (three years ago) link
Meanwhile, Let Them All Talk has leaked out (think I'll skip this one)https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/movies/let-them-all-talk-review-that-ship-has-sailed.html
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 11 December 2020 23:47 (three years ago) link
im a big fan as well brad. never read the book but your prism comment feels otm. tbh i actually dont even like the tarkovsky film, but even if i did i feel like each film is doing such different stuff that they dont really tread on each other that much.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Saturday, 12 December 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Let Them All Talk has leaked out
it was released two days before this post. you thinking it leaked bodes very well for AT&T's plan to move all of their feature film, TV and comics publication from the real world to HBO Max!
anyway I dug it, based especially on the last 20-30 minutes when a bunch of things you didn't know were dominoes start plunking into place. Candi B absolutely kills it in dis ting. visual storytelling-wise it's in a very similar style to High Flying Bird, lots of still frames / locked off shots, but without the screen having light stylisation that the iphone gave that one.
on Dianne Wiest's "no lights" comment - the stuff in enclosed spaces, like libraries and especially the auditorium and the Pos K dance club, can look good to great, but on the whole this is something that won't suffer from no cinema release, if considered vs most of his / Andrews' work.
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 13 December 2020 08:00 (three years ago) link
Watched it last night and thought it was gorgeous to look at but otherwise kind of a mess tbh. Soderbergh's penchant for ultra efficient no-fat editing, starting scenes late and getting out early, seemed too clever by half here, almost kind of perverse. Thinking particularly of Streep bumping into Lucas Hedges 2/3 way through and Bergen's last scene with Streep - both of which were the payoffs of the main dramatic arcs that had been happening, and then he deliberately withholds the actual dramatic part of the scene.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:47 (three years ago) link
I get that he's thinking he doesnt want to waste the audience's time with "redundant" scenes or w/e, but this wasnt supposed to be Traffic or Michael Clayton, its Bergen Weist and Streep on a cruise liner, wish he'd stepped back and let my girls cook a little more.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:54 (three years ago) link
let them, as it were, talk
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:56 (three years ago) link
Streep"s character is not demonstrative at the best of times, and is keeping more secrets than usual during this cruise crossing - I think we do see the big dramatic moment in those scenes, especially the last one with Bergen. I was on the edge of my seat from the shots of Candace silently watching during the previous dinner conversation.
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 13 December 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
For long stretches the movie is partly about this finely calibrated passive aggressive kabuki dance of streep being baffled that candace wont see her privately, making plans to meet, breaking plans to meet, all these bait & switch fremeny moves. But then after all that, we just cut without warning into a scene of them alone in a room mid-discussion. like, what? how did that happen? It just seemed like a really weird choice to me. I get that the bare-bones "point" of that scene was the discussion they had, not how it happened. But still after all that will-they-or-wont-they mishegoss getting the audience invested in that, it felt really jarring to just cut past it. It may not have been absolutely narratively essential but it still sure would have been interesting to see whatever happened between them to get them into that room, a partial resolution to a conflict that had been teased for the whole film.
Idk it just seemed like he was too ruthless with stuff like that, maybe a pitfall of editing your own stuff for so long. Its nora ephron material but he handled it like a bourne movie
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Sunday, 13 December 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
Wasn't he quitting?
I liked Logan Lucky but then i've always liked him unlike .. many here.
― piscesx, Sunday, 13 December 2020 19:11 (three years ago) link
(revising a post I made in another thread a few months ago:)
He announced his retirement from film-making in February 2013.
During his retirement he
- had a completed film screen at Cannes in competition for the Palme d'Or, enjoy theatrical release outside the US, and come out as his first HBO feature in the US- directed & shot & edited ten hour-long episodes of The Knick - did a draft cut of Spike Jonze's Her, trimming the film from 2.5 hours to 90 minutes- developed & produced the half-hour-episode dramedy series Red Oaks, that ran for three seasons- developed a six-hour narrative / 18-or-w/e-hour interactive mystery- shot & operated camera on & edited a feature film sequel to an earlier feature that he'd directed & shot & edited- compiled & music directed an installation piece combining the 1946 The Killers with the 1964 The Killers; edited & sound directed a mashup installation piece incorporating parts of his The Underneath and the noir it was based on, Criss Cross; generated a "silent" film version of Raiders Of The Lost Ark by removing the colour and scoring it with Reznor & Ross cues from The Social Network; cut a 110-minute edit of 2001: A Space Odyssey; cut a 108-minute edit of Heaven's Gate; cut a mashup of Psycho (1960) and Psycho (1998), called Psychos; - directed & shot & edited another ten hour-long episodes of The Knick- signed on to Bill & Ted 3 as producer and got it funded after a decade of the writers & stars trying- and EP'ed the Girlfriend Experience TV series, including hands-on creative decisions.
Plus he started a new day job as importer and promoter of a Bolivian liquor, and revived an earlier side-gig, directing Chloe Grace Moretz in a play by his frequent collaborator Scott Burns.
He un-announced his retirement from film-making in February 2016.
(Then before he made Logan Lucky as his unretirement film, he cut & music directed a feature-length mashup of the three theatrical films starring Michael Caine as Len Deighton's Harry Palmer. Since Logan Lucky, he's made and released another four feature films; made and released that 6-18-hour interactive mystery app that also came out as a linear TV series; edited and test-screened new cuts of at least five of his older films; written several screenplays in lockdown, including his first non-adaptation fictional piece since Sex, Lies & Videotape {it's a sequel to S,L&V}; led the DGA committee on how to devise COVID-safe protocols for film production; and put them into practice by directing, shooting and editing another feature film in November.)
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 13 December 2020 19:33 (three years ago) link
Just imagine how busy he could have been had he *not* retired. What a waste.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 December 2020 20:51 (three years ago) link
What a waste.
I don't understand what this refers to.
― Motoroller Scampotron (WmC), Sunday, 13 December 2020 23:12 (three years ago) link
Josh is joking :)
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 13 December 2020 23:42 (three years ago) link
New one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRD1xr-dmfQ
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Monday, 7 June 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
Great cast. Bill Duke! But I must admit I could barely make it though that trailer, looked like the most recent season of "Fargo."
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 June 2021 18:14 (two years ago) link
Nothing about that screams Steven Soderbergh, but I'm in.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 7 June 2021 18:28 (two years ago) link
Nothing about that screams Steven Soderbergh,
Orange and teal!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 June 2021 18:32 (two years ago) link
amy seimetz AND julia fox, quite the coup there
― intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Monday, 7 June 2021 18:35 (two years ago) link
got a ticket to the surprise Soderbergh screening at TIFF, will report back as to whether it is Out of Sight 2
― Murgatroid, Sunday, 5 September 2021 14:34 (two years ago) link
Curious to find out!
― ... (Eazy), Sunday, 5 September 2021 17:25 (two years ago) link
I first misread this thread title as Stephen Sondheim and was momentarily confused
― Duke Detain (Neanderthal), Sunday, 5 September 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
Said it above, but really curious to see what tonight's drop at TIFF is.
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 17 September 2021 16:39 (two years ago) link
some quarantine zoom project, i bet.
― adam t. (abanana), Friday, 17 September 2021 23:29 (two years ago) link
Supposedly his new cut of Kafka.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 17 September 2021 23:40 (two years ago) link
He’s shot two full-cast-and-extras films in the pandemic, one with crowd scenes, I doubt he’d do a zoom movie just on the principle of it
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Saturday, 18 September 2021 00:07 (two years ago) link
Yeah, as noted above I went and it was a re-edit of Kafka titled “Mr. Kneff” - spoken dialogue edited out replaced by subtitles (because of clashing accents according to the Q&A with Soderbergh), some scenes tinted with colour instead of B&W, and odd musical choices throughout (most memorable one being an instrumental cover of Enter Sandman???)
Anyway a memorable experience, I liked it although I can’t say the same for some people around me who walked out
― Murgatroid, Saturday, 18 September 2021 14:01 (two years ago) link
Movie #9702 coming in February, Kimi, written by David Koepp. Trailer seems to give away a ton in its second half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67S8ru4K4x4
― ... (Eazy), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 01:46 (two years ago) link
Looks pretty bad.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 02:00 (two years ago) link
Yeah, this is the least excited I’ve been for one of his films in ages.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 02:17 (two years ago) link
Steven Soderbergh on why he doesn't see himself directing a superhero movie: "There’s no fucking. Nobody’s fucking! Like, I don’t know how to tell people how to behave in a world in which that is not a thing." https://t.co/WkOr2e68UT— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) February 7, 2022
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Monday, 7 February 2022 18:18 (two years ago) link
He obviously hasn't seen The Boys..
― beard papa, Monday, 7 February 2022 19:49 (two years ago) link
Eternals actually had fucking!
― Everybody Loves Ramen (WmC), Monday, 7 February 2022 21:48 (two years ago) link
Somehow the most awkward, unsettling moment of Eternals
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 7 February 2022 22:01 (two years ago) link
lol yes
― Everybody Loves Ramen (WmC), Monday, 7 February 2022 22:26 (two years ago) link
kimi rules
― Clay, Sunday, 13 February 2022 00:11 (two years ago) link
Do I think "Kimi" is a good movie? Not particularly. But it's still really well made and entertaining, and as it rushes impatiently to its pretty predictable climax, it gets almost self-consciously silly; the last 15 minutes are some giddy fun.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 March 2022 02:47 (two years ago) link
The only problem was the coincidence of who the big baddie was. Otherwise I really liked it. Zoe Kravitz was great.
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 6 March 2022 11:05 (two years ago) link
I guess it is a coincidence? I suppose it doesn't matter, since it reveals who done it in the first minutes and doesn't seem particularly interested in the who or why he did it to, or for that matter delving into Angela's (I want to call her Kimi, lol) trauma, or really into many other details or particulars. There seems to be just enough there to hang a movie on, like Koepp came up with a couple of set pieces or ideas and then he and Soderbergh quickly cobbled the most basic frameworks of a thriller (a little Rear Window here, a lot of Blow Up/Out there, some Parallax View and the Pakula like) around it. Lots of stuff with either no pay off (the toothache) or long telegraphed payoffs (the spying neighbor, the construction site, etc.). They should have found a way to have her defend herself with her mouthguard.
I suppose my biggest loose-end problem was Rita Wilson. Was she in on it? It also doesn't really matter. I just wish that once it hit max crowd pleasing silliness at the end it found a way to stay there a little longer. Kravitz was a great lead. Was this her first big lead role?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 March 2022 14:41 (two years ago) link
The toothache was there to show the extent of her agoraphobia imo
― mh, Monday, 7 March 2022 14:16 (two years ago) link
And the source of it is clearly tooth grinding, hence the mouthguard
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 7 March 2022 15:00 (two years ago) link
But I appreciated that the movie let me make that connection myself rather than the dentist being like “we need to talk about your nervous tooth grinding. And the sooner you open up to someone about the abuse you suffered in summer camp when you were 8 the better. I know your mom was never there for you, but you can’t let that affect your dental health”
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 7 March 2022 15:04 (two years ago) link
I got all that with the first close up shot of the mouthguard alone! And then they still gave her a toothache/infection, and still had her get the teledoc visit with the dentist, and still had her walking around holding her cheek in pain for the rest of the movie, lol. In fact, by my estimate at least 20% of the movie was closeups of her mouthguard or her complaining about her tooth.
In all seriousness, I wish there was even less of that information given out, as if covid wasn't enough of a reason to be a shut-in. They just piled on the stuff, but the movie didn't need any of that. And come on, she had excellent dental health, she emphasized that to her dentist. And besides, another 15% of the movie was her brushing her teeth.
So do you think they sent the Euro hitman to kill Andy Daly and his family, since she sent the file to him? Something arrogant Euro guy missed, incidentally. I would def. watch a full-comedy sequel of Andy Daly being chased around by hitmen.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 March 2022 15:23 (two years ago) link
some observations on some of the subtle (or not so subtle) signifiers that seem to be sprinkled throughout the film here:
I knew Kimi was going to be a Bisexual Woman With Mental Health Issues movie but I wasn't expecting it to be Has An Autism Keychain level. pic.twitter.com/fGmvFerTgk— chris person (@Papapishu) February 13, 2022
― mh, Monday, 7 March 2022 15:45 (two years ago) link
Even as more-or-less of a Soderbergh stan i thought this looked eminently skippable, but are you saying Andy Daly gets chased by hitmen in this?? Bc that would rocket it to the top of my watchlist.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 7 March 2022 15:54 (two years ago) link
No, unless it happens off screen in a different movie.Movie is definitely worth seeing, script is just kind of half-assed, in my opinion.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 March 2022 16:24 (two years ago) link
Btw, I did like how it's set up, and we're primed to expect, that Kimi is evil and spying on Angela/everyone, but in the end, the only eavesdropping it did was at the behest of its (soon to be murdered) user, and in fact at the film's climax, Kimi even comes to the rescue. The corporation is evil, but the product is useful! The biggest invasion of privacy demonstrated in the film comes via her phone.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 8 March 2022 00:58 (two years ago) link
God, I’ve never seen an HR director as vividly portrayed as Rita Wilson does in that one scene.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Sunday, 1 May 2022 05:57 (one year ago) link
Also, JiC’s point behind the spoiler text is a good one.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Monday, 2 May 2022 15:15 (one year ago) link
watching logan lucky for the first time. utterly enjoyable
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Monday, 26 December 2022 02:46 (one year ago) link
I think Logan Lucky was to me the movie Glass Onion is to a lot of others.
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Monday, 26 December 2022 02:48 (one year ago) link
the casting is from heaven, peaking with dwight yoakam as the warden
the standoff with the prisoners where they’re bargaining over game of thrones books that don’t exist yet… cinema
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Monday, 26 December 2022 02:52 (one year ago) link
That scene is Priceless.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 26 December 2022 03:58 (one year ago) link
Soderbergh had to do several Oceans movies to refine his heist movie skills in order to make Logan Lucky
― mh, Monday, 26 December 2022 15:59 (one year ago) link
same
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 13:52 (one year ago) link
Just re-watched Side Effects on HBO Max. Trashy pulp Soderbergh is the best Soderbergh.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 1 January 2023 01:48 (one year ago) link
See also the various Three Imaginary Boys vs. Boys Don't Cry polls.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 1 January 2023 03:26 (one year ago) link
stamp is bad in the limey (for londoners) for the same reason tom wilkinson is a problem -- despite an otherwise v funny performance -- in michael clayton for uk listeners, which is that the underlying accent (not-cockney for stamp, not-US for wilkinson) pokes noticeably thru
stamp (born stepney to a tugboat stoker! moved to plaistow and went to school there) learnt his trade a london drama school before kitchen sink made it ok (indeed fashionably preferable) for young actors to have any kind of regional accent, and had the cockney totally knocked out of him, so it comes back out of him in his 60s as if voice-coached, and you can hear the posh* at the ends of his lines**
*even tho it's learned posh! **the ends of the lines is where you listen to check if an english actor is actually good at an american accent, they generally do the starts fine
― mark s, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 08:00 (one year ago) link
actually it's not quite the same problem: wilkinson is very animated and basically funny in michael clayton, fake accent notwithstanding; stamp is merely robotic in the limey, the flatness is presumably a performance decision? but it's a bad one
― mark s, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 08:01 (one year ago) link
I can't address your point about his accent, but I found Stamp's flatness of affect rather funny, especially when Wilson allowed himself to feel something for the Americans (e.g. coaxing Eduardo to order a cocktail at Valentine's party). He also uses his body in character well.
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 11:53 (one year ago) link
i didn't mean flatness of affect so much as me feeling that the character was actually just a cardboard cut-out on a pole but maybe that's what *you* mean by "uses his body in character" :)
― mark s, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 12:19 (one year ago) link
one helluva cardboard ass when he gets up after those goons rough house him
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 13:05 (one year ago) link
New limited series, Full Circle, is up on HBO now. Knew it was coming but had no idea it was here, as if people needed an HBO break after Succession and The Idol.
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Sunday, 16 July 2023 00:25 (nine months ago) link
He's got another show coming soon to his website:
https://extension765.com/blogs/soderblog/command-z
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 16 July 2023 00:56 (nine months ago) link
Wow, had no idea!
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Sunday, 16 July 2023 02:17 (nine months ago) link
was previously semi-announced as The Pendulum Project and was being shopped to streamers in January — guessing he ended up with no good offers and figured coattailing off whatever press he can get for Full Circle was the best chance of getting seen
― serving bundt (sic), Sunday, 16 July 2023 09:42 (nine months ago) link
was startled by either Louis CK or a guy who looks a lot like him in Command Z trailer. I'll be pretty bummed if it turns out to be him.
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Sunday, 16 July 2023 18:06 (nine months ago) link
Assuming you mean the guy at 1:30, there's a photo of the same guy a few seconds earlier, and it's clearly not LCK.
― jaymc, Sunday, 16 July 2023 20:34 (nine months ago) link
Watched the first episode of Full Circle tonight; it's OK. It's a riff on High & Low, for those who don't know.
Definitely not watching that other thing. Haaaaate Michael Cera.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 17 July 2023 02:38 (nine months ago) link
Watched all of Full Circle, it was ok. But am I an idiot or did the last shot invalidate any bit of sense that the plot had...if the whole idea was that this Guyanese investment property made money that kickstarted Dennis Quaid's hot sauce empire, how does that happen if it never got built? Whatever, man..
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 29 December 2023 16:53 (three months ago) link
xps I haven't seen it in a while, but The Limey is probably my favorite Soderbergh film, and I've always liked Stamp in it (and everyone else). I haven't kept up with Soderbergh's work, but aside from The Limey, I don't recall ever revisiting his past work - the ones I'd probably want to see again are Sex, Lies, and Videotape, King of the Hill, Che (maybe my favorite del Toro performance) and The Informant! (maybe my favorite Matt Damon performance). And I still haven't seen The Underneath - I've heard it's supposed to be excellent.
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 December 2023 18:52 (three months ago) link
xp I watched it a couple months ago... I think the whole Guyanese investment was more of a macguffin, it wasn't that it kickstarted his career, just that it was the most prominent skeleton in the family's closet. the mic drop of that as the final scene was just that all this trouble happened for essentially nothing. that underlining the racial commentary of the whole show
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 29 December 2023 20:04 (three months ago) link
That makes sense thematically, although there was even that interview scene where Quaid is asked how he got his business going, and he references that they had money from investments that paid off (although his whole deal is being clueless anyway). Maybe the family had enough money to bribe a bunch of shady people in Guyana, lose the money, and still start a huge business but it wasn't really portrayed that way.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 29 December 2023 21:43 (three months ago) link