… keep it up Soderbergh!
by Sturdy
Jlo has never looked as good as she did in OUT OF SIGHT
I really like and respect Soderbergh for his “experimental” films. It’s refreshing to see a big name director take chances on smaller projects and use styles that go against the Hollywood grain. The downside, of course, is that you always run the risk of failing. Unfortunately for Soderbergh, it seems that every time he tries something out of the ordinary…well…it kind of stinks.
Sorry Steven, this was pretty bad.
I’m talking mainly about FULL FRONTAL, GOOD GERMAN and BUBBLE. None of these were horrible films, but none of them were financially or critically successful. I remember I had to drive an hour and a half to find a theater playing FULL FRONTAL and as much as I respected the effort, I wished I would’ve waited for the DVD. The same kind of thing happened with GOOD GERMAN, even though it was much better. I liked the homage to old film noir movies, but I just didn’t feel it worked very well. At least Steven is astute enough to realize what he’s done wasn’t great and hasn’t gone back to do it again. He does his little experiments and then moves on.
This wasn’t great either.
Finally, there was BUBBLE, which was actually a decent flick although very few people saw it. For me, it got tainted right off the bat since it was released simultaneously at the theater and on DVD. I liked the statement Soderbergh was trying to make, but it’s easy to say something like that with a movie full of no name actors that had little or no chance of box office success. It would have been a much louder (and dumber) statement to do that with OCEAN’S 13. But that’s a little off the point. The point is that even though his ventures into unfamiliar territory aren’t exactly successful, I still want him to keep trying.
They weren’t “experiments” but I like the Ocean’s movies anyway.
However, this article isn’t to rip on his efforts, but more of a request for him to keep his chin up and keep on trying. In fact, I’d like to ask all big name directors to follow in Soderbergh’s footsteps and start utilizing the film medium to express an artistic message rather than just rake in the bucks. It seems like Soderbergh has copied the plan of of some of his actor buddies by alternating a summer hit with his artsy projects. It seems to be working for him and could be a nice trend to start amongst successful Hollywood directors.