Modern Maestros: Steven Soderbergh

Robert here, back with more of my series on great contemporary directors. Last week I promised someone more universally beloved than my subject Andrew Bujalski. I'm not sure if I've kept that promise. Although Mr. Soderbergh is certainly better known (though not necessarily less experimental) which is why he's so damn interesting.

Maestro: Steven Soderbergh
Known For: Politically charged dramas, mini-budget indies and the Oceans films.
Influences: William Friedkin, Sidney Lumet, take your pick from the 70's but also Bergman and (according to Soderbergh) Jean-Luc Godard most of all.
Masterpieces: So many of his films depend on personal reaction... but let's say Traffic.
Disasters:I'd say Full Frontal and Ocean's Twelve.
Better than you remember: And how you remember them is also so personal. Let's say Che.
Box Office: 183 mil for Ocean's Eleven... no shock there.
Favorite Actor:After scouring through Soderbergh's vast casts, I find the answer to be Clooney with 5 and Damon with 5.

Why do we admire Steven Soderbergh so? It's because he's decided to make the films he wants to make, the way he wants to make them and still achieve success and name recognition. As a director, he's daring, constantly pushing the possibilities of the medium. The results are often flawed, and occasionally downright bad, yet sometimes inspired and even game-changing. No one really seems to think of Soderbergh as a "comeback kid" because there's never any doubt if he'll come back eventually with a new hit (and what he's doing when he's "down," if you can call him that, is always interesting if imperfect.). Consider his output in the years after Sex, Lies and Videotape catapulted him to indie-movement-godfatherdom. There was Kafka, Schitzopolis, King of the Hill (no relation to the T.V. show of the same name), Gray's Anatomy (no relation to the T.V. show of the almost-same name). Then, suddenly he peeks his head above the water with Out of Sight, owns the cinematic landscape in 2000 with Traffic and Erin Brockovich, brings back cool with Ocean's Eleven and then it's back into the experimental. Few other directors can pull that off, if any.

What makes Soderbergh so modern is his subtle infusion of the topical in his films. Bubble isn't about a murder mystery as much as it is about the lives of Mideast factory workers. The Girlfriend Experience isn't about prostitution as much as it's about the state of the economy. Even Traffic and Erin Brockovich, which are more blatantly political, escape traps by focusing on character. The Informant, may be a zany comedy but it's a zany comedy about corporate corruption and bureaucracy. Speaking of which, who makes a zany comedy about corporate corruption and bureaucracy? It may not seem like it at first glance, but The Informant is one more in a line of bold and uncompromising experimental films from Soderbergh. Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience should stand as monuments to independent filmmakers as what's possible. Che may not have been perfect but the idea of a two-part epic where the films' inconsistencies are as important as their uniform elements is a gamble worth noticing. The Good German wasn't perfect, but it's hard to argue with the suggestion that throwback genre's should only utilize the technology and resources of the time they're recreating (I'm looking at you Grindhouse).

Oddly enough, it's not the problems with these Soderbergh films that stand out in his filmography. In his dedication to experimentation, they seem expected, almost necessary. These Soderbergh films may not have been entirely successful, but I'd never call them unsuccessful. In fact, it's primarily when he strays from his standards of modern relevance and technical audaciousness that he seems to miss the mark significantly. Consider Solaris, a film that was perhaps too conventionally filmed and philosophically detached from the social issues and politics that Soderbergh loves to have been much more than a blip in his otherwise interesting canon. And "interesting" may be the key word here. For Steven Soderbergh, success isn't measured in terms of "good" and "bad." It's measured in terms of "interesting" or "not." If something hasn't been done before, if it dares to question the standard interpretations of filmmaking, then it's worthwhile. Usually I dislike that idea, that concept is more important than product in the world of film. Yet Soderbergh is one of the few filmmakers (along with his idol Godard) for which it easily and happily applies.

Monologue - Beauty Queen

Jose here bringing you the Monday Monologue.

From the moment Erin Brockovich was released, in March of 2000, everyone knew that Julia Roberts would win an Oscar for it. There was nary a review that did not point out how fantastic she was, how she carried the burdens of a dramatic role so well (after practically creating the entire rom-com movement throughout the 90's) and how big her boobs looked.

But beyond the awards craze, the "she can act" novelty and the miniskirts, the truth is that Julia had created a character all her own. One that might've looked and sounded like Julia Roberts, but was all Erin Brockovich.

This is never as evident as in a small, intimate scene where Erin opens up to a man (her biker neighbor played by Aaron Eckhart) for the first time in years.

Are you gonna be something else that I have to survive?

she asks him after a mini breakdown (notice how she subtly implodes, instead of chewing the scenery).

She then goes on telling him about her one year stint as beauty queen.

So I get up on the stage, in the center of the stage and I have a big bouquet of flowers and I have my foot out like this and I say 'I will devote my entire reign as Miss Wichita to bringing an end to world hunger and to the creation of a peaceful Earth for every man, woman and child'.

The scene is directed by Steven Soderbergh as if he'd been possessed by Francois Truffaut or a kinder version of Godard, in how he lets the editing create cadences about what Erin isn't saying.
The scene plays out like Erin would remember it, once she was back fighting the evil corporations, being her good, old, potty mouthed self.

Roberts makes Erin laugh at herself and tell this anecdote as something silly to pass the time. But the bittersweet truth is that this might very well be her "I coulda been a contender" speech, something in her eyes is telling us that she wished she could've solved all the world's troubles, or her own for starters.

For the first time in the movie Erin becomes truly aware of her mortality and lost opportunities. And for the first time in her career Julia showed us why she's destined to become immortal.