The last four years have been the worst “retirement” for Steven Soderbergh, the idiosyncratic genius behind too many great films (and just as many weird, experimental films) to count. In those four years, after he announced his retirement from filmmaking on the heels of Side Effects, Soderbergh directed every episode of his turn-of-the-century hospital drama The Knick – arguably the best cable series to never get its full due – and the terrific HBO Liberace film Behind the Candelabra. He also produced a half dozen projects, one of which was Magic Mike XXL, which he served as cinematographer (under the common pseudonym Peter Andrews).
Point being, Steven Soderbergh never really retired, and we should all be happy that he’s “officially” backed off that sentiment with this weekend’s Logan Lucky. The notoriously rebellious filmmaker has built a decades-spanning career making whatever sort of film tickled his fancy at any given time, and some of them (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven) were huge hits. But he’s never been keen on the typical hardline marketing techniques of Hollywood, which is why so many of his films come and go without much time to consider their greatness.
Of all the masters in the industry, Steven Soderbergh has the most substantial catalogue of underrated greatness. Here are the five I feel are sorely in need of a revival among the collective masses…
1The Limey
Soderbergh’s lean revenge drama is a sort of sideways remake of John Boorman’s 1967 thriller Point Blank. It isn’t entirely similar – this time a man seeks revenge for the death of his daughter, not for being double crossed and robbed – but it has the same singleminded drive and determination, thanks to the unfettered performance from Terrence Stamp.
Stamp squares off with old-school cinematic rebel Peter Fonda, further defining The Limey as a throwback film to the urgent, existential revenge thrillers of yesteryear. Soderbergh balances the directness of his characters with a circuitous narrative which seems to double back on itself a few minutes at a time, and a breezy Southern California tone draped over the violence. The Hollywood Hills become a character in its own right, and Stamp’s Wilson (Lee Marvin was simply Walker in Point Blank) has a blast confusing everyone with his Cockney slang. The picture often drifts off into a dreamlike memory state. The Limey was never going to be a huge hit, but it certainly deserves reappraisal.
