Comments on: ‘Moneyball’; The Backspin Continues; Plus a Look Back At Old Soderbergh Projects

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:42:05 +0000

At Anon, clearly I'm biased, but i think you're really undervaluing the artistry of the Ocean's films. The camera, editing and use of music in those films are fabulous. They zip. Also Van Sant has been making the same film for 4 pictures in a row and I'd gladly take even Oceans 12 over Finding Forrester.

I do think Good Will Hunting was great and i like the experimental side too. I thought Gerry was awesome, but that whole clipped, timeline temporal repetitive thing he does is getting really old.

Traffic, The Limey, Out of Sight are modern classics are far as I'm concerned (ok, OOS is a stretch). The editing in the Limey is sublime.

By: stephen

stephen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:09:17 +0000

I wouldn't say the Oceans movies were soulless exactly. Oceans 12 had its share of post-modern experimentation. It really was like Soderbergh let loose with nothing but some movie stars, exotic locales and a bunch of '60s French and British influences in his pocket. The whole point of the cast was to be an "Access Hollywood" type cast–remember the original starred the Rat Pack. Soderbergh is one of the few filmmakers who seems to want to take chances with each film. He wants to better himself as a filmmaker. He's not content being the sex, lies guy or the Oceans guy or the Traffic guy. He wants to be all those things and more–that's why he took on a Julia Roberts vehicle and followed it up with a Tarkovsky remake.
And as for his contributions: Traffic, The Limey, Out of Sight are all great movies in my book. Maybe not classics, but how many directors churn out classics? I'd rather have a filmmaker who makes movies that are consistently interesting and thought provoking than one who made a few classics and a few mediocre films.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:10:52 +0000

I think Soderbergh is the definitive case study in the "one-for-them, on-for-me" paradigm. Unfortunately (and this is hard to say since I like the guy), it's pretty clear that you can't both be a Hollywood player and a great artist.

The guy's made a nice "career" for himself, but really, what's his great contribution to the arts? Sex, Lies, and Videotape? Bubble? The Limey? A Solaris remake? Please. He's a good filmmaker, but certainly not a great one. Gus Van Sant has fared better, but I don't think it's a coincidence that he's never directed a soulless blockbuster like the Oceans movies -- Good Will Hunting and (shivers) Finding Forrester were hired gun work, but they weren't the star-studded, Access Hollywood fodder that Oceans 11/12/13 were.

Like Det. Jimmy McNulty says: "You play in dirt...you get dirty." Something about the creative spirit dies when you've spent too much time in the Industry.

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:13:04 +0000

Thanks. Great book, huh? The diary stuff is interesting cause it's so personal and neurotic and at the same time, he's totally holding the reader at emotional arms-length -- something he's been accused of in real life and in his films over and over again.

If you haven't guessed it already, I'm dying to write a book about this guy.

By: stephen

stephen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:12:47 +0000

Good write up. I was thinking about GETTING AWAY WITH IT all through this debacle too. Great book and really good insight to the industry. The book is so damn honest, without being some sort of tell-all. I'd like to see him write publish another diary, but I'm sure too much is at stake these days (not that he really seems to give a shit, he takes a lickin and keeps on tickin).