In the history of the Academy Awards, Steven Soderbergh is the only director who had to compete against himself. And he won.
Prognosticators figured Soderbergh hurt his chances by directing two of 2000's five best pictures. (Actually, let's make that two of the four best; how did the insipid "Chocolat" make the cut?) The conventional wisdom was Soderbergh would cancel himself out with "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich" splitting the vote, but he was the surprise victor for best director with "Traffic." That's even more surprising when you consider that best picture, an award that usually went hand-in-hand with best director in those days, went to "Gladiator."
It can't hurt that Soderbergh is not only insanely prolific and smart but that actors — by far, the biggest group of Oscar voters — love to work with him. Many top Hollywood names are Soderbergh recidivists, including Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle and George Clooney. Maybe a bunch of those folks solved the double-nomination problem by conspiring to put their votes behind "Traffic"?
We'll never know, but we do know something happened in Soderbergh's career around 1998. After making a splash at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival with "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," he built a reputation as a cerebral, experimental writer/director but never made anything resembling a popular movie until "Out of Sight." That began a string of five wildly entertaining titles in a three-year span, including "The Limey," "Brockovich," "Traffic" and his biggest hit, the glittering remake of "Ocean's 11."
Although those movies vary in tone, ranging from the grit of "Traffic" to the larkiness of "Ocean's," they all share an element Soderbergh often returns to: the caper. His characters are usually trying to get away with something illegal and Soderbergh likes to let us in on the planning, so we can see where it goes right or, more often, wrong.
One of my favorites of his is the noirish caper "The Underneath," starring Elisabeth Shue, but I can't find it streaming anywhere. The following seven, fortunately, are easy to find. ("Out of Sight" is not on the list because I included it on my list of best Steve Zahn movies a couple of weeks ago.)
Not for the first time, I think the Oscars got it wrong with Soderbergh because "Brockovich" is better than "Traffic." Probably the most conventional movie the prolific director has made — a fish-out-of-water, little-guy-fights-city-hall biopic — it's a crowd-pleaser that doesn't make you feel stupid for loving it. A #MeToo movie before that movement launched, it's also a showcase for Roberts, who won an Oscar for her weary, cut-the-crap performance.
I've never understood why this comedy, written by Golden Valley native Scott Z. Burns (also the screenwriter of the next two movies on this list) wasn't a hit. It stars Matt Damon, at the peak of his popularity, as a moron whom the FBI enlists as a mole in an investigation of corporate malfeasance. (One benefit of working frequently with the same actors is that they trust Soderbergh to cast them in a variety of roles, and respond with the kind of vanity-free work Damon does here.) It's hilarious and, with its theme of government and business incompetence, troubling.
