Director of the Decade: Steven Soderbergh

I had been going back and fourth with deciding who is the best director of the aughts (or the last decade for you others). I had been thinking maybe a classic director like Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, but their output had not been that strong this decade opposed to others. And then I thought about the new age of directors, such as P.T. Anderson, Quentin Tarantino or Christopher Nolan, but I thought these filmmakers did not release enough titles to warrant best director. And then I had three finalist. My runners-up for directors of the year would be the Coen Brothers and Clint Eastwood. The Coens were very on and off this decade, but still made plenty of films that are re-watchable. Eastwood is the critical darling of the decade (which he deserves) but I felt his films were too simple. So my pick for the best director of the decade is Mr. Steven Soderbergh.

I believe Mr. Soderbergh is not only the best director of the decade, but more importantly the best all-around filmmaker of the decade. The man has released 12 films in 10 years and has also produced two television series in that time. He's not only a director, but also a writer, editor and cinematographer. How many other filmmakers can you name that have done something like this? There are few if any who have the dedication of Soderbergh. Although not all of his films score with critics (his Rotten Tomatoes average is 77%) he is a filmmaker that I respect and I believe is an innovator.

Soderbergh arrived on the scene in 1989 with "Sex, Lies and Videotape" the ultimate indie film. It helped launch the Miramax-indie film boom of the early 90's. It was a period of time when studio thought that these small, independent, micro-budgeted films could actually be successful. If you look back on his career you could see that Soderbergh knew this and decided to turn it on it's head.

One of the biggest things people say about Soderbergh is that he is a "one-for-me, one-for-them" type of director. What that means is that he will usually make a big budgeted, big starred film in exchange for a small budgeted, new age film. Some filmmakers either thrive with the smaller budgeted films and there are filmmakers and directors who are better at the big budget films. Soderbergh has tackled the big budget films (Ocean's Films, The Informant) Oscar caliber films (Erin Brockovich, Traffic) Micro-budget, video experiments (Full Frontal, Bubble, The Girlfriend Experience) a sci-fi film (Solaris) a period piece (The Good German) and of course a crazy four hour long bio pic (Che). It's not that he is brave for directing different genre's it's how he goes about directing them.

What he does is he bends the idea of the genre's into something completely new. His 2006 picture, "The Good German" used old Universal sets and archival WWII footage. The "Oceans" films were directed with this sleek, laid back approach and "The Girlfriend Experience" was shot with this fly on the wall technique. You see most filmmakers are very personal with a lot of their films, they take a precise edge and attitude to all of their films. Soderbergh on the other hand seems to make films to tackle something new. He knows that filmmakers can get pigeonholed and become stale with the same material; He wants to try something new with every film. I called him an innovator earlier, which has a few different meanings. Not an innovator like James Cameron or Peter Jackson on visual effects, but one that is not afraid to try something new each picture. He was kicked off the baseball film "Moneyball" because he wanted it to be more like a documentary, I guess Hollywood does not want realism anymore. He is incredibly ambitious and does not want to make the same picture twice. In a way all of his films can be part of the anti genre.

One of the biggest examples of his ambition and anti genre was hi 2008 film "Che". "Che" was originally a four hour biopic of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (it was then made into two parts). It's really not a bio-piece as much as it is a telling of the Cuban revolution. It's not a star vehicle for Benico del Toro (who plays Che) he really is another piece of the equipment for Soderbergh, he is part of the vessel of the film. He wants to take an idea and turn it on it's head. Do a bio-piece not about the person, but what the person did. He was really the only director who could have done this film.

In an article about Soderbergh's latest film "The Informant!" A.O. Scott of the New York Times summed it up by saying, "Soderbergh may have zigzagged in and out of the movie-industry mainstream in the course of his career, but he has remained, throughout, to an extent matched by very few of his peers, an experimental filmmaker." He is someone who is not afraid of trying new things. Soderbergh thrives off veering from the norm and doing films no one else would. He definitely is on the A-list of directors, but he, unlike most directors, stays true to his indie roots. His output this decade was not the best critical high of his career, but each of his films churned out something new and different and that is why he is the director/filmmaker of the decade.