Steven Soderbergh Archives - HavingSaidThat...

Film Review: Magic Mike

Steven Soderbergh has put so much quality in to Magic Mike that you won’t be seeing any back handed reviews like, “Magic Mike is the best male stripper movie you’ll ever see,” because it is actually one of the best films of the year. [Read more...]

HST… Film Review: Haywire

Hello Boys and girls! Here at HST we are always thinking of you, and as you may have noticed we have been slowly introducing co-reviews between some of the writers here. That’s right, we are saving you time from your obligation to read three Haywire reviews this week by only providing two on the site (and this is more of a spoiler free discussion/review)! What? You don’t remember signing that contract a while back. …Don’t worry about it. Let’s begin! [Read more...]

Film Review: Contagion

Two seconds prior to the movie starting a man to the far right of where I was sitting starting hacking, as if on cue. This was followed by a sporadic slew of coughing throughout the film, followed by a general ill feeling moving through my body, throat to stomach. These are the things you are going to notice while watching Contagion, but other than this effect on my life (and how I now notice when I unnecessarily touch my face) the movie was lost on me. [Read more...]

While I Was Streaming: The Girlfriend Experience

Steven Soderbergh’s latest small budget “experimental” film is a triumph in both story telling and originality while successfully taking us into a world few of us understand while pairing it with a theme we can all relate to with the timely issue surrounding the downturn in the economy.
First off, for being such a low budget film Soderbergh’s film looks pretty darn good and does a lot of really interesting and unique things with the camera, look, and feel of the picture; but this isn’t really a surprise coming from someone as talented as Soderbergh. The film’s style also gives us an intimate feeling with our two leads and we feel right there in the room with these people listening in on their comings and goings. Soderbergh does a great job at pulling us in and connecting us to the story even though it is told so scatter shot and out of sequence, but more on that later.
The film follows two individuals that happen to be together, or maybe not; one is a high class call girl, Chelsea, who is trying to give her profile a boost to make more money and get bigger clients the other is her boyfriend, Chris, who is a personal trainer who is trying to lock in more steady work as getting people to commit long term is kind of tough in the worsening economy. Now, your probably thinking that the drama is going to surround the boyfriend finding out she isn’t a waitress or something she lied about and flip out when he learns she has sex for money but that isn’t the case. [Read more...]

Review: The Informant!

Steven Soderbergh’s latest is a unique picture that spins a pretty serious and messed up character study into a comedy by applying a silly tone and ramping up the absurdity that this actually happened and the results are pretty good for the most part.
Mark Whitacre is a bit out of his element. He is a PHD in biochemistry but was promoted to an executive level at his company ADM and quickly became a valuable asset to the company and began making large sums of money in his new role. One day he receives a phone call from an employee from a rival Japanese company that claims they have a mole in ADM’s midst and he is sabotaging their lysine production and that he needs ten million dollars to make this problem all go away. When the FBI is brought in to assist with the embezzlement proceedings, Whitacre begins to get nervous and he decides to turn informant on his own company as he is afraid that the FBI will uncover the company’s price fixing frauds. From here, the film dives into Whitacre’s exploits as an informant as the story around the man slowly gets weirder and weirder. [Read more...]

Review: Che

This epic biopic about the Argentinean revolutionary is engaging, informative, and includes a phenomenal portrait and portrayal of this extraordinary individual by Benicio Del Toro.
Che Guevara was a philosophizing Marxist doctor who felt that his Latin American people have been oppressed for too long and that a revolution by the people was the only way to make a change. He got his opportunity to bring his musings to a reality when he met a similar minded man in Fidel Castro and together they organized a military force to head into Cuba with the hope of leading an uprising against the current government that was put in place by a coup d’état. Che, Fidel, and his bother Raul Castro, began organizing, training, and recruiting in the jungles of Cuba and after a time they make their first strike and soon enough a majority of the people of the country are behind their cause. Che’s role in the revolution is that of many, medic, commander, trainer, and dignitary, among others, and his perception among the people of Cuba raises to the level of hero. This is the story of Part One of the film; Part Two examines his attempt to liberate Bolivia and a vastly different experience that he incurred. [Read more...]