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James Mottram

A director of 37 films in 36 years, Steven Soderbergh is a Hollywood filmmaker who has long been ahead of the curve.
Shifting effortlessly between studio movies (the Ocean’s trilogy, Magic Mike), art-house (Che, Kafka) and streaming (Kimi, No Sudden Move), he has also worked in TV (The Knick) and made web dramas (Command Z, Full Circle).
Soderbergh has always had an uncanny ability to stay in tune with the industry: his 2005 film Bubble, which was released in cinemas, on cable and on DVD simultaneously, predicted the future for many films.
As he returns to cinemas with spy thriller Black Bag, we count down his 10 best films to date.
10. Black Bag (2025)


Following tech-thriller Kimi (2022) and ghost story Presence (2024), Black Bag marks Soderbergh’s third – and most fruitful – film with screenwriter David Koepp.
Like an anti-Mission: Impossible (ironic, given Koepp scripted the 1996 film that kick-started the spy franchise with Tom Cruise), this cerebral espionage drama pits husband and wife agents (Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett) against each other when the former is asked to root out a traitor.
Koepp’s dialogue exchanges bristle with tension, particularly in two major dinner-party sequences.
“David is not afraid of people in rooms talking, as long as the talk is action-packed,” says Soderbergh, who directs with understated class.
9. Solaris (2002)


A daring effort, given it broaches hallowed ground, this science-fiction tale of love and loss returned Soderbergh to the original Stanislaw Lem novel, rather than remaking Andrei Tarkovsky’s landmark 1972 film of the same name.
In this, Soderbergh gave George Clooney one of his best roles as Chris, a psychologist who visits a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris, which appears to have a hold over the crew.
Once there, he is haunted by visions of his dead wife (Natascha McElhone) in what becomes arguably Soderbergh’s most emotionally pregnant film, examining the nature of free will and destiny in relationships.
8. Contagion (2011)


This pandemic thriller made a healthy US$136 million at the global box office when it was released, but it was during the Covid-19 pandemic that it truly struck a chord as millions in lockdown streamed the film.
The best of his collaborations with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns – see also: The Informant! (2009) and Side Effects (2013) – Soderbergh creates a chilling portrait of a virus spreading.
Inspired in part by the 2002 Sars outbreak, this methodical multilinear tale begins as Gwyneth Paltrow’s married mother returns from a business trip in Hong Kong. Her death is the first of many shocks.
7. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)


Soderbergh’s 1989 debut became the poster child for the emerging American indie scene, for a while at least. Among other prizes, it took the Palme d’Or in Cannes, making Soderbergh, then 26, the youngest director to win the festival’s prestigious gong.
“Sexy, nuanced, beautifully controlled,” remarked Variety about this erotic drama set in Baton Rouge, in the US state of Louisiana, featuring a blistering quartet of actors: Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo and an ice-cool James Spader.
While Soderbergh later re-examined contemporary sexual mores in 2009’s The Girlfriend Experience, this film nailed it.
6. Erin Brockovich (2000)


What a year this was for Soderbergh, with true-life legal drama Erin Brockovich the first of three back-to-back US$100-million-plus grossing hits for the director (Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven would follow).
Julia Roberts, who won an Oscar for her turn, has never been more robust than she is as the titular paralegal who pursues a case of water contamination in California.
With Soderbergh skilful enough to step back and let Roberts and her co-stars do the talking, this is a good old-fashioned crusading tale that eases you into its grip from the very first moments.
5. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)


A remake of the 1960 Rat Pack-starring caper, this slick comedy about a scam to rob three Las Vegas casinos exudes old-school Hollywood glamour.
An ensemble that includes George Clooney (as ex-con Danny Ocean), Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are perfectly serenaded by David Holmes’ music (the second of nine scores, to date, by the Belfast DJ for Soderbergh).
Even Don Cheadle, with the worst cockney accent since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, cannot ruin the vibe.
The lucrative-though-unnecessary sequels – Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) – came nowhere near this film’s elegance.
4. Che: Part One and Che: Part Two (2008)


Initially screened as one movie during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Soderbergh’s two-part epic about Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara remains one of his most towering achievements.
Benicio Del Toro – who won best actor in Cannes for his performance – was perfect as Che, but it is the overall approach that shone.
Deploying the non-linear storytelling methods he had toyed with over the years, Part One (the Cuban revolution) and Part Two (Bolivia) were conceived in radically different styles, almost at war with each other.
Shot over almost 80 days, this is his masterpiece for many.
3. Out of Sight (1998)


After his loopy, low-budget comedy Schizopolis (1996), a palette-cleanser following a period of industry disillusionment, Soderbergh came roaring back with this sizzling take on the Elmore Leonard novel.
Arriving the year after Quentin Tarantino’s Leonard adaptation Jackie Brown, and even sharing Michael Keaton’s character, it marked Soderbergh’s first collaboration with actor George Clooney – turning the handsome ER player into a bona fide film star.
The scene in the boot of the car, between Clooney’s bank robber and Jennifer Lopez’s US Marshal, is still one of the most electric scenes in Soderbergh’s arsenal.
2. Traffic (2000)


Soderbergh looked a little surprised when he won the Academy Award for best director for this three-part narcotics drama (among others, he beat Ridley Scott and Gladiator). But in the pre-Narcos era, this loose remake of the British show Traffik is a dizzying balancing act.
A hugely impressive cast – including Benicio Del Toro’s Oscar-winning Mexican policeman – drive this compelling look at the faltering war on drugs, from users and dealers to drug lords and anti-drug government departments.
It is also the first film Soderbergh officially worked as cinematographer (credited as Peter Andrews), a role he has continued to occupy ever since.
1. The Limey (1999)


“Tell ’em I’m coming!”
So growls Terence Stamp’s English hardman, in Los Angeles to investigate the death of his daughter. The same could be said for Soderbergh, then on the cusp of the most fertile period of his career.
But nothing he made touches this crime yarn, a sun-kissed Get Carter by way of Alain Resnais that marked his second match-up with screenwriter Lem Dobbs (after 1991’s Kafka).
Brilliantly edited by Sarah Flack, setting its protagonist adrift with its temporal shifts, this retro thriller is also a masterful nod to 1960s counterculture – not least with the casting of Peter Fonda.
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Benicio Del Toro in a still from Traffic. Photo: AFP/USA Films

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Bruce Lee in a still from “Enter the Dragon” (1973). Photo: TNS

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As Soderbergh returns with spy thriller Black Bag, starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, we count down his 10 best films to date


As Soderbergh returns with spy thriller Black Bag, starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, we count down his 10 best films to date.
